Review: The Rose Petal Beach

Synopsis

Every love story has a dangerous twist. Tamia Challey is horrified when her husband, Scott, is accused of something terrible – but when she discovers who his accuser is, everything goes into freefall. Backed into a corner and unsure what to think, Tamia is forced to choose who she instinctively believes. 

But Tamia's choice has dire consequences for all concerned, especially when matters take a tragic turn. Then a stranger arrives in town to sprinkle rose petals in the sea in memory of her lost loved one. 

This stranger carries with her shocking truths that will change the lives of everyone she meets, and will once again force Tamia to make some devastating choices...

Review

Tamia is a stay at home mum with a great life. When she finds out her husband has committed a horrific crime her world is turned upside down. The Rose Petal Beach has many voices, all female voices and for this reason to some extent it looses it edge. I would have preferred an alternative male voice.   At first it seems as though this is a book about marriage falling apart but, as the story progresses it becomes a book about the relationship between females.  Tamia is a decent central character that is as far as I can praise her. She is a doorstop, a pushover, the type of woman who never really deals with issues unless she is forced to and for this reason I didn't really warm to her.  I wanted her to stand up and she managers to do this at end. 


Koomsom asks so many questions from "what would you do if your husband was accused with a horrendous crime" to "would you look after your husband's mistress in your home if they were diagnosed with cancer". The problem was that so questions are asked and not all of them are dealt with sufficiently. There are too many plot twists from murder, affairs, miscarriages to sexuality reveals. It felt at times as though I was watching a very explosive episode of Eastenders. The frustrating aspect of this book was the fact that it could have been brilliant, it had all the elements to make turn it into masterpiece but it never reached its climax. It falls flat towards the end with revelations spanning from every angle.

There is no doubt that this book is page turner albeit a slow one. There are elements that work, Fleur is a great character, she is untouched and the most innocent. My favourite character strangely enough happened to be Scott because he was multifaceted, he had textures and flaws. He is at the beginning of the book a bit of a bastard, he cheats, lies and manipulates all the women around him but as the book progressed he attempts to rectify the mess he's created and it would be interesting to find out whether he manages to turn a new leaf.  The story moves at a slow pace with most things explored within an each eventually.

Was is a coincidence that the two villains of the book are white and the two seeming victims are black? I say this because there is a moment in the book where Tamia confronts her husband's mistress who is white. It made me question whether Tamia was ever comfortable with being a white man. Her type as she professes is Wade who is black and it seems as though she fell in love with Scott and over time he became her type. I brought this book a year ago and for some reason I found it very difficult to get into it however once I was halfway through I was captivated and found it impossible to put down.