Friday 11 May 2012

Opening Up - Rochelle Campbell

Bronwyn Mitchell walks out of her marriage when her husband walks in to their home with another woman suggesting a threesome to spice things up. Leaving behind a palatial home, she moves to a condo in Brooklyn and starts to evaluate her life.

Part of that evaluation makes her wonder about Troy, an ex-fiance. To her amazement she bumps into him and the sparks fly again. The only problem is that he's married with children but temptation proves too much.

Demanding that she sorts out her life, her best friend May-May suggests she visit a book shop called Changes. It's a self-help book store that houses a varied set of titles all about developing the self. There she bumps into a surly shop assistant and is encouraged to join a meditation class.

With the help of Rhea, a life coach, May-May and Bronwyn's spirit guide Amagdalene, Bronwyn begins the road to discovery of who she is and what life choices she can take to make herself truly happy.

I found that overall, this is a good story even if the writing is a little stilted. I found that I couldn't connect with Bronwyn's character. She seemed a very contradictory person (whether on purpose or not is hard to tell) - would someone who is divorcing their husband sleep with them? A lot of her 'dreams' from her meditations and meetings with her spirit guide sometimes seemed forgotten in the next chapter which added to the stiffness of some chapters. The timeline isn't very clear which certainly doesn't make for bad novel, but the lack of clarity sometimes left me with a 'have I missed something' feeling?

Certain aspects of Bronwyn's life happened too easily and made it less believable. However, everything isn't plain sailing and she does receive a few hard lessons along the way to enlightenment. The second half of this story is far more interesting because of Amagdalene. She isn't described in detail but the words she speaks are profound and meaningful which is why I enjoyed this part a lot more.  All in all it's an enjoyable story.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. The opinions expressed are my own and I am not required to give a positive review.

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