Emma Scott - A Five-Minute Life

Thea Hughes has five minutes to live.
A car accident stole her parents and left her with the second-worst documented case of amnesia in the world. She now has only minutes of experiences, of consciousness, of life…before her memory is wiped clean. The once effervescent artist with a promising future is reduced to scribbling with pens and paper, living an empty, quiet life, three hundred seconds at a time.
Jim Whelan is on autopilot.
A foster kid shuffled around the system since birth, he’s lived his entire life without knowing love…and it’s taken its toll—until he learned to fight back, carry his armor, and keep his head down.
Working as an orderly in the Blue Ridge Sanitarium, deep in Virginia countryside, Jim looked up…and found Thea.
When Thea has the chance to break free of her five-minute prison with a risky, experimental surgery, it could lead them both to an epic love they never thought possible… or one that could require the ultimate sacrifice.

Comment: Back in May I've read a book by this author which I had been curious about and it turned out to be a little less amazing than what I envisioned. I was slightly wary of this one now but, thankfully, it went a much more appealing way for me.

In this book we meet Jim Whelan, a young man who has had a terrible childhood and youth years, especially when he was at the house of some of his foster families. His last one, before he could legally leave on his own, was particularly bad. Jim also has a stutter and he dreams of being a therapist to other kids like he was but he works as an orderly and when that job ended, he applied to a similar one in a sanitarium for patients with brain damage. That is how he meets Thea Hughes, also a young woman, seemingly just like any other, but who also has a terrible amnesia condition, a result of a car crash where her parents died. Thea can only maintain focus and memories for five minutes but as the days go by, Jim can't avoid being interested in wanting to help her and his attempt to do so might be much more important than what anyone would think but is there any hope to have Thea in his life while she is trapped in this condition?

Again, I liked the theme of this story as I had with the other book by the author I had tried. But this time, it felt as if the structure of this story was better developed and I was a lot more invested in what was happening and how the author would go from one point to another in a realistic way. I don't think it's a surprise to say the goal is to help Thea gain better skills at regaining or keeping her memories, although the final solution is more fictional than realistic.

Nevertheless, the amnesia problem Thea has is very real and I can't help but think it's so unfair, as Alzheimer for instance is unfair, and it's not easy nor possible at this time, scientifically and medically, to cure it. I think the author must have done considerable research on this condition and others affecting memory because what was shared feels it was done in a competent way. If one reads on the subject, most of the information does seem to be important and I was curious to see how this would be applied to Thea and how we would see it on the page.

In order to make this a romance novel, however, it's understandable the amount of pages where we see Thea having this issue and dealing with it, as do the other people around her, couldn't extend for that long so the story is divided into three parts, being the first where we see this issue and how it affects Jim seeing Thea this way, and then two other sections where they become friends and lovers and there's a physical and emotional journey for them.

Jim is fascinating character, he's been through a lot of struggles but he also reads as if he's a bit too perfect. I think the author tried to downplay his character a little, making him vulnerable and having had a bad childhood, but there were times I think he was just too good and had a mental strength which isn't certainly easy to cope with, especially when Thea seems to reach a point where a solution just doesn't feel likely to happen to her. Of course this is fiction and Jim can be whatever the author wanted and I did like he was such a good person but sometimes he was too good.

Perhaps the first person narrator was part of why I had this impression. Most of the story is told by Jim, with Thea having some chapters too, and this clearly colors how we see them as well. I liked the first part of the story the best, while Thea is in treatment, while nothing seems possible to be solved but we get small glimpses of them both. At the time, Thea was hard to read but I enjoyed seeing her through Jim's eyes and how compassionate, I admit, he always acted towards her.

Closer to the end of the book, the drama reaches a heavy level and I have to say Thea did act a bit irresponsibly but it's also true one must bear in mind what she was living with and the knowledge she wasn't certain she could be cured. I liked how much she wanted her freedom, her art and all the things that help us be who we are and happy as we want to feel. I was sorry she was going through such a thing but I also think the way the final parts of the story were done was really just to increase the drama.

Not to be worried, though, things do end in a happy mode, and before that of course all the things we wish that could be solved for our protagonists are done or close to it. I feel that, for me, part of why this wasn't better is the repetitiveness of some situations - and I'm not taking about the ones related to Thea's amnesia, those were actually my favorite parts - and the fact that Jim was a bit too perfect and some details as the story was reaching its conclusion happened too easily, comparing to the huge task which was the set up.

Despite this, the story had plenty of heartbreaking and heartwarming scenes and I was rooting for things to be well for the couple in the end. I think the theme was quite original, pretty close to that movie with Drew Barrymore where she also has a type of permanent amnesia, and it was very interesting to learn a few things. This more positive experience does leave me calmer about trying other books by the author.

