Author: Michele Paige Holmes
All the Stars in Heaven is the story of Jay, a 28-year-old law student, who has succeeded in putting his troubled past behind him. When he meets Sarah, a 24-year-old Harvard freshman (just suspend disbelief), he feels a magnetic pull towards her. The problem? Sarah's father, the chief of police in a neighboring suburb, whose overprotectiveness long ago crossed the line from a little weird to downright pathological. She's never watched tv, never been on a date, never seen a movie. What she has done is bought lots of drugs for her father's undercover task force, become a musical virtuoso, and lived in the literal shadow of her cousin Carl, who (creepily) lusts after her and follows her everywhere.
The book is equal parts somewhat schmoopy love story (although less so than others I've read) and nail-biting suspense. Here's where I get confused. The book is classified in the romance section. So far I've read two other romances, Illuminations of the Heart and Santa Maybe. You know how I felt about Illuminations of the Heart. Santa Maybe was a cute book, and a straightforward romance, but it wasn't nearly as complicated or compelling as All the Stars in Heaven. But what made it compelling was the suspense, not the romance. I was genuinely surprised by the ending, and kept reading because I wanted to. I've also read three of the books in the mystery/suspense category, and All the Stars in Heaven had an equivalent amount of romance and better suspense than two of the books in that category: Methods of Madness and Lockdown. So what's a voter to do? Do we vote for All the Stars in Heaven because it's a better book overall, even if what makes it better is outside of the category in which it was nominated? I still have two more books to read in the category, so maybe it's a moot point.
Emily, I know you're out there, what do you think?
1 comment:
Okay, that is exactly what I have wondered about with this book, and I agree with all of your points here. I kept reading for the suspense, which was excellent. The romantic element was there, and it was fine, but I would not have classified this book as a romance. I think that it must have been a publisher's decision--they wanted to market it as a romance, so they named it "All the Stars in Heaven" instead of something more mystery/suspense sounding.
My instinct says to vote for the better book, even if what makes it better is not category-specific. And I do think it's the best one in the Romance category so far.
I don't know though--should we only be judging it on its romantic elements? And would it win based solely on those?
Maybe it would still. Because Sarah and Jay are more interesting characters, in my opinion, than the Santa Maybe/Previously Engaged Ones. The Santa Maybe folks are likable, but you don't get the sense of depth/layers that you do with Sarah and Jay.
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