Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Posted by: harmonybookreviews on: January 3, 2009

• In: Book Reviews
• 13 Comments

 Title: Impossible

Author: Nancy Werlin

Rating: 8/10

Summary: (Taken from Amazon)

 Lucy has nine months to break an ancient curse in order to save both herself and her unborn daughter.

Inspired by the ballad “Scarborough Fair,” this riveting novel combines suspense, fantasy, and romance for an intensely page-turning and masterfully original tale.

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child’s birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won’t be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents and her childhood friend Zach beside her. Do they have love and strength enough to overcome an age-old evil?

My Thoughts: Impossible had me hooked from the start. I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I’d seen glowing reviews and also not so glowing reviews, but as I finished the Prologue, I knew I was going to like it. I was right.

From the start, I found Lucy a character I could relate to, despite the fact that I had never experienced many of the things she was going through. Zach was someone who made me want to giggle with joy, he was just that awesome. Lucy’s foster parents were even people I would have wanted to know.

However, there are two things that kept me from rating this 10/10.

One was the fact that the first half of the novel and the second half seemed like completely different books. The first half was the build-up, Lucy finding out what was going on and everything, but it also revolved around Lucy, Zach and her friends as well. It flowed nicely and I enjoyed the even mix of the romance, friendship, and action. Then came the second half. EVERYTHING revolved around the baby. Sure, there was a wedding thrown in the mix and some other little scenes but they were mostly over looked. Now, I realize that the action had to pick up, I really do, but to me, it felt like these could have been two completely separate books and I wish the action and romance had been spread more evenly throughout the whole novel.

The second was the spacing of events. Three chapters would be spent on just one day and then a few weeks/a month would be skipped and there’d be all these changes in the character but no reason why. I realize that with a novel covering over nine months you can’t have a chapter for every day but I just wish the spacing had been just a tad bit more even, so that the characters’ development could have been more obvious and not so random.

Despite those few issues, I definitely enjoyed this and look forward to reading Werlin’s previous and forthcoming novels.