Robin Yeatman – coming soon in 2023
Victoria is given to flights of fancy. An active imagination – it’s a gift, right? A positive attribute?
Sometimes it’s an escape.
Massage therapist, reader of fiction, creator of stories (whether she realizes it or not), and wife of the supercilious Eric, Victoria does not show up for herself. Instead, she escapes into the stories she creates, and even we, the readers, can’t always tell whether a story is more than a flight of fancy. Is she really leaving her body at night for astral assignations with her potential lover?
Author Robin Yeatman is clever; in creating a heroine who likely has qualities shared by readers of Bookworm, she has made it much easier for us to connect with Victoria; after all, who among us has not created an entire imaginary daydream story, sparked by who knows what?
After a slightly too-rushed first chapter, the narrative is fascinating and engaging, with a couple of weak points: there’s no plausible reason given for Victoria’s complete lack of assertion with anyone in her family. No one has threatened physical harm and there’s no evidence of past trauma – yet things are so backwards that when Victoria is thinking of leaving Eric, she broaches the possibility with, of all people, Eric’s mother. Because she refuses to assert herself, Victoria channels her anger and resentment into continued, desperate murder plots that always somehow fail, all while smiling her calm ‘spa girl’ smile and keeping a low profile.
Regardless, this was an effortless and intriguing read, with a clever ending in which Victoria’s best friend Holly plays a large part. Victoria’s infatuation with the mysterious Luke is interesting; who hasn’t built a fantasy around someone, then had to face a flawed reality? (Poor Luke; one fears for his safety if he doesn’t live up to the fantasy.)
Luke is secondary though; the true tension that drives the plot and pulls the reader along is Victoria’s tenacious fantasy of killing Eric. You’ll have to read the book to find out if fantasy turns to reality – and you’ll enjoy the read.