Review: Then … You by Nicole Petrino-Salter

Review: Then … You by Nicole Petrino-Salter

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I must admit, as much as I adore reading, romance is a genre that I have sorely neglected. Because of that, I had some anxiety regarding how I would feel and react to this story.

Overall, having gone through it, I admit that I have lukewarm feelings about it. I think the main idea behind the story has interesting parts to it, but I do see problems with how certain aspects of the narrative are executed.

Before getting into it further, let’s get a summary for the story.

Summary

The story opens to a young woman named Jenna-Leigh Maddox knocking on a stranger’s door seeking refuge from her abusive boyfriend. The stranger, Stone Wall, lets her in, not realizing that this small action is about to change both of their lives forever.

As Jenna spends more time there and she and Stone get to know each other, they find that there may be something more to this meeting as they begin to grow closer.

However, with Jenna’s ex-boyfriend still on the prowl and Stone’s mysterious job demanding more and more time from him, will their budding relationship be able to survive?

Thoughts

As I said before, I have mixed feelings. I can see that there is a lot of passion in the way this story is told, and there were moments where I felt moved by the story, mainly when it involved the two leads’ families or friends. However, I do have some issues with how Jenna and Stone are portrayed. I’ll discuss them in the next section.

The main reason I feel the way I do is because of how quickly this narrative moves. In any story, some speed is necessary to keep the reader engaged, so normally this wouldn’t be an issue. However, this story is a romance, and too much speed in a story in this genre can present problems given the relationships that carry the narrative. I also feel like there is a plot line that is neglected in this story. I’ll explain what that means in the structure section.  

Before I do, though, let’s talk about some of the characters! 

Characters

Jenna-Leigh Maddox

If I am being honest with myself, I must admit that I have some problems with Jenna. I do see positives about her – her resolve in leaving her abusive ex-boyfriend, her clear care and compassion for Stone’s family despite only knowing them a short time – but those positives are undercut by a glaring problem: how quickly she falls in love again after leaving her ex. This is where things moved too quickly.

First, very shortly after meeting Stone she realizes her attraction to him, which has positive aspects in terms of building the plot, but if the relationship is not executed at the proper pace, it may not work. I feel like Jenna’s previous relationship isn’t given the proper grieving period it deserves, and that makes me feel uneasy about what she is getting into. I would have – at the very least – liked to see her mourn her previous relationship knowing she cannot go back to it for her own safety. I wanted to see her grieving over her decisions, even when they are the right ones, because sometimes even the right decisions hurt to make. Perhaps Stone could help her get through it and in turn that helps establish her relationship with him. This could help both how these characters are presented and the plot they are involved in because the pacing of their relationship could slow down a bit as a result.

Stone Wall

I have questions about Stone. I think if these questions were answered I would feel better about him as a character. I’ll explain that in the structure section. Before I do so, I want to talk about some positive traits of his character. His courage certainly counts as one of those positives. His resolve to go back to a job that he knows is dangerous – despite having just found someone he cares about – because he knows it is the right thing to do is awesome. His clear care for his family and friends is fantastic, and his family is just wonderful!

However, despite those positives, there are certain things Stone does in the story that were setting off alarm bells for me. While it is nice that Stone is willing to protect and help Jenna, there are certain aspects of his personality that, to me, come off as going too far, to the point of almost seeming possessive. I do not think the behavior is intended to come across that way, but I admit that certain things that he said left a bad taste in my mouth. These moments did not occur often, but when they did come up, I admit that it didn’t feel right.  

Structure

As I hinted before, there were things about the structure of the narrative that bothered me. The time during which it feels like this relationship grows feels too short. I honestly believe more time is necessary to show the main relationship develop. Perhaps to the two leads it could feel like less time than a few months, but for the narrative to actually establish that it did occur that quickly makes me feel uneasy. I’m only questioning the central relationship more, and I don’t want to.

On the other side of things, I wanted to see more of Stone’s job. We don’t get a lot of information on his position, and it is built up to be very significant. Even if that information can’t be conveyed to Jenna, we see him dealing with work without her. I would have liked some more information about what he does because it is built up as something massive. What evil is he fighting? What does all this mean for the wider world? Why is this so secretive that messages can only be conveyed in code to loved ones? How do his family and friends tie into this? I wanted so much more from this angle than what was shown, and I feel like only giving vague hints about it both hurt the structure of the story and left out a huge part of his character, which is disappointing.  

Writing

The writing for this story also presents some problems in terms of repetition. This mainly shows up when the characters pray. Jenna and Stone only pray to God when they are by themselves, showing the response the prayer session gives them shortly after starting it. This technique became stale after a while, to the point where it felt difficult to get through. I don’t have an issue with characters being religious, but I do wish that there had been different scenarios showing their relationship with God, instead of just the same format used where they pray silently, and they are answered. And it doesn’t even mean that the first format must be dropped entirely, either.

Perhaps showing them asking the questions to God, but then not showing the answer they receive and instead having their body language convey their reaction to the response, would help in terms of keeping up that pacing when it’s just the characters alone with their thoughts. I also don’t think it’s a bad idea to see Jenna take Stone to church as well, presenting a different environment while still showing a connection to God. Stone is established as something of a recluse in the beginning – having Jenna take him out for this when they both have free time could be very meaningful to their relationship and provide something new for the reader to see.

Conclusion

I wish I didn’t have such mixed feelings about this story. I see interesting elements and the building blocks of a fulfilling narrative. However, in my eyes, the execution of certain elements needs work for this to be completely satisfying.

It just didn’t work for me the way that I had hoped it would. In the end, I am afraid I can only give it two stars.