Impossible by Nancy Werlin
This was one of the two selections for book group this month, otherwise I can't say I'd have finished it, nor probably ever picked it up. Despite high reviews, I was disappointed.
Lucy is the latest daughter in a line of women cursed to get pregnant at 17 and go crazy promptly following the birth of her daughter. Cursed by an evil Elfin King who fell in love with her ancestor, the only knowledge of the spell the women are given is in a version of Scarborough Fair.
The book was irritatingly predictable. What twists were thrown in--the sexual assault that gets Lucy pregnant, a wedding at which 10 different religious clergy from a variety of religions attend--felt disjointed and odd. I couldn't connect with Lucy and reading felt like I was just waiting out pages to find out how they would overcome the three tasks outlined. Lucy found strong support from the boy next door and her foster parents, but in relying on them, she seemed to give over being an active heroine. And while the Elfin King hovered sinisterly in the background, the strange use of him as an adviser for teen fathers seemed really out of place.
Werlin did some interesting research into the history of the song but only gives her audience a taste of it while muddying the story with characters never fully developed and ones I just couldn't feel empathy with/for.
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