This is a report from the reader dragged helplessly through this story like a boot tied to a speeding car's bumper. On to #2! ( )

Blue Days is about Dwyer Knolls and Takeo Hiroyuki, both who work at Sakura, a corporation that deals with acquiring property as investments. The story is told in first person through Dwyer’s eyes.



This is the first Mary Calmes book I’ve read. I wasn’t sure what to expect since there seemed to be many mixed reviews for this story. I think the blurb is slightly misleading as to the friendship between Dwyer and Takeo by the time they make it to Mangrove, Florida. I wouldn’t say their friendship is ‘tentative’ so much as pretty well established, they just hadn’t acted on their attraction until they arrived at the B&B.

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself so I’ll backtrack a bit. I don’t usually like first person pov but I did like Dwyer’s voice and got a feel for his personality right away. Takeo on the other hand was confusing. Up until they arrived at the B&B, he seemed unsure, demure almost. He was very socially awkward which I found unusual, because I didn’t think it had anything to do with him being Japanese, but because he might have a mental disability. He was controlling at work but I got the impression it was more because he didn’t want to make a mistake that I guessed had something to do with his father. But as soon as Takeo and Dwyer hit the sheets, his personality totally changed to being very aggressive, even more demanding almost hostile. Red flags popped up and it made me wonder if he was actually an abuser. At times he’d shift back to the needy, demure personality. It was unsettling to have his personality flip-flop so frequently towards the end. I ended up not liking him as a character and couldn’t see what Dwyer liked about him. If Takeo had stayed pretty much the same as in the beginning and blossomed into a more open more relaxed person, I would’ve liked him better.

I know this is a short story but I feel like it needed to be fleshed out better. It travels over a three year time span and the only way we know time has passed is because Dwyer will say something to indicate the passage of time. I felt cheated a bit, but the story didn’t seem rushed until the end. Also the conversations between Takeo and Dwyer at the end left me feeling lost. It felt like the author knew the dialogue in her head, but was giving the readers only part of the conversation and we had to piece it together. The conversations felt incomplete and without the feels I wanted between the couple.

I was completely surprised when the story ended on page sixty-nine of my Nook when it reads as having eighty-four pages. Skipping the bio, those last fifteen pages were filled with advertising, which sucked. There again I felt cheated with the story.

I don’t mind reading a short story, but if I do, I don’t want it to end up with an undeveloped plot. The flip-flop personality of Takeo was confusing, as was his and Dwyer’s dialogue towards the end. I liked Dwyer, but he wasn’t enough to offset the minuses in the storyline. I’ll read the next book in the series to see if the author continues on with this type of incomplete and rushed writing. If so, then I won’t be buying the rest of the series. In the end, I can only give Blue Days 3 Stars.

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