Grade: 7/10

Emma Scott - The Butterfly Project

At age fourteen, Zelda Rossi witnessed the unthinkable, and has spent the last ten years hardening her heart against the guilt and grief. She channels her pain into her art: a dystopian graphic novel where vigilantes travel back in time to stop heinous crimes—like child abduction—before they happen. Zelda pitches her graphic novel to several big-time comic book publishers in New York City, only to have her hopes crash and burn. Circumstances leave her stranded in an unfamiliar city, and in an embarrassing moment of weakness, she meets a guarded young man with a past he’d do anything to change...
Beckett Copeland spent two years in prison for armed robbery, and is now struggling to keep his head above water. A bike messenger by day, he speeds around New York City, riding fast and hard but going nowhere, his criminal record holding him back almost as much as the guilt of his crime.
Zelda and Beckett form a grudging alliance of survival, and in between their stubborn clash of wills, they slowly begin to provide each other with the warmth of forgiveness, healing, and maybe even love. But when Zelda and Beckett come face to face with their pasts, they must choose to hold on to the guilt and regret that bind them, or let go and open their hearts for a shot at happiness.
The Butterfly Project is a novel that reveals the power of forgiveness, and how even the smallest decisions of the heart can—like the flutter of a butterfly’s wings—create currents that strengthen into gale winds, altering the course of a life forever.

Comment: Counting this one, I had added three books by this author to my TBR. All seem to have great premises and blurbs and I've seen some GR friends have liked them too. I've started with this one simply because it was the first one of those three to have been published.

In this story we meet Zelda Rossi, a young woman who still lives with the grief and guilt of having lost her younger sister ten years ago. Zelda feels responsible because she couldn't make a fast decision and her sister was kidnapped by a man who was later convicted and arrested. Now Zelda copes the only way she can and her coming books art is what made her come to NY to try the publishing houses. However, things don't go well in that regard and she ends up being robbed at the hostel where she stayed. That same night she randomly meets Beckett, a waiter at a restaurant and after a chance decision, they become roommates.

Beckett Copeland has his own grief and guilt to deal with, after a robbery gone wrong, a man had a heart attack and he feels responsible. Now having the convicted label isn't easy even if his parole officer is a good and optimist guy. Sharing space with Zelda should be just one more good action to counterbalance his guilt but it turns out they are more than similar guilt stories...

At first, this was full of angst. Both main characters were feeling down on their luck and as if the world could not be good for them, but at the same time part of them felt they deserved it. I can understand this feeling and angst level and while it made things feel rather bleak, I was still invested in seeing how their journey would go and what kind of decisions they would make.

The characters' circumstances were hard to imagine and obviously everyone would have different reactions to the same events, but I felt rather sympathetic towards them, imagining that my moral code code would have been similar, were I to face something like them. I do think the author has made it easy for the reader to commiserate and the subjects dealt with were specific but realistic enough to create a certain vibe for this book. Zelda and Beckett seemed a bit too good to be true at times, personality wise, but I was looking for to see how their luck would improve.

However, I must say that despite the more positive aspects, I feel the choice of writing this in first person, with alternate chapters from both Beckett and Zelda's POV, wasn't the best decision. I have said many times and will repeat it, that it's really difficult to write good romance in first person, mostly because of the inner thoughts and dialogue - how can we believe people think like that in their heads? - and here it wasn't exception. I rooted for these two but after a few chapters I was already annoyed at the way they talked and thought and I couldn't turn off my dislike.

Zelda did feel a little whiny from a certain moment on. I can certainly appreciate her sense of guilt and how she felt she had to cope - by putting distance between the place where it all happened  - but we are told her family is doing well. Coping, dealing with mourning in a seemingly healthy way, not putting blame on Zelda. I kept thinking that, despite your own emotions, why such negative reaction to the rest of the family, if they had been punishing to her, perhaps, but if not...

As for Beckett, I suppose I could understand him better, he didn't want to rob anyone, and with some mates they were caught by the couple whose house they broke into, causing the man to have a heart attack.He keeps this image in his head, as well as the face of the widow, to whom he writes, not to ask forgiveness but as a way to apologize. I liked Beckett, and his quiet nature and thought process felt more appealing to me but I believe his romance with Zelda was nor presented in the best way it could, nor did it fascinate me. I actually skipped the love scenes because I didn't see the chemistry they were supposed to have.

Closer to the end, some situations are wrapped up in a slightly too convenient way. Had the story been more balanced or more romantic to me, this would probably feel more natural or sweet but the word that comes to mind is cheesy. The story isn't bad but I feel the whole potential wasn't executed in the best way and some details felt unimpressive. 

I still have two books to read, but now I'm wary of them, if the writing style (likely) is the same, my only hope is on the characters' development...

Grade: 6/10