Synopsis According to Goodreads
It all started when I saw myself dead…
For Rose Gardner, working at the DMV on a Friday afternoon is bad even before she sees a vision of herself dead. She’s had plenty of visions, usually boring ones like someone’s toilet’s overflowed, but she’s never seen one of herself before. When her overbearing momma winds up murdered on her sofa instead, two things are certain: There isn’t enough hydrogen peroxide in the state of Arkansas to get that stain out, and Rose is the prime suspect.
Rose realizes she’s wasted twenty-four years of living and makes a list on the back of a Wal-Mart receipt: twenty-eight things she wants to accomplish before her vision comes true. She’s well on her way with the help of her next door neighbor Joe, who has no trouble teaching Rose the rules of drinking, but won’t help with number fifteen– do more with a man. Joe’s new to town, but it doesn’t take a vision for Rose to realize he’s got plenty secrets of his own.
Somebody thinks Rose has something they want and they’ll do anything to get it. Her house is broken into, someone else she knows is murdered, and suddenly, dying a virgin in the Fenton County jail isn’t her biggest worry after all.
My Thoughts on Twenty-Eight and a Half Wishes
While this book wasn’t terribly well written (I picked out a few typos that the editor must have missed-OOPS)and it was difficult to get into at first; I still found myself getting into the storyline once I pushed through. The author’s voice is pretty generic, so it makes it easy for most people to read and associate with without any difficulty or complexity, but the character herself was a little bit flat. Even as the author attempted to make her grow and become dynamic throughout the escalation of the plot line, she remained that way in my opinion and I felt like there were other more interesting characters that didn’t get enough story time.
As for the plot-it all felt a bit rushed. Things just kind of happened without much explanation, and the twists felt a little thrown together and as if they were just afterthoughts, and I felt like we didn’t really have much explanation to the characters and their reasoning behind their roles. It just felt like it was missing something.
However, I downloaded the eBook free from iBooks (it’s also free on Kindle), so I have to say it was better than I expected for a free book. It was entertaining enough that I kept with it through the end and enjoyed the little love story (which also seemed kind of rushed-he was instantly just into her?) though I still haven’t decided if I’ll read on through the rest of the series if I have to pay for the follow-up books.
