One of the things that I love about James Patterson's novels, is that it doesn't just write in the mystery genre, every now and again he will write alongside another author an inspirational story. One that resembles love, romance for either another person or in this case a sport. One of my favourite movies growing up was The Legend of Bagger Vance which was a golfing movie starring Will Smith and Matt Damon and now I happen to be dating someone who plays the sport, so reading this book and knowing some golf terminology came in useful as it discussed about birdies and bogeys and handicaps. This book comes as a sequel of sorts from his earlier book Miracle on the 17th Green where Travis McKinley found his golfing spark after being in a rut one Christmas and discovered he had the perfect swing. This book is set a few years later and Travis is on his way to playing in the US Seniors Open but often bad things can happen , but really they are blessings in disguise. When Travis finds himself suspended , he meets Jerzy - a Romanian kid and takes him to practise some rounds of golf and soon by doing something great for the kid, he will re-ignite not only the passion for the golf game but also he may grasp the opportunity to play at his dream golf course - the Augusta.
If you love Golf and Inspirational Stories or know someone who loves the sport but isn't much of a reader, Miracle at Augusta is the perfect size book as it's not too long and quite fast-paced as is James Patterson's writing and has the romantic aspects of a Nicholas Sparks book.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

A little over a year ago, Travis McKinley, an unknown rookie, shocked the world by winning the US Senior Open at Pebble Beach. Now he's famous, he makes his living playing the game he loves, and everything should be perfect. Still, Travis can't shake the feeling that he's a fraud, an imposter who doesn't deserve his success – and after a series of disappointments and, to be honest, personal screw-ups, he might just prove himself right.
A shot at redemption arrives in an unexpected form: a teenage outcast with troubles of his own – and a natural golf swing. As this unlikely duo sets out to achieve the impossible on the world's most revered golf course, Travis is about to learn that sometimes the greatest miracles of all take place when no one is watching.

Just one word should do, really...

Dreadful.

The cynicism in me just screams "Patterson just writes any crap now and it gets published."

This isn't a good book. Nor is it even remotely interesting. When you see golf fans roundly putting this book down, you know Patterson got it wrong...

...oh, so wrong...

But it will be bought by the squillions cos it is Patterson.

Go figure...


Paul
ARH