Always Another Book in the TBR

I have struggled with what to rate this novel. I read (okay, inhaled) [b:Grease Monkey Jive|16150838|Grease Monkey Jive|Ainslie Paton|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1353040965s/16150838.jpg|21986955]. I was ecstatic to find another Paton book in my Kindle library.

I clicked on it and dove in, no blurb reading nor nothin'.

And then, a letdown ensued. One of the things I liked about GMJ was it was edited. It had words spelled correctly. And, oh, look, punctuation was used correctly and effectively. This allows me to inhale a book, not to have my attention drawn to the lesser aspects, like misspellings, commas where no comma should ever be, and a complete and total lack of continuity.

Turning Tables had issues in this area. I had 34 misspellings, egregious punctuation issues, serious run-on sentence issues and just plain WTH moments in the first 57% of the book.
I almost put it down at that point. Not because I wasn't enjoying the book, enjoying the characters, enjoying the situations, no, it was because it was just plain irritating to read through some of the mish-mash. I would be wallowing in a scene, and WHAM, a sentence popped in, maybe not even an important sentence, that I would end up rereading time after time just to figure it out.

But just as I was about to DNF it, a gentle peace came over me and I just plowed on probably because I was in the bath -- guilty pleasure, Kindle in the tub -- and if I DNF it, I would have to relax without a book. Not happening.

Anyway, at 57% I decided to let go and let Ainslie. And I am pretty glad I did.

Ms. Paton has a way of writing (even when poorly edited) that is evocative of sight, smell, even sound. There is a bath scene (hmmm, maybe it was fate I was in the tub when I hit this portion), where Ms. Paton describes a towel from a second, okay, maybe third, rate hotel. And then I knew, just knew, I would keep reading. It brought to me the smell of that towel, the feel of the towel on my body. It brought to me the smell of that bathroom. Ms. Paton also describes the room of the hotel that she is in, the honeymoon suite all in lilac. Again, her use of the color lilac created its own sense of place. Casual references to the lilac toilet just seemed to fit, to bring the whole place into clear view.

Yeah, I know that is a seemingly silly example of Ms. Paton's writing ability, but that wasn't the only time in this book I was transported to the place that our characters were.

There are situational issues with the book, like this situation while theoretically possible is not likely to happen with the "character" of this character; the viability of the book's resolution was a little hinky. There were some white collar "Norma Rae" moments that were fun and enjoyable. There were some big MIS issues that were a tad annoying.

But overall, it was a good book. I am glad I plowed through. The editing issues, well, I may be more of a stickler than most because of my career, and they may not bother the vast majority of readers. I can't really speak to that. But I can speak to Ms. Paton's ability to paint a picture, a scene that will bring a situation into sharp relief, allowing you to feel what is happening to those in the book. I went with a three-star rating as opposed to a two, but I feel that some would easily go to four or five based on the story itself.