Review of Sip Lake

[Lacey Mayes]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Sip Lake" by joseph basara.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Sip Lake by Joseph Basara is a quirky romance story about a guy named Owen Cloud. Most people call him Red because of his kinky red hair. He is quite an imaginative fellow who works as a night shift orderly at a hospital in Cypress City, Fl during the summer of 1977. There he meets a lady named Tina and he becomes enamored by her. But Owen constantly daydreams and puts himself down. He feels like he isn't good enough. Tina befriends him, but she is not exactly the girl he thinks she is.

In the beginning, the story started out strong and I enjoyed learning about all the characters. Red seemed like an interesting and relatable person to me. I liked reading from his perspective. The description and the names of all the background characters made me laugh a lot. The author definitely had a creative sense of humor. For example: Tina Gardenia, Flora Cracker, Jackson Ville, Millie Mackerel, to name a few. I also enjoyed all the pop culture references listed in the book. There were lots of great songs and movies out in 1977.

I did get quite bored with the book very quickly. It took me a lot longer to read than it should because it was lacking. I thought there was quite of bit of unnecessary talking that really had nothing to do with the story. It just seemed like too much conversation that was irrelevant. A couple chapters in, I was under the assumption that there would be more of Owen and Tina talking, but for several pages, Tina was either not mentioned or she was barely mentioned. Most of the conversations took place at the hospital between the employees and their patients. It took a long time before the story picked back up again.

I would rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. I didn't hate the book. But it certainly didn't keep my attention. I enjoy romance novels, but this was not for me. It did not go in the direction that I expected, and it just lacked excitement for me. When I read the synopsis, I expected something else. This was definitely not it.

I think the recommended audience would be adults over 40 who enjoy clean romance novels. This one had no violence or sexuality, and the language was very minimum. This is not recommended for children, and I don't think teens would enjoy this book.

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Sip Lake
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