Review: Great story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2013
I don't know what exactly I expected when I purchased this, but it was cheap, the blurb says "backpacking around Australia", and that's two out of three for me (since I don't agree with the cover at all). Definitely don't judge this book by its cover.While the writing style is just not something that I personally liked, I still think it was good. I'm thinking the author did some good research because I actually learned things from this book and I was genuinely interested in things that didn't relate to the romance - the dynamics of an Australian sheep farm, the shearing process, the mustering of the sheep, etc. It was kind of like McLeod's daughters only written down and you get the whole story at once. That's probably a bad comparison, since Sam is actually an English girl, but anyways.For the most part, I liked Sam. I kind of had a hunch about her past but I wasn't sure until she revealed it all, and yeah, she made sense to me. I liked the way her minds works, too, she's relentless in what she sets out to do and that made her someone I want to relate to.Daniel was...GAH. So sweet, and kind, and caring, but for the most part...sort of unbelievable. Oh no, not the thing that there is actually a nice guy out there, but he was kind of girlish at times and that I didn't like. Most of the time, though, I absolutely loved him - strong, capable and incredibly sexy as far as book boyfriends go. And patient! I really liked how subtle he was about getting Sam to trust him and yeah. Swoon.The two of them were just too damn cute. I couldn't get over it, they have great chemistry, great interactions, but I have to say, as far as romances these days go - everything was very low-key for the better part of the book.Now, I'll start off by saying that there were some laugh out loud moments in this book. There weren't many permanent characters (is this a thing?), but even the ones we briefly meet along the way were great and I connected with them - like Becca who literally gets just a few lines, the old lady in the beginning or Sophie and Jensen and Moose. The author creates believable conflict and doesn't resort to some petty dramas, which I liked a lot. Actually, what I liked the most about this is that there really wasn't some major drama. The way it all ties up in the end, I needed that in romance.What didn't I like about it? The whole story is told in 3rd person limited from Sam's POV, except the author does a bit of head hopping at least twice which caught me completely off guard and confused me. And the ending felt rushed. I was in the last 7-8 percent of the story and nothing seemed to be happening to actually indicate that the ending was near and then it ended. It may be just me, but I wanted more.For those wondering, there are graphic sex scenes in this. Actually, as far as I remember there was only one...or two. And they're not even that graphic.Do I recommend it? Yeah, it's got everything: romance, some very interesting information about something you never thought you wanted to know about, a couple of LOL moments, a story about traveling and it's Oz...I definitely recommend it. It was a sweet story.