Musing Bookworm

This review was originally published on Musing of a Bookworm Can True Love be found online?Meet Elizabeth (Beth) Mason. She runs a successful bakery in Stamford, New York call Decedent Dreams. Beth spends all of her time working at the bakery and has no time to play housewife. This leads to the breakdown of her relationship. Rather than waste her time with another man, Beth decides that she needs a less traditional way to date. She finds ‘A Foreign Affair’ – a website catering to online dating for people living in different countries.Also looking for love is Yuri, a nightclub manager from Belarus. His best friend and roommate, Nik, has recently lost his father to illness and now his mother has cancer. Looking to get away from the reality of day to day life, after the nightclub he runs burns down, he too turns to online dating to fill the void left in his life.To be absolutely honest, I found this book very difficult to read. The editing process appears to have been skipped all together, with some parts of the text reading like it has been translated from Japanese using Google. The syntax is all over the place, as is the pacing. In some sections entire words have been left out, leaving the reader to assume what the writer was trying to say.The characters in this story have a lot of potential but no spark. I can see where the writer was trying to head with them, but it doesn’t feel authentic. There is no chemistry between the key players or their supporting staff. I was tempted on several occasions to relegate this book to the Did Not Finish (DNF) pile. This is really unfortunate, because I think with a few more edits and work, the story really could work. It is missing some very key elements though.The most integral element missing for me is how the story gets to the Happily Ever After (HEA). It all seems to contrived and there is no organic growth of the characters to get them to the ending point.Unfortunately, I was really disappointed with this book. The author has talent, but needs to spend more time on the editing process and solidifying their characterisations and development of narrative.