I need to give up on Amazon customer reviews. Too many times I have been convinced to buy a book based upon glowing reviews from readers and too often I've felt that they must be written by the friends and family of the author. Maybe my taste just differs from others, but when I read these reviews, I need to see what other kinds of recommendations they give. I feel I was certainly mislead by the reviews for this book.
Cross Currents takes place on a small island in Thailand right before the tsunami hits. In fact 9/10ths of the book is before the big event. During that time, we meet all the characters and we love them all because they are perfect, and in turn, they all love each other. Part of what bothered me about the book was the narrator's point of view. The author tells us how every character feels and what they are thinking all the time. Perhaps I prefer books where the author leaves it up to me to determine how the character feels based upon his words or actions rather than being told these things. So the book just didn't work for me. The only thing that kept me reading to the end was to find out who lives and who dies in the tsunami. And by the end, I really didn't care all that much. - June
