Review: Sloppy and Maudlin by the End
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 11 17, 2012
I understand that Ms. Hart is an award winning author. I can only hope that it was not for a historical novel as mistake riddled as this one. I was always taught that you can not just plunk a modern day romance into a historical setting and call it good. The language and manners of the characters need to jive with the time and place. While an exact year does not come to mind, the beginning descriptions suggest a Western setting in the 1800's. However, the characters talk in a much more modern language that just doesn't fit, either in manner or word selection. There is too much sexual innuendo that relies on modern banter that, if the author had done her research, she would know was not appropriate. The banter was ESPECIALLY inappropriate between Hannah and Colter at the very beginning, but even with Hannah's friends in a closed, relaxed setting. While some teasing might have taken place between girlfriends, Hart's characters made comments that were way too free and suggestive, even blunt, for the time period. The banter between Hannah and Colter would NEVER have taken place except, perhaps, in a bawdy house. Hannah was not THAT kind of girl. And who, in the 1800s, said that a woman was "hot"? Also, words like "wimp" and "friggin'" did not come into common language until the 1920s. "Friggin'" had a TOTALLY different meaning early on and was not used as an intensifier until the 20s. I found it distracting that such sloppy mistakes were allowed to be made by an author who is not new to the historical novel scene. Was there no editor? What are her other novels like? I don't want to read a historical romance that just wants a vehicle for sex, without regard to the time period. These are rookie mistakes.Additionally, Hart started off with two very likeable characters in Colter and Hannah, and that grabbed my attention at the very beginning. Also, the little boy Zac was adorable and appealing. Sometimes authors have a hard time writing kids into a story and tend to make them sound slow witted or overly mature rather than age appropriate. Hart did a good job with that. The story lost me, though, towards the last when Colter had some sort of emotional break and became another character altogether for a couple of chapters. It was melodramatic and senseless. I started skim reading that part. I was getting impatient.One last thing. If Hannah's belly is flat on one page and a few pages over, it is suddenly "swollen", but the author offers no timeline, it is awkward. From the rest of what was written, it was obvious that we were within a day or two of the original description. Again, a good editor would have caught this. My feeling is that this novel was hurriedly put together, at least in the final editing, and poorly researched. I cannot recommend it.