Review: Bizarre story
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 9, 2012
Mabye I should have paid better attention to the book description, but I somehow was under the wrong impression this book was going to be a romantic mystery.  Bizarre tidbits were tossed into the story that had me scratching my head over how preposterous they sounded.The book started out promising enough with the fact that Emily was trying to hire Mr. Bellamy to investigate what she believed to be the murder of her Uncle Tobias.  The instant attraction Mr. Bellamy felt towards her was palpable even though Emily tried her best to dress as nondescript as possible in order to deter attention.  She had experienced a horrible attack when she was younger and had allowed herself to dress beautiful.  Emily felt if she hid her beauty then she would be taken seriously and would avoid any unwanted advances since she had decided this had to be the cause of the attack upon her person.Emily found herself attracted to Mr. Bellamy as well.  She had never experienced romantic feelings towards a man before. Feelings cultivate, certain events keep putting the hero and heroine together with plenty of opportunity for actions to be taken wrongly and words to be exchanged heatedly.  Eventually the sexual tension between the hero and heroine breaks and they do get together, which is the inevitable outcome of most all romance books anyway.What I found unpleasant about this book was the silly inclusion of a time traveler character.  I understand now there was a book prior to this one that probably would have explained the existence of this character, but since I do not particularly like that genre it is not a book I care to read.  It seemed the sole purpose of having this character in this book was a rescue scene involving Emily nearly drowning so the time traveler could perform CPR to save the day.  Then the author went on to explain how this technique wasn't developed until the 20th century which is the timeframe this traveler belongs.  This entire scene really just left me irritated. Other than this one particular scene this character had absolutely nothing to add to the story.  Why bother with a near drowning experience at all?  The book would have been much better without it as this part of the storyline was just irksome.  There were no other futeristic characters in this book, and this entire scene was woefully out of place.  This book should have been told in such a manner where it could stand alone on its own merits.I also disliked at one point when the author decided she needed to retell almost an entire chapter that had already concluded but this time from the perspective of the heroine.  Why do this?  We were already made privy to the feelings and emotions of the characters during the kissing scenes.  By retelling the same chapter it just felt awkward and out of place, almost like the author had a word count to fill to complete the book and decided we wouldn't notice or mind a rehash.  It felt like a bad flashback during a boring movie.  This just served to further irritate me while I tried to read the story.  I don't like having to take two steps back before I can progress to something interesting.It's too bad these glaringly bad episodes occurred in the book because the mystery part would have been decent if told in a straightforward manner. I lost interest in the story along the way and skipped a few long passages trying to get to the conclusion.  I don't mind embellishment in a story when it is done well.  However, I do like to stay somewhat in a realistic realm.  I don't like having to try to wrap my mind around events that distract from the story.  They tend to completely turn me off right away.I will say I did not expect the character who turned out to be the bad guy in the end so I will give the author that.  Sorry to say though that this is not a book I will keep on my Kindle.