Review - Hiding In Sunshine by John & Caitlin Stuart

Hiding in Sunshine by John Stuart
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
310 pages

Published October 30th 2012 by AuthorHouse (first published October 26th 2012) 

Source: Netgalley

 

 

Synopsis: 

 'This taut thriller follows a family’s eleven-year odyssey on the run under assumed identities, where survival skills are paramount, but so are friendship, cooperation, and resilience. HIDING IN SUNSHINE celebrates one family’s abiding courage in the face of abject treachery -- and a young girl’s faith in the triumph of the truth.'

My Thoughts:
This book had such potential to be a really great thriller. The cyber crime element is such a relevant issue for today but unfortunately it was just paced in such a slow and tedious manner that I had to literally force myself to keep reading and finish it.

I think I'm just not used to this type of writing style. I felt like I was reading a report or essay at some points. Some paragraphs were so conversational that it was like they were written in the way that people would talk when face to face with each other rather than in the usual story-telling format.

As for the main characters, well I found myself not connecting with any of them due to how stiff and impersonal they all seemed. No-one had any real endearing traits to relate to and they all seemed to be very stiff when talking to each other even though they were supposed to be a close family with no-one else left in the world to turn to except each other.

The entire book was just following the family around America as they tried to live under the radar after being threatened and put into witness protection. There was no real action to speak of and there definitely were no thriller elements that made me want to keep turning the pages.

I feel that it was such a shame that the writing style let this book down so much. It really did have all the plot elements of being a great story but just wasn't executed very well at all.