This book is seven interesting concepts in a trench coat. Unfortunately that means that none of them get enough attention to really grab you. Doubly unfortunately that seems to have been true of the author as well--she switches between them with such abandon it is extremely disorienting as a reading experience. It felt slippery and hard to hold on to in my brain.

The sentences all seemed to be valid English sentences, with real words, but my brain refused to absorb them because none of them seemed to relate to the one that had come before--that's how fast she was hopping between the plots. This also was not conducive to caring about the characters, who felt like thin sheets of paper being buffeted around by the author's inattentiveness to the plot.

All in all I DNFed this one at about 20%. Life is too short.

I was provided with a Netgalley copy in exchange for this (perhaps overly) honest review.

DNF

This book starts off with what I believe is the memory of Julia’s sibling’s death and that her mother had something to do with it…. I think….

The next chapter starts with Julia trying to rescue abandoned dogs on the streets of a city in India. There’s a glossing over of her being a photojournalist for National Geographic, but she also was a nuclear energy protestor in the States, as well as someone who had a job setting up telescopes in a park for astronomy buffs. Apparently, Julia is trying to find a “lost city” underwater in India that no local is willing to take her to.

There’s also an introduction of a very loud-spoken man, named Ram, who has no depth in his character description - first, he’s talking loudly on a phone, recounting his exploits in Morocco, and then he’s described as the son of a nuclear engineer? I don’t know, I was very confused.

I made it about 20% into this book, and because I was so throughly confused as to what storyline I was supposed to be caring about enough to follow, it ended up with me not caring about any of them. There was no depth to any of the character development thus far, and the only thing I now know is how dirty the streets of this city in India are. I’m sure there’s a moral or a conclusion of some kind that ties these storylines and characters together, but i just don’t care enough to find out.

This ARC was provided by the publisher, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book by this author, It was pretty enjoyable. I would give this book a 3.5 star rating! It was a pretty Quick and easy read!