Author: Lisa Scottoline
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: April 12, 2016
Source: copy provided for an honest review by the publisher
Summary from Goodreads:
When a woman and her husband, desperate for a baby, find themselves unable to conceive, they decide to take further steps. Since it is the husband who is infertile, the heroine decides to use a donor. And all seems to be well. Three months pass and she is happily pregnant. But a shocking revelation occurs when she discovers that a man arrested for a series of brutal murders is her donor - the biological father of the child she is carrying. Delving deeper to uncover the truth, the heroine must face her worst fears, and confront a terrifying truth.
My Review:
This is my third Lisa Scottoline novel, and the third one I've given 3 stars to on Goodreads. I went through the exact same experience with this book as I did with the other two of hers that I've read. Let me lay out my typical Lisa Scottoline chain of events for you, and maybe this time I will actually learn something from it...
1. Read book description, instantly be like "OMG I must read this NOW."
Done and done. I found the book on NetGalley and despite the fact that I've been trying (note: mostly failing) at controlling my impulses over there, I took one look at the description for this book and knew that I HAD to request a review. Serial killers and infertility and marital strife, oh my!!
2. Begin book, love explosive intro!
The novel opened, and I was fascinated by hot-button topics that Scottoline introduced: confidentiality of sperm/egg donors (especially interesting for me as I was thisclose to applying to be an egg donor when I was in college), the impact of nature vs nurture in psychological disorders, coping with male infertility, etc. This is cool. I'm on board.
3. Middle of book. Female protagonist is annoying. Completely unbelievable series of events start happening. Losing faith in my ability to choose good novels.
First, things got slow. Christine was spending so much time debating what her next step should be that the entire plot hit the brakes for a bit too long. Then things got moving again, and Christine proved herself to be absolutely insufferable and she continued to make one ridiculous decision after the next. Not only did I find Christine's choices questionable, but their resulting odd consequences felt so far-fetched at times that I just couldn't play along.
4. Ending: good but not great. Three star book for interesting concept but subpar execution.
I was pleased that the ending did not turn out as I predicted. That said, I had trouble embracing Christine's "heroine" status after it was caused by so many flighty decisions beforehand (see above).
Plus...I don't want to give anything away, but suffice to say that there is one person in this book who brings the phrase "wrong place, wrong time" to a whole new (completely implausible) level.
In the end, Most Wanted was a solid 3 stars for me. Great concept, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I WANT to love Scottoline's novels so badly!! She comes up with such compelling topics! But I've had the same middle-of-the-road reaction to each of her books that I've tried so far, unfortunately.
Do you have an author that you keep trying over and over, in the hopes that maybe THIS time will be different??
