1 out of 4 stars
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Stolen Family by Association by author J B Peters chronicles the life of Samantha Tyler. Samantha survived a difficult childhood, suffering continuous abuse at the hands of her own father. Now eighteen and living a seemingly normal life, Samantha discovers she is pregnant. Initially, she is overjoyed at the thought of having a family. However, Philip, her boyfriend, does not share her excitement. In a surprising turn of events, Samantha receives a large sum of money as compensation for her father’s past actions. The young couple’s relationship becomes more complicated when Philip learns about her new assets. Will Samantha free herself from the cycle of abuse? Or will she continue to find herself close to those who only wish to do her harm?
Overall, this book proved difficult to review because the majority of the manuscript is simply sloppy. The narrative is riddled with incorrect punctuation, inconsistent formatting and poor wording. Further, run-on sentences and misplaced commas significantly hindered the readability of the book. For example, the following sentence exemplifies the type of comma misplacement that is found throughout the text: “Samantha mentally kicked herself how, could she have been so stupid this must be her fault.” Further, it is blatantly clear that two chapters are in the wrong order.
The plot has more merit than the writing, but it is also problematic. There were some interesting twists to the story, but not all plot points are fully thought out and thus some of the ‘twists’ seem rather pointless. For example, Samantha and Philip take a trip to St. Lucia. This vacation is described in great detail; from the plane ride, to shopping and ordering room service, nothing is left out. Then, Samantha wakes up and believes it was all a dream. It is unclear if this portion of the book was, in fact, a meaningless dream, or actually some evil plan concocted by Philip. Even at the end we are none the wiser about the meaning of the mysterious vacation. Though there is a sequel, the lack of a resolution made it feel like the pages and pages devoted to this incident were utterly meaningless and did nothing to advance the plot.
Throughout the story, Samantha is put through every type of abuse you can imagine. Despite the many painful situations Samantha is subjected to, it was extremely difficult to sympathize with the character. Samantha lacks any real depth; she barely has a personality, and her backstory is almost nonexistent. The author defines Samantha as a clichéd victim and little else. Similarly, the secondary characters proved equally irksome. For the most part, everyone in Samantha’s life is simply bad. Even more frustrating, the motives behind their awful treatment of Samantha are unclear. Some banal explanations are made throughout the book as to why the characters dislike her, but they fail to explain the absolute hatred each character harbors towards Samantha.
Stolen Family by Association attempts to tell the sorrowful story of one woman who has experienced great trauma throughout her childhood and into her adult life. Sadly, the final product is rather unsuccessful. There is potential for an endearing psychological saga in this story, but thorough editing and better scrutiny of the plot is necessary for this book to stand the chance of success. The editorial issues alone lead me to rate this book 1 out of 4 stars.
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Stolen Family by Association
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