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Title: Good characters undermined by weak "sacrificial lamb" plot
Review: A real crash-and-burn novel, the characters are great but the structure is loose. Just as I wondered why Nicolas Sparks ended Message in a Bottle on such a tragic note, I find myself asking Hayne the same question. I see her attempt at restoring those with tragic pasts, but the way in which she accomplishes this just could not happen in 1956. My willing suspension of disbelief could not sustain itself in the final chapters. She covered her tracks to make the loose ends tie together, but the characters were watered-down by then. Incorrect and vague references: "dentil" when referring to an architectural decoration is incorrectly spelled "dental." At the end, I had to read a paragraph three times to understand what "her" means because of an improper antecedant. Once again, I love her characters.
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