Would you BUY or PASS (8)?

My weekly contribution to Rosie Amber's Friday Five Challenge ~ if you know what it's all about, please go down to the line of red stars to see my choice for this week.  If not, please read on!

The Friday Five Challenge is an interesting exercise for writers ~ it shows the little things that can put potential readers off that click-buy.  We click on a book because the cover appeals to us, but can be put off a purchase by the blurb, the price, or the reviews.

Anyone with a blog can join in ~ here's what you do:

IN ONLY FIVE MINUTES….

1) Go to any online book supplier

2) Randomly choose a category

3) Speed through the book covers, choose one which instantly appeals

4) Read the book bio/description, and any other details

5) If there are reviews, check out a couple

6) Make an instant decision: would you BUY or PASS?

 
You can check out others' contributions on the #FridayFiveChallenge hashtag on Twitter, or see links at the end of this page.

********* 

This week, as it is holiday season and nearly August (which also means BIRTHDAY for me and fellow Leos!) I put the word AUGUST into the Amazon search, and the first cover that appealed to me was that of Enchanted August by Brenda Bowen

Analysis

Cover
Isn't it great?  It's the colours, the simplicity, the angles, the unusual arty feel ~ my eye was drawn to it straight away.

Price
The Kindle copy is £4.31 for 320 pages - on the pricey side for a Kindle book, but it's a decent length, and if I really, really wanted to read it I'd still buy at under a fiver.  Not available on Kindle Unlimited.

Blurb
Everyone needs a place like Hopewell Cottage – a romantic holiday rental on a small, sunny island.
For Rose and Lottie, it’s a refuge from the frenzy of the school gates.
For Beverly, it’s a chance to say goodbye to two lost loves.
And for disgraced movie star Caroline, it offers the anonymity she craves.
But on tiny Little Lost Island, with its cocktail parties, tennis matches and Ladies’ Association for Beautification, will they really find the answers to their very modern problems? 

Well, I don't know about you, but I think that sounds fab, just the sort of thing I'd like to take on holiday ~ a nice, easy, self-indulgent sort of book!

Reviews
I learned from the reviews that it's a retelling of a book called Enchanted April that came out in 1922.  Only two on Amazon UK, both 3*.  There are 55 on Amazon.com, but a fair few 2 and 3*, and most of them say that the characters are weak.

Would I BUY or PASS?
Alas, it's ended up as a PASS.  Even for £4.31, I was considering it.  It was the reviews that put me off - in any novel, for me, the characters are the most important thing, because if I don't care about them I don't care about the setting or the plot.  Shame - it looked promising!

Friday Five Challenge posts by others:

Rosie Amber visits the Jazz Age HERE
Between The Lines chooses a domestic travel memoir HERE
Shelley Wilson does scary wolves HERE 
Lost in a Book gets dead in Cornwall HERE