Sam's Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson

This is my very first review, and I must regretfully warn you that this book is hardly worthy of being my first review. However, I realized that I already reviewed it accidentally on my personal blog. Thus, in order to actually review something here, I shall post this:

I don't know if any of you have read any of James Patterson's novels, but this was my first. It was listed among the New York Times' Best Selling Paperbacks in the Sunday paper, so I assumed it was going to be good. Plus, James Patterson is an experienced novelist with tons of best sellers. I guess I was disappointed. I can't even describe it. I felt like I was reading mediocre online fiction. The narrator is mourning the loss of her husband, but the only reason I know this is because she says so. Then, she falls for a childhood friend with whom she had lost touch, but the only reason I know they're in love is because she says so. What happened to "show, don't tell?"

Jennifer is a columnist for the Tribune in Chicago. A year or so prior, her husband was killed in a surfing mishap in Oahu. We pick up the story just as Jennifer gets a call that her grandmother, Sam who is also Jen's best friend, has taken a fall and is now in a coma. While waiting for Sam to wake up, Jen stays in her grandma's house and finds dozens of letters addressed to her (Jen) from Sam. These letters tell Sam's story about love and loss and second chances, setting a nice backdrop for Jen's own "second chance," a romance with childhood friend, Brendan, a handsome doctor who is in town for an unspoken reason. But of course, there are hurdles and "unexpected" plot twists they need to overcome whilst Sam slumbers away, but these hurdles seem to require little effort. And some pet-rescuing is thrown in just in case you weren't convinced of Brendan's wonderfulness.

Where is Dodie Smith when you need her? And why doesn't they library have any of her other books?