review: all my restless life to live by dee detarsio

Elle is a writer/producer for a low-budget soap opera, so she needs a computer for her job. When hers dies, she asks to borrow her deceased dad’s laptop, but her mom bizarrely refuses saying that it’s part of a shrine to him. Elle takes it anyway and then starts believing her dad is trying to communicate through it. This leads to Elle fainting and going to the hospital where she meets an attractive doctor.

Although the setup was good, the characters, including Elle, weren’t fully developed which made it difficult to become invested. Elle’s relationship with Quez (the doctor) was so instantaneous that it didn’t quite make sense when they felt compelled to really work through their issues. And while I could see that Dee DeTarsio was trying to create parallels between Elle’s life and the soap opera scenes she wrote, the connections weren’t clear enough to actually work. And those soap opera scenes went on for way too long, especially considering how little they ended up having to do with All My Restless Life to Live.
3/5
Review copy provided by BookSparks PR.