Book Description:Born with OCA1b, Cara Ella Smith couldn't be more different from her sisters. The need to move far away from family lands her in Miami, where she becomes a writer. Her first novel indirectly aids Detective Abram Jonah in the arrest of a vile human being, and she becomes a target as a result. On the day of her 8th book signing event, she is almost run down by a vehicle, which she narrowly avoids because she is pulled away from the road by a dashing hunk, Jet Meyer. There is a nagging fear that tugs at her. Jet is hiding something. He skillfully evades personal questions that Cara asks him. Cara is plagued with anxiety and nightmares from her near-death experience, but deep down, she knows that her distress has more to do with Jet than the incident.
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“Hers To Tell” is a novel in the suspense genre by Nigerian author Emem Uko.
The book started off kind of slow and dragged, from the main character, Cara’s eventful morning that spread over the first few chapters, to meeting a mysterious guy, Jet, who befriends her. They get close and enter into a relationship (or is it a relationship?), but I don’t feel any chemistry between them. Perhaps it was the author’s intention to make it seem that way.
A few more chapters into the book, I couldn’t tell what the story was really about, as the main plot wasn’t evident. I just seemed to be following Cara around. I had to go back to check the book’s genre and saw that it was ‘suspense,’ but there was nothing really suspenseful about it.
However, going deeper into the book, it started to have a little more activity and suspense, although very slow-paced suspense. I also loved the little pockets of mystery that came up and the fact that Cara was writing a book, so I got to see excerpts from the book, which by the way, I strongly hope the author will complete and release.
It seemed as if the main action or suspense was in Cara’s dreams, which was always obvious that it was a dream. It took about 19 chapters out of 21 for any real action to happen, and the action ended before it even started... because the ending was rushed, especially about how Cara was discovered and rescued after being kidnapped and tortured. We only get to hear what had happened, after the fact, and then some new characters and a dog are mentioned in solving the mystery.
I do appreciate that sometimes it’s difficult to write in first-person POV and to get the tenses right because seeing things from only one person’s POV limits the story a bit, but I wish the ending had been fleshed out a little more, and I believe that another round of editing and revision will do this book well.
In every book I always have a favourite line or part, and mine was when Cara was locked in a cage and was talking to her kidnapper, then she cried out loud because she preferred to be drugged than fully conscious at that time. Her crying made her kidnapper’s father startle, drop what he was holding, and yell at his son, “What are you doing to her?” I found that part funny, coming from a man who tortures people, and who was already planning to torture her.
It was an okay read.
3 STARS
Literarily Yours,
CMO.
A few more chapters into the book, I couldn’t tell what the story was really about, as the main plot wasn’t evident. I just seemed to be following Cara around. I had to go back to check the book’s genre and saw that it was ‘suspense,’ but there was nothing really suspenseful about it.
However, going deeper into the book, it started to have a little more activity and suspense, although very slow-paced suspense. I also loved the little pockets of mystery that came up and the fact that Cara was writing a book, so I got to see excerpts from the book, which by the way, I strongly hope the author will complete and release.
It seemed as if the main action or suspense was in Cara’s dreams, which was always obvious that it was a dream. It took about 19 chapters out of 21 for any real action to happen, and the action ended before it even started... because the ending was rushed, especially about how Cara was discovered and rescued after being kidnapped and tortured. We only get to hear what had happened, after the fact, and then some new characters and a dog are mentioned in solving the mystery.
I do appreciate that sometimes it’s difficult to write in first-person POV and to get the tenses right because seeing things from only one person’s POV limits the story a bit, but I wish the ending had been fleshed out a little more, and I believe that another round of editing and revision will do this book well.
In every book I always have a favourite line or part, and mine was when Cara was locked in a cage and was talking to her kidnapper, then she cried out loud because she preferred to be drugged than fully conscious at that time. Her crying made her kidnapper’s father startle, drop what he was holding, and yell at his son, “What are you doing to her?” I found that part funny, coming from a man who tortures people, and who was already planning to torture her.
It was an okay read.
3 STARS
Literarily Yours,
CMO.
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