Review: Author Sells Herself Short
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2013
I almost gave this novella 2 stars, but then I decided to give it 3 for potential.  Because that's what we have here, the potential for a fantastic book.The author's writing is very good, very easy to read, easy to get pulled into, but she's selling herself short by writing novellas.  This should be a full length novel! There's more than enough story here to make it one.Tristan, our flawed hero, has a lot of issues to work through, most of which were put upon him by his father during his training to be the Earl.  His father beat him regularly and made him push away everyone, made him stand alone - "An Earl issues orders, he never requests."  Now that his father is dead, Tristan realizes that this is the wrong way to go about doing things, but he's having trouble figuring out how to go about changing.  Enter the heroine, Calista, who is looking for a fiance utterly unlike her previous one - who ran away to Gretna Green with her best friend once Calista's father died and she had to go into mourning, meaning that she couldn't attend the social events that her fiance so loved.What with Tristan trying to repair the relationship with his brother, Calista trying to win Tristan's heart and him trying to show her that she already has it even though he doesn't know how to use it, the horror of her sisters at the match, and all the other little tidbits of drama that are thrown throughout the story, which I THINK are referring to other novellas, this had more than enough really great material to make a fantastic book.  Instead, it's a lackluster novella because there's not enough time to fully develop the characters and then reform them.  Instead everything just happens REALLY suddenly.Ms. Gayle, I sincerely hope that you read these reviews and that, in particular, you read this one and start expanding on these books to full length, because you've got all the ingredients mixed together for a really fantastic book, you're just not leaving it in the oven long enough.