A THOUSAND PARDONS by Jonathan Dee

I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher.

When Ben Armstead's midlife crisis leads to a lawsuit and his family falls apart, each member must learn to reinvent themselves and figure out to forgive and move on.  Helen Armstead moves from being a housewife to being a successful PR consultant. Her daughter, Sara, begins to assert her independence and establish her own identity outside of her family.  Ben must come to terms with his poor judgement and decisions and figure out how to move forward.  Filled with themes of forgiveness and redemption, this story follows a family in the midst of a crisis and their ultimate recovery from it.

This short little book is hard to describe successfully.  The characters were interesting and I loved Dee's themes of forgiveness and redemption but the whole book felt too undeveloped to be truly successful.  If Dee had given the story 400 pages rather than 200 in which to develop, I think it would have worked better. As it is, it felt a little superficial.  Just scratching the surface of the what these characters are capable of and what they are going through. The end of the book felt especially rushed and seemed to end very abruptly.  I understand what Dee was attempting to do but it didn't quite get there.

BOTTOM LINE: Not recommended. A great effort that just missed the mark. I look forward, though, to seeing future books by Dee.