I Mean You No Harm by Beth Castrodale {Book Review}

I requested this book on NetGalley, my first book to be approved on the site.

For those not familiar with NetGalley:

NetGalley helps publishers and authors promote digital review copies to book advocates and industry professionals. Publishers make digital review copies and audiobooks available for the NetGalley community to discover, request, read, and review.

I’m so happy about the fact that they offer audiobooks because it’s just easier to finish books on the go.

I was interested in I Mean You No Harm after reading the blurb and believed it would be a good book. Sadly, it didn’t live up to expectations I had.

DISCLAIMER: This review could contain possible spoilers based on my opinions. All opinions and views are my own.

Book Review: I Mean You No Harm by Beth Castrodale #bookreview #bibliophile #BookAddict #bookworm #BookAholic #netgalley
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Plot:

Unemployed artist, Layla, has sent most of her life estranged from her father Vic and haunted by the mysterious death of her mother.

When Vic dies, Layla learns of her inheritance of his ill-earned money. Vic’s other daughter, Bette, tries to convince Layla to take the money.

When the two women go on a country road trip together, they start to mend their relationship, but soon Layla finds herself entangled in an unsettled score between her father and a man who knows more about Layla’s mother’s death than he should.

Thoughts:

The book had a slow pace that didn’t feel like it was going anywhere. It dragged all the way to the last quarter of the book when there was finally some action.

The plot was hollow with missing excitement.

Not all the pieces of information in the book fell into places and there was some context missing.

There are two storylines running along side each other and they are easy to follow along, with a few similarities to tie them together.

The themes in the book are about family, grief, revenge and choices. It lacked the depth and emotional connection, even when the most difficult situations were highlighted.

Of all the characters in the book, I only connected to Jake, even though he wasn’t exactly a main character, his appearances in the book were the only ones I truly enjoyed. Layla came across as emotionally dead, even when she was hit with the truth about her half-sister, Bette. I couldn’t connect with her on any level and that’s sad as she was the main focus in the book.

In the beginning of the book, there were a bunch of names and people thrown around in the story and there was no real explanation to who they were and what their importance was to be mentioned, and felt like a space filler to add a few extra pages to the story.

The climax of the book was far-fetched and the ending was rounded off to a happy ending, which wasn’t believable when looking at how easily a very difficult situation was concluded.