A review by br3nda
Tourist Season by Brenda Novak

3.0

I wish I could understand the high ratings that so many have given to this book. I feel like they must have read a different book than me because this is not a 4 or 5 star book. This is why I think this:
- a small point but still a negative... the book cover and title are deceiving. This book had nothing to do with a tourist season. 
- soooo many "50 cent" words used in this book that do not fit to the style of the story. I'm hoping that the final edit changes many of them to something more appropriate.
- the book needs a final edit. Some of the speech lines did not fit to what the other person was saying.
- too many scenes were not realistic. For example, a character showed up "driving a small Toyota" and then preceded to fit many (more than possible) boxes and big items in that vehicle. Or there was mention of a picture taken at a funeral. Who takes pictures at a funeral?! And the wording in some of the texts did not fit with the age-group of the characters. As well, some of what the detective did and shared with other characters was not something police would do in real life. They would not give away this information.
- or actions did not flow in the right order, for example "he started to sweep the debris on the floor into a pile" but the floor was still covered in flood water. Or the mention that it was harvest season in Utah but it was not even summer yet (what could possibly be harvested in May/June in Utah?). Or that a text was sent early enough that the receiver stewed about it "all day" but in another scene the text sender said they sent it "after you went to bed". 
- timelines moved extremely fast
- I dislike all of the characters and their decisions although I understand that I wasn't suppose to like a couple of them. Unfortunately even the 2 main characters were not liked by me based on their personalities. They were too accommodating and very rarely voiced an opinion or stood up for themselves. 
- the location of the story was not described very well. There was more dialogue and character movement than description of the scenery around them. I could not picture myself there like I can with so many other books. This is important to many readers. Such a wonderful location but it was not given justice.

The story line was enticing and I did keep reading to just find out what the outcome was. There were many great parts of this book that could have stood out more if there was just a better amount of editing done and some addition of description. This romance mixed with a thriller element could have been so much more!! 

Thanks for the opportunity to read and review this book. I so wish I could be like so many others and give it 5 stars but it just was not to that level for me.