OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "American Charity" by Ian C. Dawkins Moore.]

In the romance-based novel, American Charity, author Ian C. Dawkins Moore follows the journey of a young African woman who desperately searches for her missing husband in a foreign country.

Set in the early to mid-1990s, Charity Anasie supports Conrad's, her husband, decision to further his eduction in the United States. As Charity waits in her African hometown, Accra, Ghana for Conrad, she receives a disturbing message from him. So disturbing it forces her to leave her job at the Ghanaian Government and travel to a foreign country, the U.S., in order to find and bring him back to safety. Along the way, Charity hopes the array of people she meets will lead her to her one true love.

The plot and characters of this book are intriguing. Following Charity's journey in search for her love throughout the different parts of America shows great bravery and strength. Not everyone would leave the comfort of their own country to search for someone. This kept me wondering if the couple will meet again. The characters she meets on her travels are diverse and make a nice addition to the plot.

There are some technical issues throughout this book that need to be noted. Firstly, there are several occasions where punctuation is either missing or placed incorrectly. For example, the quote "“What's section 8”?" (pg. 247) is a direct question in a dialogue. The question mark should be placed before the second quotation, not after. Another example is the statement, “She sipped cautiously then almost chokes.' ” (pg. 326). This sentence is not a quote, and therefore, there is no need for the apostrophe at the end. Secondly, there are times when letters and/or words are missing or placed awkwardly in sentences which made reading confusing at times. For instance, “….they only smoke it because the it's illegal?” (pg.386) Just by reading this question, it is unclear what the people are smoking. Thirdly, there are times when the main character's last name is misspelled. Anasie is the correct spelling, and the author spells it 'Andasie' a couple of times (pgs. 317 and 380).

In addition, the pacing of this novel could have been better. I understand the people providing assistance to Charity is significant to the story, but I did feel that the ending of the book could have come a little sooner. I felt the author perhaps got caught up in trying to show many diverse Americans that he lost some of the romance aspect to the novel. I don't want to mention any spoilers, but there is also a part of the story that isn't discussed. With it being a romance novel, I would have liked this aspect to be at least acknowledged in some way. When the ending arrived, the pace seemed extremely quick and almost felt like it came from a different book.

It was very difficult to rate American Charity. The plot and characters were interesting and the story definitely has a good foundation. However, due to the amount of errors, the pacing, and ending I have to rate this book a 2 out of 4 stars. I would still recommend this book for those who enjoy stories about brave women and can look past the errors and somewhat awkward pacing while reading. There is a good story in there!

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American Charity
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Like hsimone's review? Post a comment saying so!

Thank you for the great and insightful review. I saw this book on the list, but it didn't seem like my cup of tea. I'm glad you found some aspects of it interesting.

Hmmm...sounds like a hastily published book to me. But the story *does* sound interesting. Thanks for the review.

gali wrote:Thank you for the great and insightful review. I saw this book on the list, but it didn't seem like my cup of tea. I'm glad you found some aspects of it interesting.

Thank you, gali! I questioned it at first, but after some thinking, I was curious enough to try it. There is definitely a good premise here for a great book with some tweaking!

-- 16 May 2016, 18:32 --

Eatsleaves wrote:Hmmm...sounds like a hastily published book to me. But the story *does* sound interesting. Thanks for the review.

Thank you, Eatsleaves! I agree with the hasty publishing of this book. It's too bad, too. I really liked the premise the author came up with.

I love the idea of the book. It's too bad there are grammar and pacing issues.

Great, balanced review. I find it very frustrating to read a book with numerous, serious technical errors. They are distracting and give the feel of a book that is "not ready for prime time." It's particularly annoying when the premise of the story is good because I feel the errors stain a story that could be really good.

Rachaelamb1 wrote:I love the idea of the book. It's too bad there are grammar and pacing issues.

I feel the same exact way!

-- 17 May 2016, 10:25 --

bookowlie wrote:Great, balanced review. I find it very frustrating to read a book with numerous, serious technical errors. They are distracting and give the feel of a book that is "not ready for prime time." It's particularly annoying when the premise of the story is good because I feel the errors stain a story that could be really good.

Thank you, bookowlie! I 100% agree. A grammar mistake here and there doesn't distract me too much, but when I stop keeping count after the first couple of chapters, it's a bit much. Hopefully, either this book is edited and republished or the author finds someone else to edit his next book. It would be a shame to lose out on potential readers due to grammatical and pacing issues.