The
Party Gift by Helena Kamerra
Do you
love romance stories? "The Party Gift" will pull you in and warm your
heart.
The first of a series, this novel is a prelude to the second book,
"The Wedding Gift," .
It seems
that Jasper Warren has lost everything. His father died when he was just a
teenager and his pregnant wife was killed while he attended veterinary school.
Driven by bitterness and a promise to never remarry, he becomes the biggest
party animal at the university. That is until one big get together knocks the
wind out of him.
Time has
passed while Carrie Brunson raises her illegitimate eighteen-month-old daughter
alone. Her daughter's chronic illness has cost her yet another job in a
veterinary clinic and her bills are mounting up. Her job search transforms into
her biggest blessing when Godly people take the two of them into their home.
Tempers
flare when Dr. Jasper Warren finds out that the man he now considers his father
has taken in an unknown curvy blonde along with her fatherless daughter.
Overprotective of those he cares about, he vows to make her life miserable
until a near tragedy forces him to become emotionally involved. Their strained
relationship soon leads them to a mind blowing discovery.
The
second book, "The Wedding Gift" will continue the story.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18586944-the-party-gift?from_search=true
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18586944-the-party-gift?from_search=true
Publisher
and Release Date: Self-Published, September 14, 2013
Time & Setting: Present day, Alabama
Genre: Contemporary/Chick Lit/ Romantic Elements
Heat Level: sweet
Rating: 3.5 Gold Crowns
Vikki’s Musings
I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend. It was
free and the cover is great and the book description intriguing. The prologue
pulled me in right away and so did the first part of the story. The Party Gift is very fast paced and
kept the story moving along quickly. The plot is fascinating, but as I
continued to read, I grew increasingly annoyed.
Jasper Warren, a veterinarian graduate student is grieving
the loss of his pregnant wife and unborn child and letting his anger and
torment rule his life. He goes to a frat party, gets drunk and has unprotected
sex with a girl he has never met before. He experiences sharp feelings of
remorse when he realizes he could have fathered a child from this one night
stand. That’s the prologue. It is good to see that he understands there could
be consequences from his thoughtless behavior.
Chapter one flash forwards to over two years later. Carrie
Brunson is a single mom with an eighteen month old daughter prone to ear
infections. She has to miss work for three days at the veterinarian clinic she
works at as a vet tech. When she returns to the office, the doctor tells her he
has to let her go. She searches for another job on the internet and contacts a veterinarian
in Dothan, Alabama who is looking for a licensed tech.
Carrie calls him and tells him her story. Edward Bloomberg
tells her he needs to think about hiring her and that he will call her back the
next day. When he does, the compassionate vet offers her the job and even
arranges for her to live with his friends from church. These folks come and
help her move, and she starts work at the clinic on Monday. Great story up to
this point, a kind-hearted couple offering her Christian charity, willing to
open their home to her and her fatherless daughter, a sweet story, but not very
believable.
This is where the story goes a bit south for me. She receives
a call from Jasper Warren, who is annoyingly rude. When she hangs up on him, he
storms into the vet clinic a short time later acting like a jerk. In fact, he
continues to act this way for most of the book. This is not a romantic love
story to say the least. It is a story of mistakes that have severe
consequences.
That in itself is not a problem, not all books are romances,
even though this one does tell the reader it is in the book description. The problem
lies in the writing and the way the author writes her dialogue. It is truly
awful. She makes all the characters sound as if they are uneducated, which is
far from the case. Michael Leycaster is a doctor, the man who opens his home to
Carrie. The vet she works for is a doctor, and Jasper Warren is a vet as well.
They are educated men. Carrie went to school and became a licensed vet tech, so
she is educated too. I feel somewhat affronted that Ms. Kamerra would make
these characters sound so uneducated. Just because someone is from the south
does not mean they talk like this!
“I told ‘em to go to the ER, but he said he
wutton a gonna do it.” This is Michael Leycaster speaking, a doctor.
This is just one example of what the dialogue is like. This type of dialogue
continues on throughout the book.
Now, you may wonder why I am not giving this book a lower
rating. Even with these issues, the story flows along quickly, and it is a very
entertaining read. Although Jasper acts the jerk, Ms. Kemerra made me have
empathy for his agony. His terrible loss explains why he is such a bitter
character, and he does do the right thing at the end of the book for all the
right reasons.
I do not normally like books with an abrupt ending, but this
one works for the story. I realized up front before I began reading there would
be a sequel, which will continue the story and give the reader their happy
ending, hopefully. Unfortunately that book has not been written yet. I will
look for this sequel because I do want to see how this story ends. The little
girl, Chrissy deserves to have a happy life and the potential is there for that
to happen. If you decide to give The Party
Gift a chance, at least you will now know what to expect. Happy reading!
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