Review: Surprise!  I Enjoyed It!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 12, 2012
Let me say right up front that romance novels are not my preferred genera.  I gave them up a long time ago when I got really irritated at how many of the heroines were portrayed - young, silly and stupidly innocent.  I don't like my heroines to be nothing but fluff.  She's got to have a mind of her own as well as enough backbone to stand up to the hero, at least, and never, ever should she stamp her little, slippered foot in a pique (insert revolted shudder here).  I don't mind a hero that's a little rough around the edges as long as he has a good heart.  If he's a total jerk right from the start, though, I have a hard time believing he'd develop any redeeming qualities even if they're demonstrated.So why did I read this one?  Being a writer myself, I was browsing books on writing when I saw Shannon's how-to on showing versus telling.  Since I always want to get a taste of the writing style of the person doing the teaching, I decided on this one mainly because it promised to be short and it didn't cost anything.  Finished it in one night, actually, and the ending even brought a few tears out of me it was so touching.  This is a sweet read with just enough sensual tension between the hero and heroine to keep it from being bland.  The romance part involved nothing more than a kiss or two, which I greatly appreciated.  That's another reason I gave up the typical romance novel.  The "love" scenes got in the way of the storytelling for me after a while.  I mean, you can only write that kind of stuff so many ways before it all sounds like, "Been there, done that."I plan to recommend Shannon's books to a friend of mine that enjoys regency romances and I'll be getting another one of her books as soon as I finish this review.