Saving
Emma
by Maria Miller
Publisher: Maria Miller
Published: July 24, 2013
ASIN: B00E5MYPHS
Amazon Synopsis:
Emma is Luke's whole life. When she learns she has cancer,
she accepts the traditional treatment. Luke watches miserably as his wife deteriorates
slowly. Then he finds doctor who offers a different, unconventional treatment
that has been proven to work. But Luke finds it is not so easy to remove his
wife from her doctor's care. When he tries to take her out of the hospital, he
is stopped by security and then served a restraining order. Now Luke must fight
a legal battle for his right to save Emma.
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My Thoughts:
Saving
Emma begins with school bully Craig setting Luke, an often picked-on student up
with a date to the prom with Emma, another student who is often tormented at
school. Thanks to Craig's meddling however, Luke and Emma find they enjoy one
another's company. When Luke learns of Emma's abusive living situation with her
father, he determines to save her from it.
The
next few years are idyllic as Luke comes into an inheritance and starts his own
company imploding buildings. He and Emma have married and things couldn't be
better. Then he signs a contract with Hollywood to implode buildings for their
movies, which involves a lot of travel. It's then that things start to unravel.
Emma
is diagnosed with thyroid cancer. While most of his local business is being
taken care of by his local crews he is still obligated to travel wherever and
whenever Hollywood wants him in order to fulfill his contract. Unfortunately
much of that time is spent hanging around waiting for actors, weather, time of
day etc. before he can implode the building and return home.
Meanwhile
under doctor's care at home Emma deteriorates. Luke returns from one trip and
she is in the hospital, barely conscious. He has found an alternative treatment
that he thinks will cure her but the doctors will not let him take her out of
the hospital. Now he begins the fight to save her life.
The
author writes a realistic sounding battle waged between the medical system and
an individual with all the media hype thrown in. The reader can feel the
emotional pain that Luke experiences as both sides invoke legal strategies to
help win their cases.
I
think the author could tighten up her writing some, to make some parts of the
text less wordy and repetitive. There are several times in the book where the
author starts several sentences in a row with the word "he". These
sentences should be reworked so that perhaps one or more of them could be
combined if they are short or the name of the individual could be used instead
of the pronoun. This adds interest to the story. In other places the author
writes two or three short sentences one after the other that could be nicely
combined to make a more interesting, concise single sentence. Instead of "He turned to Emma. He reached across and put his hand
on her forehead."
It might be better to write "He reached across toward Emma and put his
hand on her forehead."
I
have to admit, I was disappointed with the ending of this book. I don't mind
books that let you know that there is more to come, but each book should have a
satisfying end to itself. I don't like it when books end with "To Be
Continued". It could have just been seeing these words that set my teeth
on edge. As I think about it, the ending as it stood without those three words
were a good indicator that something else was going to happen. I think perhaps
labelling Saving Emma as Book one of the ________ Series and leaving
"To Be Continued" off of the end of the last page would have done the
trick for me. As a first novel however,
I think that overall the author has done a fairly commendable job.
Saving Emma was a
delightful romance with the added contemporary medical issues of who decides on
the type of medical care (traditional or non-traditional) the patient should
receive. Should it be the doctors or the patient and the patient’s
guardians/caregivers?
I gave Saving Emma 3 stars out of 5. I would definitely consider reading more of her work.
Thank you to the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.
About
the Author:
I have a Bachelor's Degree in
English from Xavier University. I've always enjoyed reading and writing, but
mostly writing! I like to incorporate pieces of forgotten history in my novels
because sometimes the best history lessons are found in fiction novels. I like
to tell stories about human tragedies and speak for people who can no longer
speak for themselves. I'm an American girl, but I lived in Costa Rica for a
year and a half. I loved the fruit and the climate, but it was nothing like the
States. When I'm not writing or reviewing a book, I enjoy being with family.
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