Waiting in the Wings by J.A. Armstrong

Waiting in the Wings
by J.A. Armstrong
Pages: 146
Date: October 4 2016
Publisher: Self
Series: Off Screen (7)

Review
Rating: 3.5
Read: October 17 2016

The Off Screen stories have been my second favorite series by Armstrong, and I was quite excited when I spotted a new one appear after a longish while with me not knowing if the series was done or not.

Unfortunately, though, I feel/felt that this was the weakest of the 7 stories. Mostly because of all the talking. And repetition. I mentioned in my updates that nothing had happened by the 32% mark. Mostly Emma being happy to be a mother (which was neat in and of itself, and not the issue), and Addison being whiny and very insecure. Very. Repeatedly. Over and over again. Beating herself up for being herself.

Well, the point of the story is that Emma is not working now, as an actress (and is, instead, working as a mother), and while she misses acting, she doesn’t miss the fame/questions/reporters/photographers that come with it. Meanwhile Addy is feeling the need to get back into doing things. But is very insecure, because her success came through writing a love story for/involving Emma. And now she’ll have to try to do something without Emma at the center of the story.

And that’s basically the story. Emma likes being a mother. Addy is very insecure. Some movement in Addy’s career is going on. And Addy’s father is back in the picture, and the issues involved with that.

One of my biggest problems with the story is the part where a lot of the ‘angst’ in the story isn’t new. Addy has been insecure, she has been antsy. She has had issues with her father. Yet, here we are again. Okay, no, the biggest problem I had with the story is how many words were needed to convey the ‘angst’, and how often the issue had to be repeatedly mentioned. It seemed as if everyone had to be beaten over the head about the issues. A kind of ‘what do you mean what do you mean *boink* oooh, I never thought of that!’ experience that many characters had to go through. Sometimes several times.

As I put in my last status update: holy crap. Now Emma's going around telling everyone the bloody simple issue that everyone's all kind of like 'wha? What’re you talking about . . .ooooohhh'. For . . something . . sake. talking talking talking. This is the 7th bloody story. Were there no new ideas? This isn't a new idea. It's an old idea - in this series I mean.

Right. So. One of the reasons that I rated this story as highly as I did (3.5, high, low?), was because the author is quite good at tugging on my emotions. Even, on occasion, causing a tiny bit of something that might be or appear to be some kind of watery substance near my eyes. Yes, that’s right, the author makes me wet. My eyeballs I mean. Though I had to read a lot to get to that point of wetness. Hmm. Moist eyeballs.

October 26 2016