Review of Love All the Way
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Rachel Dittrich
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- Latest Review: Love All the Way by Aurora Carafa
Review of Love All the Way
[Following is a volunteer review of "Love All the Way" by Aurora Carafa.]
Love All the Way is a story set in 1972 about a woman named Mel, short for Melanie, who discovers a man being brutally beaten in an alleyway. Mel interrupts this violent encounter and defends the victim, who ends up being the wealthy fashion designer Allen Shandi. Allen was violently harassed in the alley due to identifying as a gay man. After rescuing Allen, he offers to walk Mel home. Over time and multiple encounters, the two meet up several times and develop a relationship. Allen loves Mel’s style and tastes and offers her a partnership in his fashion line. Mel discovers herself falling in love with a gay man while she works on their fashion line together. She helps defend Allen in his abusive romantic relationship, and eventually, the two confess their passion for becoming parents, so they try to create a baby together. During this time, Allen is diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Throughout the book, Mel handles her love and emotions for Allen while he handles the struggles of being a gay man in the 1970s diagnosed with ALS.
This story is a loving and passionate tale of how you can create your own family with those you love without being related to them. Aurora Carafa did a great job portraying the struggles of homosexuality in the 1970s. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a timestamp that shows the progression through history, with little tidbits and facts about the LGBTQ community throughout time. Seeing the way this friendship blossomed over time was a journey to remember.
Although Love All the Way was filled with love and passion, I struggled to keep up and understand what was happening during certain times. The entire book is filled with many grammatical errors with spacing issues, and the dialogue conversations need to be correctly formatted with quotation marks or stating who the speaker is during that moment. In addition, there were many character development issues. I felt Allen was quite a developed character, and we knew quite a bit about him and his backstories, such as his previous relationships and career. However, Mel, who is arguably the story's main character, is pieced together over time, leaving the reader with many unanswered questions. For example, Mel seems to have a very aggressive and violent past, and it is carried into the present when she shows issues with her overprotectiveness toward Allen. Allen calls Mel out near the end of the book for these issues, but they fail to be addressed or explored before the book ends.
Overall, this book did have potential, but once the reader reaches numerous grammatical errors and needs help to identify who is speaking during the conversation, they end up lost and confused. I give this book a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the storyline and learned quite a bit about LGBTQ culture in the 1970s. However, the book could have been more straightforward, and I repeatedly reread passages to understand what was happening.
Love All the Way does a great job of discussing LGBTQ topics and issues; therefore, I believe it is an excellent book for those who identify as members of the LGBTQ community and allies. This book could reach a broader population and succeed if it was thoroughly examined for typos and grammatical errors. Love All the Way has excellent potential to shine amongst great LGTBQ stories.
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Love All the Way
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Love All the Way is a story set in 1972 about a woman named Mel, short for Melanie, who discovers a man being brutally beaten in an alleyway. Mel interrupts this violent encounter and defends the victim, who ends up being the wealthy fashion designer Allen Shandi. Allen was violently harassed in the alley due to identifying as a gay man. After rescuing Allen, he offers to walk Mel home. Over time and multiple encounters, the two meet up several times and develop a relationship. Allen loves Mel’s style and tastes and offers her a partnership in his fashion line. Mel discovers herself falling in love with a gay man while she works on their fashion line together. She helps defend Allen in his abusive romantic relationship, and eventually, the two confess their passion for becoming parents, so they try to create a baby together. During this time, Allen is diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Throughout the book, Mel handles her love and emotions for Allen while he handles the struggles of being a gay man in the 1970s diagnosed with ALS.
This story is a loving and passionate tale of how you can create your own family with those you love without being related to them. Aurora Carafa did a great job portraying the struggles of homosexuality in the 1970s. At the beginning of each chapter, there is a timestamp that shows the progression through history, with little tidbits and facts about the LGBTQ community throughout time. Seeing the way this friendship blossomed over time was a journey to remember.
Although Love All the Way was filled with love and passion, I struggled to keep up and understand what was happening during certain times. The entire book is filled with many grammatical errors with spacing issues, and the dialogue conversations need to be correctly formatted with quotation marks or stating who the speaker is during that moment. In addition, there were many character development issues. I felt Allen was quite a developed character, and we knew quite a bit about him and his backstories, such as his previous relationships and career. However, Mel, who is arguably the story's main character, is pieced together over time, leaving the reader with many unanswered questions. For example, Mel seems to have a very aggressive and violent past, and it is carried into the present when she shows issues with her overprotectiveness toward Allen. Allen calls Mel out near the end of the book for these issues, but they fail to be addressed or explored before the book ends.
Overall, this book did have potential, but once the reader reaches numerous grammatical errors and needs help to identify who is speaking during the conversation, they end up lost and confused. I give this book a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the storyline and learned quite a bit about LGBTQ culture in the 1970s. However, the book could have been more straightforward, and I repeatedly reread passages to understand what was happening.
Love All the Way does a great job of discussing LGBTQ topics and issues; therefore, I believe it is an excellent book for those who identify as members of the LGBTQ community and allies. This book could reach a broader population and succeed if it was thoroughly examined for typos and grammatical errors. Love All the Way has excellent potential to shine amongst great LGTBQ stories.
******
Love All the Way
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Love All the Way by Aurora Carafa
