Review: Mixed feelings
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 16, 2011
I bought this book based on the exclusively 5-star reviews. However, having read it, I can't really share all these positive comments.Firstly, I don't base the appraisal of any book only on its price. Of course it's a very important aspect, especially when reasonably priced as this book was.Secondly, I really appreciated the fact that the book was well elaborated and didn't leave any lose ends. The plot of the book wasn't anything unusual for this genre, but the way the author developed it was surely a proof for solid writing skills.The main characters were interesting and their combination unusual. I appreciated the fact that the heroine was presented as an intelligent woman, which isn't that common in historical fiction. I also loved that Simon's feelings for Gwyneth were revealed before the heroine discovered her feelings for him, which usually isn't found in this order in books of this category.However, I felt that the book lacked atmosphere. Of course there were countless descriptions and attempts to create ambience but I just couldn't "feel" it. Surely the fact that I'm not a native English speaker plays a major role in this lack of "sensing" the vibes but on the other hand maybe the sometimes cumbersome writing style, which was an attempt to create the Medieval atmosphere, killed all the ambience?In any case a nice read for historical romance lovers.