Official Review: What Happened Last Year by Jaci Resor

[Delaney35]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "What Happened Last Year" by Jaci Resor.]

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1 out of 4 stars

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What Happened Last Year by Jaci Resor is a story of heartbreak and love. Eva lost her husband, Darren, last year. She had no idea what happened to him. He disappeared without a trace, and everyone believed that he had died. Eva decided that she would hire someone to help her run her farm, and a man named Daryl accepted the position. Unbeknownst to Eva, Daryl is her husband, but he can’t tell her. He had escaped from a group of kidnappers. They are in jail, but he is hiding, nonetheless.

The premise of this book sounded promising: a man hiding from a group of criminals who went home to try and comfort his grieving wife. However, the execution was extremely poor. The writing was a mess. I spotted more than ten errors in the first chapter alone. They weren’t small errors either; there were misspelled words, missing words, and all kinds of punctuation errors. Most of them would have been caught by a word processing system or online grammar checker.

In addition to the grammatical issues, the writing wasn’t interesting. There was almost no descriptive language. Instead, Resor stated what was happening.

The characters were also incredibly flat. Eva was a stereotypical damsel in distress. She spent the entire book pining away for Darren, even though an entire year had passed since he had disappeared. She also ended up sleeping with Daryl before she that knew he was Darren. She fell for the first man she had contact with, even though she claimed she still was madly in love with her husband. Darren also wasn’t an interesting character. He had escaped from a year of being tortured by a group of criminals. However, there was no mention of any damage to him other than a few scars. If Resor had gone into the psychological ramifications of the torture, Darren could have been an interesting character. Instead, Resor only mentioned a few physical scars and nothing else.

Overall, I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. The summary made this book sound promising. However, there are a plethora of issues with it. For such a short book, there are a disconcerting number of errors. In its current state, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone; I especially would caution against younger readers because of the sexual content. If this book was carefully edited, it might be a fun, short read. However, it is not worth suffering through in its current state.

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What Happened Last Year
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[Ngozi Onyibor]

Wow! I'm bemused. Did Darren get a facial transplant or something; what wife will not recognize her husband after a one year absence?

[Rachel Lea]

I agree that the initial premise for this book sounds very interesting. It's unfortunate that the execution was done poorly. Thanks for your review!

[kandscreeley]

It sounds like the idea behind this is a good one. Unfortunately, it needs some work. The errors would be overwhelming, and I don't like being told instead of shown. All in all, I'll pass. I do hope the author can take your suggestions to heart. Thanks.

[Magnify3]

Wow! I'm bemused. Did Darren get a facial transplant or something; what wife will not recognize her husband after a one year absence?

I couldn't agree more. I too was wondering what exactly was different about Darren after one year that his wife couldn't recognize him.

[Thehorselover]

Wow, I’m gonna have to take notes from you! Your review is so descriptive, lengthy, and to the point at the same time. I’m a beginner reviewer and need all the tips I can get, thanks!

[Erin Dydek]

Thanks for the Review! I had considered picking this book because it looked interesting and sounded like a good story. You saved me a lot of disappointment. Sorry it turned out to have so many issues!

[Delaney35]

Wow! I'm bemused. Did Darren get a facial transplant or something; what wife will not recognize her husband after a one year absence?

Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either. I think the author tried to imply that the torture somehow wore him down and changed his demeanor enough to make him seem different. Thanks for commenting.

[Delaney35]

I agree that the initial premise for this book sounds very interesting. It's unfortunate that the execution was done poorly. Thanks for your review!

The summary did interest me, which is why I chose it, and I think with some major edits it could be a fun read. Thanks for commenting!

[Delaney35]

It sounds like the idea behind this is a good one. Unfortunately, it needs some work. The errors would be overwhelming, and I don't like being told instead of shown. All in all, I'll pass. I do hope the author can take your suggestions to heart. Thanks.

It does need work. I feel like it was written and not edited at all. Thanks for commenting!

[Delaney35]

Wow, I’m gonna have to take notes from you! Your review is so descriptive, lengthy, and to the point at the same time. I’m a beginner reviewer and need all the tips I can get, thanks!

Thank you so much! I know when I first started off on this site I read so many reviews to try and figure out the best way to go about them. It just takes practice.

[Delaney35]

Thanks for the Review! I had considered picking this book because it looked interesting and sounded like a good story. You saved me a lot of disappointment. Sorry it turned out to have so many issues!

Thanks for commenting!

[Meg98]

Wow! I'm bemused. Did Darren get a facial transplant or something; what wife will not recognize her husband after a one year absence?

My thoughts exactly! How bizarre for an author to write... I am definitely passing on this story. Thanks for your honest and great review!

[Bhaskins]

Wow! I'm bemused. Did Darren get a facial transplant or something; what wife will not recognize her husband after a one year absence?

This was all I could think of reading this review! How did she not know?

[Laila Hashem]

The book has a very unique and interesting plotline. Unfortunately, spelling errors are something I could never tolerate when reading a novel so I probably won't add it to my reading list. Thanks for the great review!