Member Reviews
I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book held my interest and is very well written. It is a great legal / thriller full of twists and turns. I recommend it highly.
What a wonderful book, full of insight into exactly what the title implies- a minor fall. A tragic error in judgement, made based on the "grass is always greener on the other side" mindset, tears a man up with regret and guilt. I was pulled into the book immediately and could not put it down, read in 2 and a half hours. It will make you think and hopefully, gain some insight into the nature of all mistakes we make, maybe why we make them, and hopefully even be able to offer forgiveness for anyone who may have wronged us, or even more importantly, maybe be able to forgive ourselves for any wrongs we ourselves have committed. The main character made me see that so many mistakes I have made, but not at all THE mistake he made, lol, could be because I had the idea somehow that what I had just wasn't enough, or I wasn't enough, and that was the whole crux of the story for me. This book truly was gut wrenching in so many places for me, and I pondered the whole night about it. A good book for reading circles. Or I would even recommend this book for marriage counseling as recommended reading.
A mistake is made- now what happens....
Ainsworth clearly know how to write and definitely does a good job of explaining legal principles in a uncomplicated manner, but the main character, while realistic, is also incredibly spineless. The plot line also wavered dramatically for no apparent purpose. With more practice, and considerably more editing, Ainsworth might be compared to Grisham, but not yet.
A Minor Fall
I received this advanced copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book is about a young personal injury lawyer Davy Jessie, who idolizes his boss, Tim Sullivan ( I have no idea why an adulterous scheming lawyer would be an idol) marries his daughter and lives the fast life of expense accounts, travel, high class dining, etc.
On a business trip for a case Davy is working on, he has a one night stand with Beth, another lawyer working on the case. The rest of the book is about the serious consequences of this one night and how Davy is dealing with it. I found Davy's character annoying, he had no consideration to anyone else than himself and his career, the more I read the angrier he made me at his poor decisions and lack of concern for his wife Michelle and their unborn baby.
I found the book rambling on and on about things that have nothing to do with the basic plot and made the book very boring to me and I admit skipping through some of the pages.
Most of the book is told by Davy's first person account, but there are a few chapters that are told by another character either in first or third person. This was very confusing to me until later in the chapters when it was more obvious who was talking. The ending is a total letdown, I was expecting another chapter, when I came to "Acknowledgements ". Overall 2-2.5 stars at best.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the author Price Ainsworth for the advanced copy.
This was my first exposure to Price Ainsworth’s work, so I did “google” him and learned that he is a lawyer and this was his first novel.
Davy, the main character is at the beginning of his legal career and works for a firm where his father- in- law Tim is a partner. He seems to love his wife, Michelle, but sleeps with a work associate Beth while working out of town. A poor decision on Davy’s part and one that will have ramifications throughout the book.
What seems like a life that was on the upswing, now goes wrong as Davy struggles personally and professionally because of his “mistake” with Beth. While I could understand Davy looking up to Tim professionally, I was surprised that he emulated his behavior by cheating on his wife, as Tim serially cheats on Michelle’s mother. That said, if not for his night with Beth it would have been a much different book, I suppose. I enjoyed the legal aspect of the book and even though I didn’t personally like or relate to some of the characters and their choices, I could see how they served the overall story.
Wasn’t a book that kept me up half the night reading, but each time I got back into the story, I was flipping pages to see what would happen. I will definitely keep my eyes open to see if the author writes another book. Thanks to Price Ainsworth, Select Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
A story that encompasses love, deception, guilt, despair, and tragic loss. When you read this story your feelings with run the gamut from distain to despair. But the ending will leave you hoping for a brighter future for the two primary characters in this life changing drama.
I enjoyed this book and have rated it 4.25 stars. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a story that will take you through a wide range of emotions.
I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.
2.5 stars. This is the first book by Price Ainsworth so I wasn't sure what to expect. This is a standalone with no cliffhanger ending. The book blurb adequately describes the storyline so I'm not going to repeat that all info here. From the description I was excited to read this book. But it did not live up to my expectations. I wanted to like it but just couldn't. The characters felt flat and I had to force myself to keep reading the book. I am willing to read another book by the author and hopefully it will be one I want to read and can enjoy the story.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and chose to leave a review for other readers.
