Title: Shadow in Serenity
Author: Terri Blackstock
Series: n/a
In some ways masterful, in other ways amateurish. Overall worth reading.
I’d never read Blackstock before, and borrowed it from my library because the cover, title, and synopsis made it seem like a romantic thriller or suspense novel, and I’d gone into it hoping for some action. While I wasn’t immediately curious about the plot, I thought it would be worth my time if there were plenty of shady deals gone bad and bullets flying. I was disappointed; it wasn’t anything like the impression I’d gotten. There was a lot more talk than action, a good chunk of the conflict was internalized. Also, I didn’t realize the novel had a Christian theme—the only hint was a mention of the Christy award, but I didn’t know what that was—and as an agnostic, I was uncomfortable with the religious element. But I’m open-minded, and decided to overlook the minor aspect, though it got harder to stomach closer to the end.
The novel started slow, and I was tempted to skip forward to something more interesting than Logan’s ridiculous flirting, but resisted. If a man worked that hard to flatter and charm me, I’d immediately be suspicious, because he was clearly sucking up. At first I thought Logan would be the villain and some other guy, most likely an FBI agent, would come looking for the conman, and that guy would be the hero of the story. When I realized Logan was the intended hero, I almost gave the book up. I wondered, How on earth could I end up rooting for a scum-sucking conman? I went into the novel hating his lying, cheating guts, and highly doubted he’d truly redeem himself. But at that point I wanted to see Carny kick his ass, so I stuck with it.
I’m glad I did. While it won’t make it into my favorite novel list by any standards, it was still a good book. The plot was an unusual one, and the characters were interesting and well-developed, for the most part. The town of Serenity and its inhabitants are extremely charming. It tread the line of introducing too many characters, but I managed to remember who’s who. The pace was a bit slow. At points I’d think, All right, come on, let’s go, hustle up. The lack of romance in the “romance” novel baffled me, I mean they didn’t kiss until about three-quarters in and they never made love—then I figured out it was a Christian novel and was like, Ahh, yes, gotta promote that chastity. It also explained why Carny’s first husband bothered to marry her, though he was apparently a terrible person and totally the type to knock someone up and carry on boozing. But we can’t have illegitimate children, even if it breaks character.
I had a problem with the heroine’s name being Carny. I could sort of buy why she had that name, sad and awful as it was, but every time I heard it I got a sense of taunting or mockery. It always sounded as if people were making fun of her, and it really turned me off the character and hindered my ability to take her seriously. I don’t understand why she didn’t change it to a real, respectful name–could have done it when she changed her last to Sullivan–because for all her preaching about despising her childhood and upbringing, she allowed everyone to identify her as Carny. Seems counter-intuitive to me.
Logan Brisco. I was seriously impressed by his transformation. I couldn’t believe I’d fallen in love with the skeez from the first chapter. If he’d been a completely bad person who’d suddenly found God and turned good, I’d have been skeptical. But Blackstock did an extraordinary job planting deep roots of goodness within the briar patch of bitterness in Logan’s soul, and when his conscience started to rear and his compassion broke through, it didn’t come across far-fetched at all. He was the most complex and developed character in the story, and writing a challenging character like that took some major author-balls.
The last and biggest thing I had a problem with was the climax. The quality of the novel declined immediately after Logan’s heavenly epiphany. A chapter of conflict resolution in which he confessed to the townspeople and began seeking redemption should have followed it. Then there could have been an epilogue about the newlyweds watching the park being built and the townspeople having forgiven Logan at last. But no.
Logan went from intellectual to stupid, and tough biker chick Carny turned into a weepy, wallowing, wimpering martyr. It didn’t make any sense to me that he’d had that heart-to-heart with her, told he loved her, admitted his HUGE deception, promised her he’d be at church the next morning, then he didn’t think it was important to let her know he had an unexpected change of plans and had to leave? He’d decided to wait until after church and after she’d had time to think the worst of him to call her? Seriously? He’d been fully aware the whole time of just how he came across to her, that she’d constantly feared he’d skip town—and he didn’t think alarm bells would clang in her head when he didn’t show, with no explanation to the woman he loved?
No. Just no. That’s lazy writing, right there, and set the stage for one of the biggest clichés in romantic fiction—the misunderstanding. The melodramatic misunderstanding that broke hearts, betrayed trusts, and provided a catalyst for the last thing you’d actually want to do to your true love. I was thoroughly disappointed when I realized that was how it would go. Although, I expected Carny would give Joey the picture, Joey would immediately find the goods on Logan, and Logan would be arrested for violating his parole, and he’d be all, Wtf? to Carny and they’d have to spend that much more time in an already long novel resolving THAT issue. But that didn’t happen, thank goodness. Instead, Carny just skipped town herself—coughhypocritecough—and spent a week crying to her parents and Rose. Boo hoo, a conman done conned me. Though I didn’t bother to find out if that was what actually happened. Though it could have been a lot worse, I could have given him money and my body, too. Boo hoo hoo.
SERIOUSLY? The Carny from the first half of the novel would have gotten pissed and tracked him down just to punch him in the face. I liked and respected that Carny.
But the end scene was cute, and everyone got their happily-ever-after.
