Lemonade Library

I really wanted to like this book. I thought it had so much potential and I'd been so excited to read it but it just fell a bit too flat for me.

I hadn't read any reviews before starting it, so I was unaware about the Uganda part of the plot. Although I enjoyed this strand, I felt like I really didn't know enough about Sophie's past life and wanted to spend more time there before being taken away from it. I was looking forward to reading about a girl I was meant to hate and the beginning of the book hooked me. Yes, I hated her and I enjoyed hating her!

All of a sudden, she's in Africa and everything is happening too fast. Her attitude changes so suddenly that I just couldn't believe it. This was a girl who self-professed that she was a cruel, manipulative, vindictive bitch and now she's almost immediately selfless. I loved Ian's character and really wished the author had given us more of an insight into him, but I couldn't see how he fell so fast for Sophie. I just felt the plot was too disjointed and under-developed to ensure the story worked like it could have done.

I also hate unedited/under-edited work. I'm paying money to read this, so at the very least it should have correct spellings and grammar! There also seemed to be so many missing words or ends to sentences that it started to really ruin the reading experience for me. I often found myself re-reading sentences 2 or 3 times trying to make sense of them and ending up just skipping them.

As I said before, I did enjoy the side of the story set in Uganda. It was a different twist and I loved the fast-pace of the action scenes. It was very touching to read about the orphans and the workers at the orphanage, I think the author explored that side really well. However, this was just not enough to redeem the book for me. I never felt anything for Sophie even though she was meant to be a changed young-woman and as for the ending?! Did the author have a pressing deadline and needed one Disney 'wrap it all up in a cute package and tie with a bow' end paragraph? Oh, and her dad needs a slap. Sophie just accepts all the crap from her past after what he says to her at the end, which is a load of BS. It all just felt so rushed and unreal.

I'm aware that this has really good ratings and that by not enjoying it I'm in a minority, but overall I was sadly disappointed and I wouldn't recommend it.