Jenny's Book Bag

I was looking forward to reading this after seeing that it was on the bestseller list and two people highly recommended it. There were a couple of things that I didn't like about this book. One, there wasn't enough of a plot or character development to move the story forward, so it relied heavily on backstories that were presented through long dialog. There was also a lot of trash talking about the coal mining companies.

Two, Samantha's character was unbelievable. We're supposed to believe that she's a highly intelligent Manhattan lawyer, but she's very insecure, indecisive and needed a lot of hand-holding because she didn't know what she's doing. She constantly needed the other lawyers to give her step-by-step instructions. Other characters mention how smart she is, but I thought their claim was unfounded. I found it hard to believe that she not only survived law school, but also three years at a Manhattan law firm making a six-digit salary.

I skimmed the last 70 pages, so if anything spectacular happened to make up for 300 pages of boredom, then I missed it.

This could have been a great story about the coal mining industry and coal mining families.