2 out of 4 stars
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Yesterday by Samyann is a historical fiction and romance novel based in modern-day Chicago. The story of an Irish mounted police officer Mark Callahan, and his love-interest, Amanda who works for an antique evaluation magazine. After coming together during a death-defying experience, the pair are determined to figure out why they feel so familiar with each other, and in which of their past lives they came together. The two have seemingly different lives, both struck by tragedy, but Amanda’s heartbreaks were much more severe.
I typically enjoy historical fiction, but the first thing I struggled with in this book is that it took 10 chapters before you ever got a hint of where the “history” factor came into play. In Amanda’s past life, she is a little girl in the South during the Civil War. The family’s slaves have very distinct accents that are very well written, and it’s easy to imagine them really speaking. Her father, however, is a plantation owner and was given no distinct accent to help you envision him in the South during this time period.
The author gives great detail in places that seemed less important and left out key details in another. Take the death of one of the characters is written as one minute he is dressed as a Baptist pastor, and the next he is dead. No details of what lead up to his death for several pages. I understand not wanting to sound redundant in your writing, but the death was so sudden. Another character dies in childbirth with no illustration at all of the details. Did she lose blood? Did she have some other medical emergency during the childbirth process? I would have appreciated much more specifics. I realize they are minor characters in the story, but some clarification would have been much more enjoyable. I want to know the WHOLE story.
The two police officers in the story are very vulgar and perverse, especially the partner. I realize this is supposed to be a romance novel, but some of the comments during their conversations were a bit much. Several sexual innuendos and just plain blatant sexual comments that could have been left out of the story. Mark also spends a great deal of time pinning Amanda in place, even though she is clearly uncomfortable or has clearly said “no.” He appears more lustful throughout the story than wanting to really connect with her, even though he says he loves her. The “f” word appears several times throughout the story.
I gave this book a 2 out of 4 because I felt like I was reading two different stories. They didn’t mesh well together for the most part, and the historical fiction genre assignment was a loose term. The flashbacks felt like they were an entirely different story until the last few chapters. The book was lacking historical details. There were more details in the epilogue-like section of the book than in the actual story. It was more about this emotionally unstable woman, deeply affected by catastrophes in her life and overcoming her fear that everyone she loves dies. The ending was weak and did not leave me wanting a sequel. Again, I would have appreciated more specific details. I will say the author did a great job of connecting the reader with Amanda's emotions. You felt her pain. You felt her agony in her darkest moments. I wanted to reach through the story and give her a hug.
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Yesterday
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