Review by Charine -- Lemoncella Cocktail by Rene Natan

[Charine]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Lemoncella Cocktail" by Rene Natan.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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Drugs, terrorists, special agents, a grande dame, innocent victims, murder, kidnappings and a hero can all be found within the 332 pages of this novel. The genre, C/T/M/H, describes all the elements to a tee.

The mystery starts when "The Marlboro Man" (a.k.a. Patrick) saves Samantha's life when he rescued her from the river. She was thrown in by two unknown men and she is unable to swim. Patrick returns Sam to her grandmother's cottage, not knowing that his life had been irrevocably changed.

In order to protect Sam's family and at the same time catch the kingpin of the gun trafficking organization, special agents swoop in and take the investigation over. Sam's grandmother, Jessica, now has agents in her basement and Patrick is somehow employed by the task force. Will their lives ever return to normal?

All aspects of this complex, surrealistic tale was told in a third person's narrative. It was an excruciating task to place the characters as there were so many of them, competing for the lead that I still can't tell for certain who the main character is. Due to this the character building suffered leaving the reader quite perplexed as to who these characters are.

I suspect that English is Rene Natan's second language due to a few errors that are not common in first language authors. For instance on page 20: "...river makes the big turn..." where turn should've been bend, however these errors did not detract from the powerful plots.

The author manages to successfully juggle all the plots, keeping the reader in suspense. They are well thought out and produced quite a few surprise twists. However, I did find keeping track of all the events a bit tedious and breathed a sigh of relief that this strenuous read came to an end. Then I realized that I finished a novel without any lingering ghosts. Usually I reflect upon the characters that I've met: the good, the bad or the ugly; but sadly none stood out, not even a villain to despise.

Therefore I can only rate this novel 3 out of 4 stars. I will not deduct another star for the few errors present as they were minor. This is not an easy beach read but if you are ready to flex your brain-muscle do dive in, you might want to keep a notepad handy in the beginning to place all the characters. Please note that the biggest drawback was that my personal value system was affronted by the careless use of the Lord's name.

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Lemoncella Cocktail
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Like Charine's review? Post a comment saying so!

[nooregano]

Very interesting review. Thoroughly analysed, and clear points! It struck me that you said that the author's first language probably isn't English, and I realised that it's very apparent when someone doesn't know the language but it's also apparent when someone is using language a little playfully and bending the rules in order to create a certain atmosphere. I wonder how we know this! What are your thoughts?

Thank you so much for this review, Charine!

[María Andrea Fernández Sepúlveda]

Please note that the biggest drawback was that my personal value system was affronted by the careless use of the Lord's name.

I appreciate your honesty at admitting that the affront to your values swayed your opinion a bit.
Although I enjoy twisty plots and I find the title quite intriguing, it seems like much of a hassle to keep up with all the characters and subplots. It's also a bit disappointing that none of the characters stood out or stayed with you.
Thank you for your honest review.

[Espie]

It seems like this piece's myriad facets and layers make "cocktail" an appropriate of its title. I admire those who could turn life's lemons into lemonades or, better yet, lemon meringue pies. Thank you for your interesting review.