Show Me 5 Saturday: Reasons by Tracy Fabre

Alipet at That's a Novel Idea has started a new MEME called Show Me Five Saturday. This meme will give each blogger an opportunity to give a brief description of a book they have read or reviewed during the week. It will work like this: Each Saturday you will post the answer to these questions. The number indicates the number of answers you will provide.

This week I am going to add part of the publisher's synopsis so you have an idea of the basic premise:

"Delphi Brent, seriously injured ina hit-and-run accident as a teenager, is ready to spend the summer with old family friends when her parents make a distressing confession: the driver of the car that nearly killeed her was one of the three sons of the Laughlin family she's about to visit. They urge her to stay home and let the past be, but she resolves to go out West anyway to learn the truth about what happened the night she was struck and one of the Laughlin sons died.

1. The title of book you read: Reasons by Tracy Fabre

2. Book description: contemporary romance

3. Settings where it took place or characters you met:

• Colorado
• Delphi Brent who has not seen or heard from the Laughlins for over a decade somehow magically gets the e-mail address for Annie ( Mrs. Laughlin and Delphi's mother's old friend) and strikes up a correspondence and then plans on visiting for most of the summer. When she first meets Noreen, the Laughlin's future daughter-in-law, she gets into a verbal skirmish with her complete with childish responses and almost paranoid behavior. Noreen "hates me". This is the first day she arrives. Is this acceptable believable behavior for a guest? I think not! Despite having had a crush on Bobbie, the older brother, she falls for Tam. Another case of inane inner dialogue: "he doesn't like me, he smiled at me, he's not talking to me, he kissed me, he hates me, ooh he called me sweetheart. Oh, puhleeeze, is this the 8th grade. I found Delphi to be an abrasive and most annoying character that at times I wanted to just slap her. Most days she acted half her age. As to her mission to find out the truth, that was just glossed over as she daydreamed about Tam.
• The Laughlins: They must be the most trusting people on earth. They invite Delphi to visit after not having seen her for over a decade nor have they had any contact with Delphi's parents and yet they let her work in their ranch office with free rein to all their files, business, etc. Ten years previously when their sons came home with a very damaged car and one of the sons went into a coma, it seems no questions were asked. Didn't they wonder why the Brents did not contact them in any way after their last visit? Is this likely behavior for any parents or friends for that matter?

4. Things you liked/disliked about it:

• I liked the cover and the title and then it all went downhill from there.
• Improbability of events: When Delphi's parents tell her they don't want her to go and why, none of it made sense to me. If my daughter had been hit by a car and I saw the vanity license plate and knew who the owner was, you can bet I would be irate and demanding of an explantion why she was just left in the street. Even if the car's owner were my best friends' son and I had been staying with them. How could the Laughlins not know that Delphi had been in an accident and then their sons come home in a damaged car? How could this all be swept under the rug? Delphi's mother explains that when they finally got home to PA, they found a letter from the Laughlins that said their son Artie had been in a coma after a car accident and passed away. So they felt bad and didn't say anything about Delphi's accident. WHAAAAT? Nobody connects these two accidents. This whole premise seemed unbelievable to me. It set the tone for the whole book and irritated me to no end.
• A few of the minor characters were the saving grace of this book but the main characters I couldn't get invested in and just couldn't like
• dialogue that felt stilted, tried to be "witty" and failed for the most part.

5. Stars or less for your rating:

• 2** Using my put down/pick up criteria, I could easily put this one down and if I hadn't agreed to review it in January, the bookmark would most likely still be languishing between page 90 to 100.