Sweet, Shattered Dreams

I was excited to dive into the next book by West sitting in my library stack.  Unfortunately, it was nowhere near as intriguing as Amos. 

Of course, like anyone, I like reading about places I've been or lived.  And this book took place about ten miles from my home.  It was fun to read the name of the grocery store where I go a few times a month, and to picture the ranch nestled up by the mountains.

However, the writing felt more forced.  I loved the lyrical, almost poetry-like passages in parts of Amos.  That same style felt awkward to me in this book.  The plot seemed interesting at first.  The story is about a washed-up country singer who, through a series of circumstances, is assumed to be dead but is in fact not.  He goes into hiding to try to find a way to make a life under an assumed name and finds the perfect place to hole up - a ranch in Big Sky country.  The various cast of characters were somewhat redeeming.  However, the love story part of the book just made me irritated.  It seemed so unrealistic.  I knew almost exactly what was going to happen before it began to unfold.

Overall, it was an okay book.  The familiarity and interesting characters brought alot, but weren't enough to overpower the trite story line and forced poetic passages.