Review by ArielJMartin -- B-Side by Janis Jones
Posted: 30 Sep 2019, 19:40
[Following is a volunteer review of "B-Side" by Janis Jones.]
2 out of 4 stars
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B-Side, by Janis Jones, is a crime story that hits too close to home for Detective Mara Bays, when a horrendous crime is committed against her girlfriend. Mara and her partner, Derek, work together to uncover who was behind the offense. As the story unfolds, Mara struggles to remain objective and finds it harder to keep her professional life from spilling over into her personal life.
B-Side follows Detective Mara Bays and her artist girlfriend, Casey Terranova. Mara has not come out as lesbian, but knows she has found "the one" in Casey. On their 3rd anniversary, Casey is brutally attacked and Mara is intent on finding her attacker. Casey is doing her best to move on from the incident, but she feels as though Mara is slipping through her fingers. As Mara comes closer to the truth, she realizes the closer she is to ripping her life wide open.
While B-Side was a good crime story, I was not partial to the author's writing style. The book is written in the 3rd person, and the author defaults to vignette writing to speed the story up. For example, in the Kindle edition page 72, "Mara and Derek run at the park. Mara and Derek sit at an outdoor food stand..." This is mostly used for scene setting before dialog or during a thought monologue. I understand the purpose, but I feel it limits the amount of detail within the story. I did enjoy how the author is able to weave a story of romance and crime. Often with the genre I find authors will toy around with the idea of romance, hinting at sexual tension between opposite sex partners, and I appreciate that Jones took an alternative route of incorporating romance. Even more so that it is a lesbian couple.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a quick read and is partial to the crime genre. While this story is not overly gruesome, there is strong language and multiple references to sex. The topic of homophobic behavior is also addressed within the book.
I would rate this book a 2 out of 4. I would not give it a 1 because I do genuinely enjoy the plot and character development within the story. On the other hand, I would not give it a 3 because I feel it was not professionally edited and I did not enjoy the author's writing style. I feel more descriptive writing would have fully immersed me into the book.
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B-Side
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
2 out of 4 stars
Share This Review
B-Side, by Janis Jones, is a crime story that hits too close to home for Detective Mara Bays, when a horrendous crime is committed against her girlfriend. Mara and her partner, Derek, work together to uncover who was behind the offense. As the story unfolds, Mara struggles to remain objective and finds it harder to keep her professional life from spilling over into her personal life.
B-Side follows Detective Mara Bays and her artist girlfriend, Casey Terranova. Mara has not come out as lesbian, but knows she has found "the one" in Casey. On their 3rd anniversary, Casey is brutally attacked and Mara is intent on finding her attacker. Casey is doing her best to move on from the incident, but she feels as though Mara is slipping through her fingers. As Mara comes closer to the truth, she realizes the closer she is to ripping her life wide open.
While B-Side was a good crime story, I was not partial to the author's writing style. The book is written in the 3rd person, and the author defaults to vignette writing to speed the story up. For example, in the Kindle edition page 72, "Mara and Derek run at the park. Mara and Derek sit at an outdoor food stand..." This is mostly used for scene setting before dialog or during a thought monologue. I understand the purpose, but I feel it limits the amount of detail within the story. I did enjoy how the author is able to weave a story of romance and crime. Often with the genre I find authors will toy around with the idea of romance, hinting at sexual tension between opposite sex partners, and I appreciate that Jones took an alternative route of incorporating romance. Even more so that it is a lesbian couple.
I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys a quick read and is partial to the crime genre. While this story is not overly gruesome, there is strong language and multiple references to sex. The topic of homophobic behavior is also addressed within the book.
I would rate this book a 2 out of 4. I would not give it a 1 because I do genuinely enjoy the plot and character development within the story. On the other hand, I would not give it a 3 because I feel it was not professionally edited and I did not enjoy the author's writing style. I feel more descriptive writing would have fully immersed me into the book.
******
B-Side
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon