Review: Good first attempt, could use some improvements.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 22, 2013
Rating closer to 3.5 but I would rather not drag down the rating on this book since I am the first to review it here. This is a good book for what seems to be this authors firsts attempt though it could be better.The good... a few of the things I look for in a good book is dialogue and relationship development throughout the book not just at the end. Though things did progress a little too quickly after her first husbands death for me they needed to in order to keep the readers interest because of where the author chooses to begin her story. The authors attempts at dialogue were sometimes a little stilted and stiff but she is totally on the right track by including dialogue in her book. I appreciated that.Second and probably the strongest area in the book is the romance. As soon as they are married both characters begin working towards a working relationship in their own way. This is a clean read and all marital relations are fade to black which I also greatly appreciated. These are two elements in this book which are on the right track.The not so good... As I mentioned above the dialogue felt stilted and stiff at times. Near the beginning of the book particularly there is a lot of Ethan said... Cassie said... it tends to mess with the flow of the reading. The author tends to use the word "Realised" (spelled that way) a little too much as well as the word "real" (real good, real nice, etc). If the reader can pick up on repetitions like that then the writing could be improved to help the flow of the book.As far as the story line goes it a pretty typical historical plot. I actually don't have a problem with that. What make each book different is the direction the author chooses to take with the dialogue, the personality of the characters and their relationship development. The problem for me with this plot is that the word "contrived" kept coming to mind. The problems felt forced even though they were typical problems for that time period. The books is also a little shorter than typical but for this plot that was probably best that it wasn't stretched out.Overall I feel this was a good first attempt. Definitely worth at try for .99. I will be keeping my eye on this author and hope that her future writing only gets better. She is on the correct path and not making some of the usual mistakes that so many hopeful writers make.An example of what I consider a great author to look at for excellent dialogue and smooth writing is Sarah M Eden, FYI.