This book was just ok, I didn't love it or hate it. I finished it just so I could find out what happened in the end. The main character, Davy Jessie is a new lawyer who has started working at a big firm. From a legal standpoint, the story is really interesting with a good plot and how Davy's legal career is progressing and the decisions he has to make. I felt bad for him because he got involved in some very big cases, over his head almost. I wasn't thrilled with his behavior. However, the author had a tendency to ramble on and include much unnecessary information that really distracted the reader from the plot. I felt there was TOO many of these tangents and this style of writing definitely detracted from the story. Just not enough to really deliver in the end.
this story drags on a bit but kept my interest enough that I had to know how it ended.
This is a legal thriller, summoning up the writing of Grisham and Baldacci. A great debut, with promise of more to come in this genre.
I gave up on this title after reading the first part of it. The characters just didn't interest me; the writing style was poor.
Davy Jessie is a lucky man. He works for a top law firm, one of the partners is his father-in-law and he is in on some top cases Tim Sullivan has helped him with at a good salary with great bonuses. They are working on a case in Kentucky with a contract lawyer, Beth Sheehan. Beth is very attractive and Davy winds up in bed with her one night while they are in Kentucky. The next day she leaves the firm suddenly without saying why. Davy goes home to find his wife is pregnant. From there his life seems to go down hill. The case is not going well. He is consumed with gilt for the affair. He could have handled this all differently but he didn't and there are consequences to what we do in life.
Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy in return for an honest opinion, but I just couldn't get into this book. I read the first 1/3 of the story about a new-ish attorney married to the boss attorney's daughter, also an attorney. Other main character's are the boss' son, an attorney and the other woman who, you guessed it, is an attorney. None of the characters were likable or believable or very intelligent.
Davy, the new-ish attorney is in over his head in so many ways, none of which endear you to him or even make you want to care about him. He does some stupid things, see "other woman" above; so many will pay for that oops. Then throw in long rambling pages that go off on tangents in the middle of explaining his actions and you find yourself flipping pages wondering when it will get back to the story. Then you stop and ask, "Do I care?" and the answer is no.
I stopped reading it and left it for a few days thinking maybe it was me. I picked it up again to read the ending and was angry at myself for wasting the time. It felt like the author did some research into law and writing and baseball, but couldn't develop a plot to tie them together.
A Minor Fall is the latest work by Price Ainsworth. The "hero", Davy in the story is an attorney and the reader gets to follow a few cases plus some of Davy's personal life. A Minor Fall is an interesting read that sometimes brings tears as well as smiles. I'm looking forward to reading more by this author and hope there is a follow up to this story. I was given a copy to review.
“A Minor Fall,” a legal procedural novel by highly credentialed attorney Price Ainsworth, has a much more precipitous descent in its storyline than the title would indicate. Its about a single mindless mistake so ominous and threatening that every character in the story, and there are many, will be affected by its disclosure.
Davy Jessie is a promising young attorney who works for his idol, the brilliant and flamboyant Tim Sullivan. It doesn’t hurt that he’s also married to Sullivan’s gorgeous daughter, the great one’s prized possession. Jessie pulls his zipper down in a single act of stupidity, gets an unwelcome surprise, and immediately begins to suffer great emotional distress, particularly when he finds his precious wife is pregnant. He becomes paralyzed with the fear of losing her, his job, and his professional career and cannot bring himself to confess his predicament to her.
Ainsworth is a good writer who, in my opinion, suffers from a first-time author’s tendency towards loquaciousness. The story is riveting and doesn’t benefit from the author’s wandering into areas that have nothing to do with the moral dilemma of his protagonist. The author does a great job of creating suspense but allows his story to drift into many areas of unrelated jabberwocky that takes the reader to complicated places not related to the problem at hand. I wish he hadn’t done that because I was riveted by the primary context and didn’t appreciate the interruptions.
I recommend the book for its legal background and the perplexing decisions that confront Jessie. I also became greatly enamored with his wife, a brilliant attorney in her own right, who doesn’t deserve the worm Jessie turns out to be. She, along with Jessie’s parents, are the only characters in the book I admired.
So I have a book to review that generated angst in me for the protagonist’s plight. I really felt his pain, although I didn’t approve of his conduct. In the midst of my concern I was repeatedly pulled out of the story by the author’s meandering. I was caught in the middle, so to speak, and can only give the book a middling rating.