Official Review: Against All Odds by Donia Ray

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kdstrack
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Official Review: Against All Odds by Donia Ray

Post by kdstrack »

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Against All Odds" by Donia Ray.]
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3 out of 4 stars
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Against All Odds by Donia Ray is a romance-thriller novel. A handsome, wealthy boss marries his secretary. Neither of them marry for love but mainly to avoid other problems and difficulties. How long will this marriage last?

Joshua Galloway runs the family business. His family is pressuring him to marry the beautiful Angelica Merrett. Joshua distrusts her and also has feelings for someone who works in his office. Maya works as a secretary at Joshua’s family business. She has had some difficulties in her past that she has kept secret. These events have put her life in danger. She accepts Joshua’s marriage proposal for all the wrong reasons.

This is a beautifully written romance with a mystery twist. The author does a magnificent job of building a loving relationship between Joshua and Maya. There is actual courting and caring that leads to love. I really appreciated how the author drew the two main characters together without dwelling on sexual scenes. Joshua shows himself to be a true gentleman.

The story develops beyond the romance theme. Maya has a secret past that is revealed piece by piece. The events of her past affect her work, her family, and her marriage. There is also a suspense theme developed around Angelica and her motives for pursuing Joshua. The author does an excellent job of weaving these different themes together and wrapping them up at the end.

The third person point of view worked really well for this story. It helped to point out the motives of each one for accepting the marriage and what secrets they were each bringing into the relationship. The dialogue was also interesting and was often used to reveal important elements of the plot.

I did not like the way new characters were introduced in clusters. We meet Joshua’s family on p. 17, and suddenly there are seven new characters. This happens again on p. 64 when we meet Maya’s family. This time there are nine new people injected into the story. This just seemed overwhelming.

The other difficulties with this book are the poor sentence structure and misuse of English idioms. One example is found on p. 155: “You look like you’ve got the whole planet on your shoulders.” It is still understandable, but detracts from the mood of the story.

I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The story was excellent and I would give it a four if possible. The balance between romance and suspense kept my interest until the end. Unfortunately, the grammar errors affect the readability of this novel. I recommend this book to people who enjoy romance and suspense.

******
Against All Odds
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Kat Berg
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Post by Kat Berg »

Love suspense and mystery, but I'm not a huge fan of the romance genre. However, it sounds like this has great potential for those who like the genre if the author does a little extra work. Thanks for the review.
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Post by Jaime Lync »

Nice review! I think that dialogue is one of the hardest things to write in a novel so that example from pg 155 seems bearable. However, I also agree with you that introducing so many characters in clusters doesn't seem agreeable if it happens twice. Thanks for sharing.
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Post by kdstrack »

Kat Berg wrote: 08 Mar 2018, 13:42 Love suspense and mystery, but I'm not a huge fan of the romance genre. However, it sounds like this has great potential for those who like the genre if the author does a little extra work. Thanks for the review.
I liked the combination of romance with suspense - not too much of either!
kdstrack
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Post by kdstrack »

Jaime Lync wrote: 08 Mar 2018, 15:18 Nice review! I think that dialogue is one of the hardest things to write in a novel so that example from pg 155 seems bearable. However, I also agree with you that introducing so many characters in clusters doesn't seem agreeable if it happens twice. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Jamie.
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Post by KFree_Reads »

Nice review! I appreciate your honesty. Despite the pitfalls you mentioned, I think I'll still give this one a try. The story sounds quite interesting.
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Post by Kalin Adi »

There are many people who get married for anything else but love. In this story this convenient marriage ends up loving each other for real. It's a good thing the author could portray the reality of how a secret of the past can affect marriage. Thanks for sharing your opinions about this book.
kdstrack
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Post by kdstrack »

KFree_Reads wrote: 08 Mar 2018, 20:38 Nice review! I appreciate your honesty. Despite the pitfalls you mentioned, I think I'll still give this one a try. The story sounds quite interesting.
Hope you try it. I really enjoyed the story.
kdstrack
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Post by kdstrack »

Kalin Adi wrote: 08 Mar 2018, 20:51 There are many people who get married for anything else but love. In this story this convenient marriage ends up loving each other for real. It's a good thing the author could portray the reality of how a secret of the past can affect marriage. Thanks for sharing your opinions about this book.
That's what makes the story so interesting.
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Post by kandscreeley »

I'm really not into romance novels, but I'm intrigued about the boss and secretary that marry for reasons other than love. Thanks for the great review.
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Post by Sahani Nimandra »

Sounds like a really hot and spicy plot. The idea of a third wheel dangling in between two wheels never end well. I think I will look forward for more drama. Thanks for the details!
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Post by CommMayo »

Nice review. The phrase about having the plant on one's shoulders makes me wonder if it was a native English speaker who wrote the book. Maybe they were just trying to be clever? Fell flat if that was what they were going for...
kdstrack
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Post by kdstrack »

kandscreeley wrote: 09 Mar 2018, 08:14 I'm really not into romance novels, but I'm intrigued about the boss and secretary that marry for reasons other than love. Thanks for the great review.
I was expecting a romance, but the story took some interesting turns. Thanks for reading.
kdstrack
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Post by kdstrack »

Sahani Nimandra wrote: 09 Mar 2018, 08:20 Sounds like a really hot and spicy plot. The idea of a third wheel dangling in between two wheels never end well. I think I will look forward for more drama. Thanks for the details!
Thanks for reading.
kdstrack
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Post by kdstrack »

CommMayo wrote: 09 Mar 2018, 11:31 Nice review. The phrase about having the plant on one's shoulders makes me wonder if it was a native English speaker who wrote the book. Maybe they were just trying to be clever? Fell flat if that was what they were going for...
The story was good, but some of the attempts at idioms really threw me off.
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