It’s confession time – Being of a pragmatic mindset, I generally find typical romances uninteresting. I only bought this book because the title involved serial killers and it had great ratings on Goodreads. After all, with divorce rates going up everywhere it is hard to believe that you bump into someone pretty or handsome, fall in love and it is happily ever after! However do not make the mistake of thinking that I do not believe in love, I just believe love to be hard work after the initial phase of attraction passes away, it isn’t fluff and candies. But more about that some other time, let us get back to our book review of ” Love in the Time of Serial Killers. Over to the detailed review of “Love in the Time of Serial Killers” written by Alicia Thompson.
About the Author Alicia Thompson
Alicia Thompson is a romance Novelist who has written four bestselling novels in that genre. “Love in the Time of Serial killers ” is her latest novel. She currently lives with her husband, children and cat in Florida(USA).
Book Specifications
Title – Love in the Time of Serial killers
Author – Alicia Thompson
Language – English
Genre – Rom-com, Chick-lit, Romance, mystery, Young adults, Contemporary romance
Pages – 340
Publisher – Transworld Digital
Price – Rs 322/- (Paper cover) , Kindle edition and Audiobook available too
The Characters
Phoebe Walsh – The leading lady of this novel, Phoebe is young ,emotionally unattached and is pursuing a Ph.D. in literature
Sam Dennings – The young and attractive Elementary school music teacher who is Phoebe’s Dad’s neighbour
Conner Walsh – The younger brother of Phoebe , who always sees the good in all and still is a kid at heart.
Shani – Shani is a nurse and also the love interest of Conner.
The Plot
Phoebe Walsh, a Ph.D. candidate, who has chosen “True Crime “as the subject her dissertation,finds herself bang in the middle of that very genre if she can carve out time to complete it. Currently spending the summer in Florida, she’s tasked with clearing out her childhood home, after her Father’s unexpected death. All this while tolerating her overly cheerful younger brother, and navigating the complex emotions tied to mourning a father she’d been estranged from for years, and trying to submit her final report for her PhD.
Quite expectedly Phoebe’s deep interest in the minds and lives of serial killers as a genre makes her doubtful of everything.Complicating matters is her burgeoning suspicion that her new neighbor, Sam Dennings, might be a serial killer.This handsome looking man is a kind and good neighbour the surface but his nighttime activities ring alarm bells in Phoebe’s mind.
Even though Phoebe is rude and curt with him, Sam manages to pull something off no one has ever managed so far, he breaks through her defenses and touches her vulnerable heart.But what about the serial killer? You will have to read the book to find out for yourself!
More about “Love in the time of Serial Killers”
Body Positivity
While Alicia Thompson confessed in an interview that describing Phoebe as a full figured woman was a conscious choice , I still find it funny that Sam Dennings’ looks were what attracted Phoebe to him in the first instance. Despite her major mistrust of him, she kept going to him because of his attractiveness.To give credit to the author, this body positivity still is a good thing as it helps young girls if they are allowed to believe that being overweight is no deal breaker for a relationship or for being loved.
Narration
I am at a loss because it is tough to club it into one single style.It ranges from very simple one where boy meets girl, but seems to go too much into crime references (as I describe later ) and further at some point towards the end it becomes drab with so much literary language and devices used that I think it would only appeal to students of literature. Thankfully such slow sections were short. I had to skip much of it.Maybe the author was trying to show how sincere and deeply involved Phoebe was with advancing her career in literature by going into such details.
The author comes alive when describing Phoebe and Conner’s bond and childhood and when she describes the sex between the Sam an Phoebe, that is when she seems energetic and on fire.
As a matter of fact I did like Alicia ‘s humor, it is dry, well timed but not one that will inspire hard laughter.That is my kind of witty and clever writing.
References to True Crime
Since Phoebe Walsh is writing her thesis on True Crime as a genre and how writing about it has evolved over the years , there are a lot of references to the popular non-fiction book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote.Having been estranged from her own Father and Brother for a long time Phoebe often seems to sympathise with the family of Serial killers , to whom the Serial killer were good Father or husband.She would often refer to this even when talking to her friends, how it is tough to really know a person even after spending years with them.
The Chemistry between the lead couple
Honestly speaking , while Sam was always a good sport when it came to Phoebe, she herself was unable to trust or love easily so she would often be curt and rude to him to avoid getting involved. It is an off and on relationship (as it is in most romance books, blah). Finally of course, things fall into place and they hopefully liver happily ever after , at least Phoebe becomes Dr. Phoebe Walsh for sure, one big cause for her to be happy.
My thoughts about “Love in the time of Serial Killers”
I must say that my hopes of finding a main plot (or even a sub -plot) of a detective story were majorly dashed after reading this book. “Love in the time of Serial Killers ” turned out to be a sweet and over simplified witty slow burn romance between a girl who finds herself hard to be loved and a boy who is hell bent on proving her wrong.
“This post is part of the Bookish League blog hop hosted by Bohemian Bibliophile
This post was created for the Blogaberry Creative (Monthly) Challenge.
If you love Indian romances , here is my list of Best Contemporary Indian Romance books
I have written a lot of reviews on Goodreads, Check them out Here
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