The Beginning of End's Beginning by Charlean Fletcher

From the Publisher

Life has never been easy for Sharla Fisher. Hardworking and strong-willed, she has little time or patience for friends. She saves her affections for her mother and her older brother, Jerry, a professional sports phenom.

After graduating from high school, Sharla and her family plan a vacation to celebrate, but at the last minute, Sharla is offered a promotion at work and she stays behind. It is a decision that will forever change her life.

Her family is killed in a car accident while on the trip, and Sharla is left to fend for herself. Hardened by life, she struggles to find people she can trust. This becomes even trickier when Sharla realizes just how much money her brother left her.

Even after she meets the charming Richard Crane, she remains uncertain about ever opening her heart. And the more people find out about her money, the more difficult everything becomes.

My Take

Reading the description of this book on Dorrance Media’s website, it sounded intriguing. Everything included in the description actually does happen in the book---Sharla definitely had a hard life growing up, going without many things since her mother didn’t make much money. She also had almost an estranged relationship with her sister and other brother but loved her older brother, Jerry. Sharla’s high school years were very bumpy as many are in a small town—cliques of girls shunned her (quite traumatic to a teenager), even her cousins.

Sharla is lucky enough to get a job with the telephone company two towns away during her summers. She becomes a hard working and dedicated employee so when she’s offered a promotion, she reluctantly gives up her family vacation in order to work. While her family is driving to their destination, they are involved in a horrible car accident that kills them all. For some reason, her older brother, Jerry, had proactively set his financial house in order before the vacation and Sharla inherits his immense fortune.

After the death of her family, Sharla begins her plan of revenge on all those people who snubbed her and attacked her during her young life. The only thing she is missing in her life is love and emotional attachment. She won’t allow anyone into her heart or life for fear they will turn against her. Even when Sharla meets Richard, she can’t fully commit her emotions to him. His family finds out about the fortune she inherited and everyone wants a hand-out. Sharla steps up her complicated retaliation plan with the help of Richard’s father and they set the wheels in motion.

I have to say this was a difficult book to read for several reasons, the first of which was the size. In an 8.5x11 format, it was cumbersome to hold unless you were sitting at a table. The actual writing was very stilted with no contractions used—people don’t talk that stilted or formal, especially in the region where the story takes place.

It wasn’t easy to determine the point in time when the story took place. The discussion of becoming a telephone operator and extensive use of Greyhound buses leads the reader to believe maybe the era was the 1950’s or 1960’s. At one point, Sharla sells her family’s home for $36,000. Even in today’s economy, that’s a very low value for a home. On the flip side, there was discussion of CD players, cell phones, and laptops which implies a current time frame.  I found it very confusing not knowing the period of the story.

Another problem in reading the book was the editing. There are numerous edit errors involving punctuation, sentence structure, and quotation of the character’s discussions. Most of them could be ignored without impacting the storyline. However, when it comes to where the quotation marks were missing or out of place, it was hard to follow the conversation.

There were other issues with the writing style, but I think you get the idea. As for the plot of the book, sometimes I wondered where it was heading. I’m not sure there was really an obvious climax and resolution. After reaching the end of the book, I was left feeling disappointed—was that it? Where was the conclusion to all the loose ends?

Unfortunately, I’m going to have to give this book a 2 out of 5.

About the Author

Charlean Fletcher is retired and currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the mother of one son, Shawn, who encouraged her to write The Beginning of End’s Beginning, her first book.  Charlean worked for the telephone company which gave her insight to her character.

Authors: Charlean Fletcher
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
Published Date: 2010-06-30
ISBN-10: 1434907201
ISBN-13: 9781434907202

I received this book free from Dorrance Publishing as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."