Book Review: Chasing Polaris

by - 8:00 PM


If you're participating in the #ICBReadingChallenge2017, then you know that one of the prompts this year is to read a 99¢ e-book from Amazon.

Well, after searching long and hard through the Amazon database, I finally found a book that peaked my interest! The cover drew me in, but the synopsis hooked me! I immediately purchased Chasing Polaris and downloaded it to the Kindle App on my iPhone.

Synopsis:
"Trust me,” he says.
"Trust is a lot to ask of someone you’ve just met."
"Okay, then a take a chance on me."


Imogen Shaw is done with this life, or at least she’s done pretending that everything is the same as it used to be. What was once so perfect and uncomplicated is ruined. Her dad, a person she thought could never disappoint her, turned out to be a liar and a fraud. All she cares about now is getting out of town and starting her new life in Boston. Love, she decides as she packs up her room and vows to put all of the hurt behind her, is just a delusion for suckers.

If anybody knows about things falling apart, it’s Seth Cavanaugh. With an alcoholic mother and a sister stuck in prison, Seth’s gotten used to taking care of himself. He figures he can handle anything life hurls at him because whenever people have let him down, music has always been there to carry him through. But these days even music feels like a stranger, and now Seth is in search of something more.

The setup is simple: A starry night, a scavenger hunt, one unlikely partnership, and two desperate hearts headed for each other on a collision course. In Chasing Polaris, Erica Cope and Autumn Doughton bring you another radiant story about misfits, catastrophic mistakes, and unforgettable discoveries. Simultaneously heart-wrenching and hilarious, Seth and Imogen’s journey is one that can’t be missed.

A girl.
A boy.
A fragile trust.

Everyone knows that true love is a joke and hearts are made to be broken. But what if Imogen and Seth took the chance anyway?


Review:
To begin with, I want to give Erica and Autumn props for their cover! It's absolutely beautiful! I just wish that the synopsis would have tied the cover in more seamlessly.

Unfortunately, I felt the same sense of disappointment throughout the rest of the book too. It seemed as though I was continuously wishing for more information from the authors. I mean, I didn't even find out where the story took place until half way through the book!

Honestly, I really wanted to like this book and I kept hoping that I would. It's just hard to fall head over heels for characters that I couldn't picture in my head. Erica and Autumn didn't have a problem including descriptions throughout the book, but I felt like they never described what really mattered. More often than not, I was just picturing a place that I've already been and placeholder characters.

I wish I could say that I'm exaggerating; but to put it frankly, I finished this book less than an hour ago, in just three sittings, and I can't tell you what any of the characters looked like. I remember a few little details here and there, but truthfully, I think that says a lot. And I'm a visual person too, so leaving those descriptions out, can really affect the story line for me.

As far as the actual writing goes, I had a lot of trouble moving through this book. There were so many instances where I found words that didn't belong (like 'a' and 'an') and missing words too. Not to mention, the sentence structure was often unparalleled and the authors didn't break up their sentences in many places where I believe they should have naturally ended.

Sadly, I couldn't stand the dialogue either. There were so many times when I had to reread an entire conversation just to figure out who said what because there weren't always dialogue tags. And on occasion, I even found places that were missing quotation marks.

When it comes to the book's formatting, I also had a couple of dislikes. For one, I hate reading material without page numbers. The Kindle app includes location markers and a progress bar, but it's not the same. I keep track of how many pages I read per day and that was very difficult to do with Chasing Polaris. I actually had to look up the number of pages in the print book and then do calculations from there.

Not only was I annoyed by the lack of page numbers, but I also couldn't stand the lack of consistency in the actual text. About a third of the way through the book, I noticed that the font size varied here and there. I double checked all of my settings, but they remained normal. It seems that there are places throughout the book where the text gets smaller and then returns back to normal. After the third instance, I stopped keeping track of how often it occurred.

Finally, when it comes to the characters, I found it incredibly hard to connect with them. Their voices were hard to get used to and I think that part of it had to do with there being two authors. Not only that, but I feel like I didn't get to know either of the characters until after the scavenger hunt ended. Of course, once I did, I did feel like I was able to relate to them. I just wish we could have gotten to know them a little bit better earlier on in the book.

One of the things that I did like about the book, was that I think Erica and Autumn moved between Imogen and Seth's sections seamlessly. Many authors struggle with this transition, but I think that they did a great job. They went from one scene to the next without explaining everything that the other character already talked about.

Unfortunately, there were some parts that were a little repetitive. I understand the urgency and tension that comes with Imogen moving Sunday morning, but she talks about it A LOT! More often than not, I wanted to skim over some of her later chapters because it felt like she just kept thinking the same thing over and over again and it got to be really annoying.

Of course, that brings me to my next point. I was not a fan of the short nature of the book. The fact that the entire book spans over the course of less than three days really bothered me. Especially because I would have like to have seen more of what happened on Sunday. Plus, it would have been nice to get an epilogue of some kind. I won't give away any spoilers, but I definitely have some unanswered questions.

Overall, I don't think that I would recommend this book. I think it was a great idea for a story, but I think that it could have been executed a little better. Maybe if Erica and Autumn reworked some of the descriptions and the dialogue, I might change my mind. However, at this time, I'm not a huge fan and sadly, this book has turned me off from reading their other books that I had previously added to my wishlist.

If you're interested in purchasing this book, you can find it here

Have you read Chasing Polaris? I would love to hear what you thought about it in the comments!

* This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I'll receive some type of commission. For more information, you can read our full disclosure here. *

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