Review: The Good Samaritan by R.C. Boldt
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Synopsis:
The biggest story of her life is the one he wants to hide.
I’m homeless by choice.
I have no intention of returning to my former life after what I’ve done.
This—living among the filth and discarded remnants of others—is what I deserve.
As atonement for my sins, I give back; I help those who cannot help themselves. But it’s always under the guise of anonymity.
Newspaper headlines throughout the city are clamoring to discover my identity. Including the beautiful woman who manages to see through my “armor.”
She has the capability to put my entire life at risk.
Review:
*Warning: Spoilers ahead
Everything I have read from this author I have absolutely loved so when I saw she had a new book coming out I was super excited to start reading. Only...the story wasn't as good as I had hoped. Really there is this other author whose first book I enjoyed so I tried some more of her work and I really don't care for the writing style. Everything else I have read of this other author was just underwhelming and while reading The Good Samaritan I kept thinking to myself why did I start reading this other author's book? I know I don't like her writing style...only to remember it is not the other author it is this one. Which was odd. Because I have always enjoyed her writing before but this story did not read like her other books.
This is the story of Faith, a journalist who has some secrets and needs to save up more for those secrets. Now she has the opportunity to write a story on the good Samaritan people say is helping people around the area. Someone is doing nice things, helping people without asking for anything in return. And if she figures out who this person is and names him in an article she will get a 3% raise!
Jude is a guy living on the streets who helps people. He doesn't want anything in return, but if he sees you are in trouble or need something he will do what he can to help. Most of the times without you even knowing he is doing it. He feels incredibly guilty about something that happened and this is how he is atoning. Only it will never be enough.
So Jude and Faith run into each other a few times when Faith is in some tricky situations and Jude helps her out. First her car runs out of gas in a not good area of town and he goes to get gas for her so she doesn't have to leave her car. Then he saves her from getting raped and after that they start talking more. Spending more time together. Because after that Jude is determined to keep her safe no matter what. And Faith tells him a lot about herself and this mystery person she is trying to find who is helping people...kind of like Jude helped her...only she NEVER once thinks it could be him. Why? I have no idea. I guess because she is a sucky journalist. I mean this guy literally helped you out of some binds just like people keep reporting and you ask if he knows who the mystery person is and he is weird about it and you don't think even for a second maybe it is him? The guy who literally helped you and didn't want anything in return? Really? Cause yeah. Okay. Sounds good. I'm sure you are great and digging up all kinds of stuff on your stories...
So Faith being a bit dense was issue number one. My second issue? She NEEDED the 3% pay raise to help her with her secret. She needs $64,000 - yes sixty-four thousand!! - so she can do what she needs to do. And apparently, this 3% raise is what will make it so she can get what she needs. Her $64,000. Which doesn't add up. Do the math on that. Really. Because journalists don't get paid a ton - the national average is $46,000/year and she lives in Cleveland so I am sure she is not making bank. Really my research showed the highest-paid journalists were in DC at $76,000/year. So let's assume she makes $50k - 3% raise would be $1,500 more a year pre-tax. $1,500. She needs $64,000. Yeah, that is magically going to make it so you can immediately get what you need...I mean really. An extra maybe $100 a month is all you need? Maybe sixty-four hundred that would make sense. But thousands? 3% is like nothing. It will still take you forever to save up for that. So her going on about how she needs this raise and how she has to figure this out didn't make sense. I said something about it to my husband how the lady wants this 3% raise so she can save $64,000 and he immediately laughed and said well that math just doesn't add up. 3% raise is nothing. Yep. So her whole have to do this because I need the cash doesn't make sense if you actually think about it (yes, years of working retail and getting raises made me very aware of how it usually is almost nothing by the time I got my paycheck).
Okay, so besides that whole money thing I was curious to see what Jude was atoning for. I have read a lot of books where people feel guilty when someone dies when they are not responsible, but like they were at a party and called the person to come pick them up and on the way to get them the person died or something like that. Where they are not directly involved, but feel like if they hadn't have done whatever than the person would still be alive. Which I get. But Jude? When it was revealed what happened to the people he feels guilty about? Oh, I rolled my eyes so hard. Because it was soooooo lame. It didn't even make sense how he could blame himself except that toxic masculinity means you should be able to save all women everywhere even when you are halfway around the world. Because you are a man and men save women no matter what. Even if they literally are not even nearby or had anything to do with what happened. Somehow you should still save the poor little women. Ugh. I mean sure, maybe I can see where he could think that, but...I don't know. I was expecting more. Especially from this author.
So besides these things in the plot that I didn't like I also didn't see a connection between these two. I didn't care about these characters at all because it was written in a way that was really kind of detached and not my favorite. It felt more like I was being told everything that happened, but not really seeing it. Which didn't work for me. I was really disappointed in this read. I know I might not like every book from an author, but for me this one didn't even read like one of this authors books. Hopefully I will enjoy her next one more.
Rating: ★ ★
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