Review of In This Small Spot by Caren J. Werlinger
This one wrecked me! I’m a huge Werlinger fan. She’s a wonderful author and a fantastic storyteller, and I’m always excited to see what kind of new journey she will take us on next. While I have not read all of her books, I own the rest of them at this point. It’s very easy for me to press the buy button on any book that has her name on it. While I have had this book sitting on my Kindle for a while, once I realized exactly what it was about, I was a little reluctant to read it. Then I heard that Caren wrote a follow-up book An Unlit Candle, which is coming out this year, so it finally gave me the kick I needed to read this.
There were two reasons I was hesitant to read this book. One was because of the flashbacks, and I think you all know by now how much I struggle with them. I’m really happy to say that they were not an issue with this book. While I did like the current time storyline better, the flashbacks made sense and they worked in the story. See, I don’t think in general that flashbacks should be used just to convey past info since there are other ways to do that which would work much better. One example would be to give us readers a little prologue since it can be a pretty gripping way to start a book off. Anyway, the reason the flashbacks actually worked here is that they were used to tell the story of one of the two romances in this book. In this case, the flashbacks were needed and I don’t think this book would have worked without them.
The other reason I was wary about reading this book is that I was worried it would be too emotional. When I heard there was going to be a follow-up book, I started to think maybe I’m wrong and it won’t be as sad as I’m expecting. Nope! Talk about me being wrong and my first instincts being right. Caren ripped out my heart and happily stomped all over it. This is a well-written quality book, but I can’t rate it as high as it really deserves since I’m too heartbroken.
In the end, this was a really well-written but very heartbreaking book. I’m even more anxious to read the follow-up book because I have no idea where Caren will take this storyline. This is a book I would recommend as long as you are ready for a very emotional ride. Some of the best books really do break your heart, and I get that, but I must admit I’m a little bit upset with Caren right now.
