After reading the book, An Amazing Story, by Carlo Gabbi, I find myself mostly disappointed. That is not to say that the book did not have its merits.

To summarize, the book is a work of fiction, based in part on actual memoirs. It begins with Bill relating how he came about receiving the scrapbooks and diaries from his niece, Dolores. The rest of the story accounts Dolores through a good portion of her life and the trials she endured.  Beginning in her native Brazil, to California where her mother moved the family and remarried, then Australia, it relays the sexual molestation by her step-father, to her life as a high-class prostitute, and on to her chance meeting with Thomas- a man she finds herself falling in love with.

Let me start out by saying this book is in need of some serious editing. Normally, I do not focus on these things too greatly, but in this case it ruined the book for me as it was overwhelmingly distracting. The book went from first person point of view, to third person, and then back again. It was done, not in a way to spin the story between the characters or add narrative, but as an error. It also jumped from past tense to present tense often. I found words that needed to be capitalized, or that were and shouldn’t have been. There were several commas needed, or were inappropriately placed. There were many grammatical errors such as: an/a, there/their, has/had, etc. The grammar and spelling needed to be checked as well, as there were misspellings, partial words, and some words made plural that should not have been. The book also got off to a very slow start. It wasn’t until the third chapter that I found myself interested in reading. There were a few dead spots where I lost interest. I feel this book should be listed or targeted as a fictional memoir, instead of romantic fiction, and stick to the first person to keep the significance.

After saying that, the trials that Dolores endured were both heart-breaking and overwhelming. I found her very relatable. The author has an extensive vocabulary, which allowed the reader to become more engaged in the storyline. Readers can take from this book a greater knowledge of other cultures through America, Brazil, and Australia. With some tweaking, editing, and a change of genre, this book could do well.

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The above review was contributed by:  Kelly Moran: Kelly is an author of three published books and recipient of an Editors Choice Award for Outstanding Achievement in 1993 as well as inducted into the Who's Who book of American's 2006 edition. She is also an avid reader. To read Kelly's reviews Click Here