Review: Stilted and Awkward...good characters, not so good writing.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2012
First let me say, I like the H/h and I'm glad I finished this book. The story is about Charlie/h and Adam/Jared/Chase/H. Chase has been assigned as editor to a small time newspaper, the previous editor was Charlie's Father. Charlie grew up around the newspaper, and for 1850s was very much unladylike. She wanted a career, she worked at the paper, at her Father's passing she lived alone and continued to work at the paper. The townfolk don't know what to make of her. This book would get 3 stars for its characters, I really did like these characters, that was the saving grace. The Author's writing as a stand-alone rating would be 1 star in my mind. And so the 2 star average.The beginning was off to a very rocky start (writing wise). The first meeting between our H/h was oddly placed, and much to short. I actually backed up a few pages and checked if I missed a prologue. The book had very stilted and awkward, often times downright annoying'ingly frustrating, get in the way of enjoying, terrible no good scenes (oh wow, just felt like lil Alexander, I want to go to Australia - loved that book as a kid!). And its not the scenes themselves, its the writing behind it. Its almost as if entire paragraphs leading to a scene are missing, or even a simple sentence.Here's an example of terrible writing, does the author know her character?? The scene is one where the guy crushing on the heroine comes into our hero's office and wakes him from a dream, the guy is furious because he's been hanging around for the heroine and she's not biting, and has finally told him she never will. Anyways, Hero and the other guy get into a fight, and when they back off of each other and the guy is STANDING by the printing press and makes a snide comment about the hoping the hero doesn't touch the Heroine, and our Author writes this:" Adam stared hard at the floor, blinking back the fury tinting his vision. "You better shut your mouth, Walker, or I'll shut it for you." "Why, oh why, is our Hero staring at the floor? His opponent, the person who invoked the fury, is standing. In my mind this is something a submissive person would do when furious with someone in a position of authority. Why is Adam staring at the damn floor? In the next scene the heroine is thinking how awkward the night before was when the other guy made his offer, and the things he said "just did not bear repeating, even in the privacy of her own mind". I'm sorry, but is this Author Code for "I Don't Want To Write This Scene?" Many scenes important to the story of the H/h were just not written. The personal history of Adam, a driving force behind his reluctance to love, was never fully played out (so Eaton was in a duel and Chase feels responsible to the point of nightmares why?). It felt like the Author was keeping secrets from the reader... to what end? My only conclusion is lazy writing.In another scene, an example of deleted elements, the h goes to the H offices for the first time, and for whatever reason he needs a handkerchief to dab at her lip. What? Why? Did he see her bite her lip and she was bleeding? WTH?In another scene, our H/h are at a picnic, one scene ends with the H being led away by a friend for a drink. In the very next scene, from all appearances, the h is having a discussion alone with her old teacher who is going senile. The teacher is asking why her Father wasn't attending the picnic, and the h not wanting to freak the teacher out by saying he'd been dead for some time states the newspaper was keeping him busy. Next thing you know, our H is planted right next. Did he witness the exchange from afar, sense the h's need for escape and come save her? Was he standing there the whole time? Stuff like this annoys me!