"One Moment in Time"

One Moment in Time by Shari Low

Pages: 300 Genre: romance

Rating: 2.5 Stars

Zara Jones has been working with her sister to plan the perfect anniversary trip for their parents: heading back to Vegas, where they got married. She even managed to find their old friends who were present on the original trip, thanks to their son, Aiden. What Zara and her sister don't realize, though, is that their mom Brenda is planning on divorcing her husband. Will going back to the start of it all help mend old wounds, or will it drive the knife in deeper?

I'll start with the positives. I liked some of the characters, and the plot was at least intersecting enough for me to want to finish the whole thing. Admittedly, I thought the book would lean more "literary fiction" than "romance," but that's my own fault for not checking before reading.

Unfortunately, the downsides were significantly more abundant. Everything was painfully obvious other than What Originally Happened, to a point where I stopped caring what it took to get us there. When I say this story would've benefitted from not being a romance, I mean that it should've had room to be imperfect. Let people be flawed or be single or not forgive others. Nobody had room to grow because they were trapped in a romance novel that only cared if the main characters would kiss or not.

The misogyny was also off the charts. All of the women cared about their appearance before all else. Eileen in particular (Aiden's mom) was only considered to be beautiful because she "doesn't age." I'm not going to waste my time explaining why it's bad to be perpetuating the idea that older women are only beautiful because they look young, as if a woman's worth is tied directly to their ability to appear young and sexually-desirable to men.

There was also an epidemic of hypocrisy, as characters' opinions would change rapidly depending on what the situation called for. We were being asked to take statements at face value and not question their validity even when there was textual evidence to contradict them. I was particularly bothered by Brenda's treatment of her husband: is he meant to come across as misogynistic and obnoxious, or is he just not a good match for Brenda? The answer changes depending on Brenda's feelings in the moment.

My main issues with One Moment in Time were accompanied by a variety of smaller things: Zara being clueless, everyone being way too nice, and poor comma usage are the notable ones. However, had the plot actually been worthwhile, I would've forgiven those issues.

This isn't a bad book, but it's one that had a lot of squandered potential to be better. Trying to fit this plot into the romance genre was like trying to fit a circle block through a square hole. Sure, you may do it on a technicality, but it would've been a deeper and more meaningful story if you'd just taken the time to find the right angle.

You can read some of the thoughts I had while reading here.