Review: Intriguing Premise and Engaging Characters
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 4, 2011
When I'm anxious I read, so this novella came into my inbox at the perfect time.  At first the tone of the story and the pacing is awkward and a little jumbled, I found myself just as confused as Natalie with what was going on even though I knew it had to do with the dimensional tear.  Later in the story Lorh explains why it was so weird and disconcerting, but on first reading it hurts the brain a little.I liked Natalie, I thought she was perfectly justified in her reaction to suddenly being tossed into a fantasy-esque world.  Hot guy or not, Lorh was infuriating.  He had to be, given the nature of the secret he carried, but he enjoyed it so much!  If I had been in Natalie's position I'm not sure I could have refrained from smacking him a few times.Kumar's writing hits its stride when we see things (in a third person way) from Lorh's angle.  She's careful not to reveal the big reveal when taking things from his perspective, but you could definitely feel his pain more acutely then when he's trading vagueness with Natalie.  His family were darlings, given more fleshing out then I thought would be possible all things considered.The secret itself was the only real drawback.  Well, I should say not so much the secret as the manner of it.  The inner nerd in me was chanting 'You can't do that!  Consequences! Spoilers!' which aren't fair statements to expect the story to live up to.  I will say it was heart breaking and I was supremely glad this was a romance because it meant a HEA (happily ever after) was assured.