3 out of 4 stars
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Toxic Side Effect by Sandy Magner is the story of Jennifer Burns, a daughter mourning the death of her perfect father. At least perfect until she starts to find out about his life after he passes away. She is left to confront his sins and help not only her mother through her husband's death but to help figure out who killed him. Along the way, we meet Jennifer's mother who has lost her husband, Jennifer's best friend Kat who is basically part of the family and Jennifer's two young adult children. The book deals with problems that many people experience such as the loss of a loved one, infidelity, and forgiving those who have wronged you.
One of the first things to strike me about this book was the fact that Jennifer comes off as very down to earth and relatable. She has both good and bad qualities, but she doesn’t come across as just another character. She could be any reader. I also noticed that the portrayal of Jennifer's mother was well done. She is a woman in her seventies and she acts like a woman of that time without coming across as a stereotypical old lady. Magner does a good job of creating fairly well-rounded characters.
One thing that left a bit of an odd taste in my mouth was the very brief story we get regarding Dylan, Jennifer's ex who ran into some severe trouble with the law. He is brought up and used to explain why Jen has certain reactions in certain situations but other than that we really get no insight into him. This pairing has its own book dealing with Jennifer and Dylan but if you haven't read that book and just start with this one you'll feel left in the cold without an explanation. One other thing that disrupted the flow of my reading was the narration of certain parts of the character dialogue. It felt a bit choppy at times but after reading the sentence a second time it was understandable, and I could easily get back into the flow of reading the scene.
I expected there to be a predictable plot twist to the story, but I was pleasantly surprised by the ending and found it refreshing. I assumed, just from the first few pages that the book would be a pretty simple story from point A to point B, but I found that it had a few uncomplicated yet intriguing twist and turns throughout the story. Such twists were very refreshing from the typical plot twist that feels the need to be catastrophic to keep your attention.
I would rate this book 3 out of 4. I give it this score simply because while it isn't my favorite novel, it had a good story with likable characters. The story was easy to follow without coming across as condescendingly simple and the ending gave the reader closure to the story. There are a few formatting errors that are noticeable but don’t take away from the story in any way. It is mostly Kindle spacing errors at the beginning and end of a few sentences. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a light mystery/crime novel.
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Toxic Side Effect
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