Return to Sender by Fern Michaels

Return to Sender by Fern Michaels was a huge disappointment. Given the reputation of Fern Michaels I was expecting a wonderful story with great characters. I didn’t find any of those things. The female lead of the story, who I think Michaels intended to be its protagonist, is so set on vengeance she sells out the scruples she has, but then only takes one action you could actually consider as “bad”. Her attempt at vengeance is hollow and unreal and most of what she does is harmless. I found it hard to feel any real emotion for her character. I just didn’t care what happened to her. When the story started to change enough for me to try to like her, I found I still couldn’t bring myself to get truly involved in the story.

 
Return to Sender by Fern Michaels, copyright 2010 by MRK Productions, Fern Michaels is a Registered Trademark of First Draft, Inc., published by Kensington Publishing Corp., 119 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018, ISBN 978-0-7582-1273-3

The poor guy the female lead is out to get vengeance on is dying from cancer and married to a conniving witch who wants him dead , so you can’t help but feel sorry for him, even if he is a jerk. Makes the female lead’s crap hard to take. Even though the guy’s character is flat one  you can at least feel a touch of sympathy for him. You know the guy is deathly ill, but she doesn’t. I guess there’s a lesson about the foolishness of vengeance in all that, but it’s lost in a bad storyline.

More than halfway through the book the book a promising love interest develops for the lead female character, but by this point, you’re not sure if you really want her to have a “happily ever after”. Problem is you can’t like her, can’t hate her, and definitely can’t sympathize with her.

The characters in Return to Sender are not rounded out. They are totally lacking in any depth and for the most part fall into stereotypical categories. The female lead is the wronged woman looking for revenge. The son is a stellar student studying to be a veterinarian. The poor guy she’s out to get revenge on is the hard-hearted, rich, CEO of a multi-million corporation and so on. Every last character is so stereotypical you are able to predict the end of the story from the beginning. Not something I wanted to waste my time reading. I advise you don’t either.

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