Mesa Legend

Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: Features

If I learned one thing from Jason Wright's, "The Wednesday Letters," it would be to never assume a book is good simply because it has been slapped with a New York Times Bestseller label.

The book wasn't terrible but the dialogue was bland, the characters were unrealistic and the plot was highly predictable.

The book mimics Nicholas Sparks, "The Notebook" so much I was surprised Sparks hadn't sued Wright for plagiarism.

The book takes place at the bed and breakfast of Jack and Laurel Cooper, nestled deep in the valley of the Shenandoah Mountains.

It follows the aftermath of the sudden death of Jack and Laurel, who "romantically" die in each others arms in just the first few pages. The book goes downhill from there.

The story then turns to the grown children they left behind.

After their parent's death, the three children gather together from the different lives they have made for themselves around the world, to mourn together and clean-up the mess caused by the unforeseen death of their parents.

Upon returning to their hometown the Cooper children find a box full of love letters written from their father to their mother on every single Wednesday, including one written the day of the couple's death. The letters unravel truths about their parents and family that they never expected to find.

The plot seems interesting enough but from the opening scene when both main characters die in each others arms, I was bored.

To me the idea of a husband and wife ironically dying at the exact same time was so improbable it interfered with my ability to focus on the plot following these sudden deaths.

Not only was the plot one that I felt had been done and re-done a dozen times by nearly every romantic novelist in the history of literature, but the dialogue was overly plain. It was as if the author was trying so hard to make the characters speech seem casual and real that he made their conversations frigid and improbable.

The book, although it did make its way onto the "New York Times Bestseller" list, was not one I personally deemed worthy of a thumbs-up. There were brief moments that captured my attention, but if you are looking for a classic, you won't find it in "The Wednesday Letters."

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