Book Review - Blackberry Winter

During the power outage last week I had a lot of free time on my hands and absolutely nothing to do. Not like there were many options other than sit around and do nothing due to the lack of power. So I found myself reading my kindle, which thankfully I had just charged and have the case with the light so I could see, while Mike sad on the other side of the couch listening to his sports radio on his phone.

This was book 2 of the power outage for me. If I had something else to do I probably wouldn't have read this or might have given up at one point. I had bought it a couple days earlier when it was one of the featured daily deals so I only paid $1.99 for the book. It was ok, I most definitely would not pay the normal price of $9.99 to read the book that's for sure. But since I only paid $1.99 and I had nothing else to do it wasn't a total loss.

Book Title: Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

Book Summary (From Amazon): Seattle, 1933. Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and reluctantly leaves for work. She hates the nightshift, but it’s the only way she can earn enough to keep destitution at bay. In the morning—even though it’s the second of May—a heavy snow is falling. Vera rushes to wake Daniel, but his bed is empty. His teddy bear lies outside in the snow.

Seattle, present day. On the second of May, Seattle Times reporter, Claire Hanson, awakens to another late-season snowstorm. Assigned to cover this “blackberry winter” and its predecessor decades earlier, Claire learns of Daniel’s unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth—only to discover that she and Vera are linked in unexpected ways.

Book Review: I guess I was expecting more, I expected it to be more of a "Sarah's Key." It had the same premise. One story in the present tense and one story being told in flashbacks and the chapters alternated. Early on, I got kind of annoyed and found myself rolling my eyes at the amount of coincidences that the author had written in. I know what she was trying to do, but it was just too many for my liking and it continued like that throughout the book. Like oh look this happened to the older character and now here the current character is in the same restaurant eating the same exact sandwich. The other thing was that I found the story to be extremely predictable, and there wasn't much of a mystery. I kept feeling like all the clues to solving the story of what happened to the missing little boy just kept appearing for her, she didn't have to go searching for anything. The premise of the story was good but I think there could have more to it or more development and perhaps taken out some of the obvious predicability.

I was genuinely surprised at how many 5 star reviews the book received on Amazon. That people absolutely loved the story. For me, it ended up passing a long boring afternoon and I read it in the one day but I would not rush out to go read it again or rave about it and recommend it to others unless you find yourself without power and nothing to do like I was.