2 out of 4 stars
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Love Stone: A Story of Love After Loss is the story of Lynette, a woman dealing with the collapse of a relationship, and dealing with her connections to other people. The novel revolves around Lynette and her relationships with the other characters, ranging from friends to a love interest. Love Stone has the makings of a terrific novel, but in its present state it is a couple of drafts away from achieving its true potential.
As it stands, Love Stone ought to be considered a very strong draft, composed on a plot that relies on genuine slices of life rather than cloying clichés and unlikely plot twists. It seems as if the heart of the book, by which I mean the truest, purest, and deepest relationship in the book, is between Lynette and her beloved grandmother. The scenes between Lynette and her grandmother are often touching and never false or forced. Lynette and her grandmother seem to be linked by a deep bond, and frankly it dwarfs some of other relationships in the book, such as the connections between minor characters, and even that of Lynette and her primary love interest, Neal.
None of the other characters comes across as fake or a stock type, but the Lynette and her grandmother connection is the finest part of the book. The love Lynette has for her grandmother comes across beautifully. The issue here is that I need to see more. I’d like to see more flashback scenes between Lynette and her grandmother (or possibly anecdotes about their lives together), in order to deepen and color their bond. Lynette’s grandmother (Mother Hawkins) spends much of the book wrestling with illness, and often she is seen through the eyes of other characters. More scenes where Mother Hawkins speaks for herself, such as with her surprising candor with a pastor in public, are needed to give her character more page time and a chance to supplement Lynette’s attempts to understand the trajectory of her life.
Love Stone illustrates that Cook has a considerable amount of writing talent. There are moments of real poignancy, passion, and emotional truth woven into the fabric of the story. The problem is that the book often doesn’t go far enough. Sometimes further detail, whether it comes from mental introspection, scenes where characters’ actions speak louder than words, or even the comments of another character are necessary in order to flesh out scenes, relationships, or characters, and make them truly compelling. Several events, ranging from family estrangements to abortions, are mentioned almost casually, and then not given sufficient development to justify their mention. There are dozens of little scenes throughout the book that need to have a little more emotional depth added to them to make the reader really connect to the characters.
Furthermore, the book is sprinkled with errors, ranging from comma mistakes to distracting misspelled words. Admittedly, these are minor points, but proper editing is important. Ultimately, in order to make her novel shine, Cook needs to spend more time explaining her characters’ feelings and motivations, and spend more time on the best part of her book: the relationship between Lynette and her grandmother.
I give this book two out of four stars.
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