The Vine Cross, S.P. Dawes

Hayley is on the run from her life, choices, and circumstances. As a chef, she works side-by-side with Rob, the brother of the man she will eventually fall for, Detective Jesse Hallam. While Hallam is busy trying to solve a string of murders (the girls who, coincidentally or not, resemble Hayley), he does his best to keep an eye on Hayley while sorting through his own issues. A good plot, with an open end for more to come.

Unfortunately, The Vine Cross fails regarding grammar, punctuation, spelling, telling rather than showing, and pacing. When an author interchanges a characters name (what starts out as Liam then turns to Leon) or confuses the spelling of a Margherita pizza with an alcoholic drink, margarita, I find myself in almost a running joke to count how many mistakes there are; this is unfortunate because S P Dawes has a gift for storytelling. The story, for me, was lost through its lack of editing.

To be clear - I struggled with giving this rating because I know more than most the difficulty (read blood, sweat, and tears) it takes to complete and publish a book and less-than-good reviews sting. However, I'm flummoxed that Dawes doesn't value editing more for as many books as they have released. This is an example of how indie authors get a bad rap.

If you can get past the poor writing, you will likely enjoy the Vine Cross.