What was the author thinking?

I don’t understand why the author decided to leave out 1/3 of the book. The book seem to be missing the beginning of the book. Closer to a second book of a series. The character desperately needed some kind of backstory or introduction. I could possibly tolerate the lack of a backstory if the beginning of the book had exciting action. Even that was truncated. The only reason I gave this book two stars is because I like the narrator. I’m going to try to see if I can return this book for credit. Not sure if I’ll be able to since I’ve had an unlucky string of returning books the last few months.