Book Review: More than this

More than this by Margo Candela


She doesn't know his name and he doesn't know hers, but they just might be perfect for each other. Alexander Velazquez, an ambitious lawyer from a working-class neighborhood, and Evelyn Sinclair, a daughter of privilege trying to make it on her own, are strangers living parallel yet very different lives. Alex finds himself deeply entrenched in the life of an unredeemable client, and Evelyn realizes she's committed herself to a company with questionable ethics.

They are both brokenhearted workaholics constantly trying to keep up with the demands of family and friends. What they both want is to find meaning in their lives; what they're doing is looking in the wrong directions. As they watch each other through their office windows, all they can do is wonder about what might happen if they took a chance on the stranger across the street.




Reviewed by: Bela M.


Rating:


Review: This whole book is written in the POV of Evelyn and Alexander--the two main characters or "lovers" in the plot. It is in the classic "He said, She said" format.

At first the story was kind of slow at capturing my interest, but then things gradually picked up when I started getting into Alex's character, especially when he is about to propose to his girlfriend (I was sure that this is something ALL guys go through at some point--the "what the hell am I doing?" phase.)

Alex and Evelyn get their first "hit and miss" at the airport as they head back to San Francisco. The whole book consists of nothing but the "hit and miss" of these two characters. And as they go about wondering about the person across the building, they each go about the personal and professional turmoil in their lives.

Some scenes, I admit, I skipped because they were just too boring to read, like Evelyn's shopping excursion with her sister and friend. Who cares about the prada whatchamacallits? Other times, I felt that the story had a few too many characters, although Sigrid was fascinating--she was one those types that I can't stand: a scary girlfriend and an even scarier ex-girlfriend. Whooo, if I were Alex, I would've left her too.

I liked that this book had the classic Margo Candela humor that we've come to love in her other books, and I was impressed how well she was able to write the male POV; but, still, it did nothing to compensate for the constant frustration of having to go back and forth between each character. I practically had to re-read some parts to figure out where I left off with each one.

Quite frankly, I think I built up this book too much, mainly because of all the media hype--it wasn't worth all the good gab it got. I liked "Good-bye to All that" better. I think it was her best book ever.