Kristina Circelli’s Review of Sand Dollar at Amazon

Posted on July 25, 2012

A Story of Love Across Time

★★★★

** spoiler alert ** “First of all, Sebastian Cole has the coolest freakin author name ever. I am jealous, and seriously considering stealing his name for a book character. Sebastian Cole. How can a name like that not produce an awesome book?

But I digress. Sand Dollar is not my usual read, and being the cynic I am, there were parts I had trouble getting through. Noah’s language, for one. Do men really talk like that? Do they really show such public displays of emotion? I don’t know.

I also felt like his love for Robin, at times, felt forced because I don’t really understand why he loved her. She was a pretty awful person for most of the book, and he wasted a lot of his life essentially being her stalker. Again, I’m a cynic, so this kind of fairy-tale love is a hard concept for me to grasp. But hey, it’s a story, so I went with it.

BUT, things changed at the end. In a good way. I was really interested in the revelation about Robin’s condition, and while I still think she was pretty crappy most of the time, I started to sympathize a bit more. I was also happy to see their reunion mainly because it pissed off Noah’s family so much (seriously, Miriam is a terrible person. I have no love for her at all).

One of the reasons I gave Sand Dollar a 4-star rating is because of the end. When a book makes me feel a range of emotions – even if one of those emotions is completely hating a character and then deciding maybe she’s not so bad after all, or that another is creepy and desperate but in the end simply an embodiment of true love – then that’s a good thing. I’m still not sure if I fully came around to liking Robin, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing because, like I said, I like the emotions that came from the book. I finished the book pleased with the way it ended and imagining Noah and Robin’s new life in heaven.

Speaking of heaven, I knew this book was about God going into it based on the reviews. I was a little hesitant because I’m not exactly a religious folk. I do love stories of epic battles between heaven and Hell, angels versus demons, but lighter love stories with God? Not really my thing. I am happy to say that the religious undertones are very slight, and that Cole tells the story with God in a way that isn’t preachy or corny. It’s simply a man’s first and last conversation with God, and it works well.” — Kristina Circelli