Review: A fabulous period piece
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 27, 2012
Historical romance seems to be one of my weaknesses. It's not a genre that's usually particularly inspiring and often enough the books are set in England (or Scotland) but written in modern day American English, which bugs me to no end. I haven't read very many historical anythings set in the Americas but I've been brought up around a grandmother who happens to be overly fond of westerns, so when I read the synopsis of this one I was intrigued. The American west in that period was still very much on the wild side and that sort of setting appeals to me, possibly because it's such a far cry from anything to be found these days.The author managed to really capture the feel of the period for me. I felt transported. I could just imagine this little western town they were living in! It was obvious that she did a lot of research and went to great lengths to make her period feel authentic - research and great lengths that definitely paid off for me as the reader.It was also interesting to see the process of getting gold and silver from the ore and how the refineries (that might not be the correct word but it's the only one coming to mind right now) were operated. There was a slight issue here, however, in that the information was too clumped for me. Wes gives Julie a tour of her uncle's "refinery" and explains the processes to her, which is a good example of exposition through dialogue. My issue was that there was too much information too fast for me to really absorb it properly. It didn't help that I was already tired and so a large amount of what is essentially nonfiction coming at me all at once felt more like a barrage of facts than part of the story. I understand what the author was doing, but my mind just couldn't deal with it.Thankfully these "info dumps" were few and far between and I was able to really appreciate the intricate story that the author was weaving. As a historical romance it does, of course, focus mainly on the budding relationship between Wes and Julie but there's enough going on around it to keep it well balanced. I didn't feel completely swamped by just the relationship and it wasn't love at first sight (though it was lust, but I'm happy with lust. Lust is normal).Wes being an undercover officer for Wells Fargo was also of particular interest. I have to admit that I didn't even know there was such a thing as Wells Fargo; never mind what its role was. So I actually learnt bits of American history from reading this book! That's something that always appeals to me in a book.