Review: Odd character descriptions
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 07 3, 2012
This book is about Amalie, the Lady of Hedingham and Sir Weston, knight of Bolingbroke. Amalie is left behind to fend for herself against his enemies after her cowardly brother escapes the wrath of Bolingbroke's knights by fleeing Hedingham Castle.The story opens with a rather gruesome scene that brings great shame to Amalie. Amalie is in a dark place afterward and makes several attempts on her life. Sir Weston does all he can to thwart her suicide and finds himself becoming more and more attracted to her because of her great beauty. Normally a woman like Amalie would never have Weston's respect, but he finds he is able to overlook her faults as he falls in love.I found this story difficult to stay focused on. The font is extremely small and light so it's difficult to read on my Kindle. The descriptions of the characters are kind of off-putting as well. Amalie is described as this almost ethereal beauty who is first defiant, then weak, then pathetic, then strong again--while Weston is described over and over as being large, huge, enormous, big, etc. It almost makes him seem like a caricature. I kept envisioning this clown-like oddly proportioned individual when I read the repeated descriptions of his size. Every single scene involving Weston included a new way to describe how huge his feet, hands, shoulders, chest, body part du jour were before getting on with the action. The syrupy sweet interaction between Weston and Amalie was also overdone. He continuously called her his angel, and they avoided arguments and disagreements. In the rare instance when they did have a disagreement Weston immediately jumped to action to make it up to Amalie.I also noticed how wording was frequently off. Women instead of woman was used in reference to Amalie multiple times, and sometimes words were completely left out of sentences or used in the wrong tense. These types of errors distract me from reading and cause my focus to shift from the story.Unfortunately, I just did not enjoy this story. It looks like a few other reviewers did, and that is wonderful. We all aren't going to enjoy the same thing. I just felt potential readers might want to see an opposing review as well.