Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – What the Carpenter Saw
Author – Vicki Reese
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
No. of Pages – 143

Cover – Intriguing
POV – 3rd person, dual POV
Would I read it again – Maybe

Genre – LGBT, Contemporary, Crime, Romance, MM, Military, Disability


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine


This was a cute little who-dun-it, with a dash of romance splashed in.

For me, the story was lacking was in a few places -
the crime aspect was a little over the top
the dreaded “I'm useless, don't belong and have no purpose in life” aspect of Jake's injuries
the romance was too fast. Though not insta-love, it was definitely insta-lust, with not much of the deeper emotions (example: Jake finds a man unconscious, bloody and incapacitated. His first thought is “he was absolutely gorgeous”)

As a person who is disabled and in a wheelchair, for distances, I hate when a character is disabled suddenly, usually through war, and suddenly has this completely negative attitude. There are times where Jake grudgingly accepts that he's better off than others, but he's also pessimistic, thinks he's useless because of his disabilities and gets mad at anyone who even remotely hints at not wanting him or thinking him incapable. He uses his disabilities as an excuse for a lot. Worse still, EVERYONE in this story – no matter how major or minor – is either in a rush to defend Jake when insults are thrown, as though he needs protected, or gives sly glances at his injuries in a silent “can you do this” and “are you capable” manner. Not to mention the repeated and horrid mentions of the word “gimp”. It's something so rude and obnoxious that I wouldn't mention it if the bad guys were the only ones using it, but Jake uses it against himself so often that it really grated on my last nerve.

Jake was a good character, but the fatal flaw that made this a 3 star for me, was the total lack of respect that he exhibited for himself and, honestly, it was so severe and so brutal that I began to wonder if the author felt that way or if they were just trying extra hard to show just *how* disabled he really was, by constantly throwing it in our faces.

There was also far too much emphasis, at the beginning of the story, of Jake being in the Middle East and being disabled. Everything had been specially adapted, everyone kept looking, he bristled if someone so much as looked at his arm or leg...it got a little repetitive for a while. As did the whole “you live in the stratosphere” excuses that he used to keep Alex at bay, while using his disabilities as an excuse for them to not be together.

Alex and Rachel were good characters, and they had far less of a problem with Jake's disability and much more personality than some of the other characters.

Writing wise, there were quite a few places were people had long paragraphs of speech or actual monologues (looking at you bad guys) without mentioning who was talking. It got confusing in places, unless the person talking mentioned someone else by name.

Oh, and if you're looking for something steamy, this isn't that kind of story. Though there is mild swearing (mostly from Rachel and once from Elizabeth), the story tries almost too hard to keep it clean. I mean, the murder, the swearing and the sex are all off page and as neat as possible. There's nothing messy in the plot that's actually shown in detail. I'm including sex scenes in that. In fact, certain anatomical references (see what I did there) aren't mentioned until 1 singular paragraph about 78% of the way in.

The villains were a little weak on the “believable motive” side of things and the murder bordered on incredulous, since it wasn't really needed, except perhaps to provide some sort of validation for the other crimes and allow for a vindication at the end, with someone facing serious consequences for their actions.

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Overall, this felt like a short story that had been eeked out far too long, to make it into novella/novel length. If there was less of an exaggeration about the criminal aspect, there would have been more room for emotional growth and chemistry between Alex and Jake. As it is, though this was a decent read – a who-dun-it with 80's over-done flair and enough romance to keep me interested – it was all just a little predictable.