Review: Decent Story...Amateurish Writing  ***2 1/2  Stars***
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 1, 2014
This is the second book by this author that I've read.  The first one, "West for Love" I rated two stars.  This one, IMO, is a bit better, but only just.  While I preferred the story of "West for Love", I thought, from a technical point of view, this book was better...the writing is a bit better, and the editing is a whole lot better, although it could still do with some additional editing.For all that, I still thought this story was flat, and the characters one dimensional.  Furthermore, the writing, although improved from that of "West for Love" is still very amateurish.  Aside from the technical aspects, I had a number of other issues with the book.  For one, the beginning of the story leading up to Emma's father's death is, IMHO, too long, and so much of it seemed pointless.Then there's Emma's aunt who is so over the top mean, that she seemed more like a caricature than a real person.  Furthermore, there's the fact that the story is told solely from Emma's point of view; it's not told in the first person, but it might as well have been since the reader never gets any insight from anyone other than Emma.  This resulted in the story feeling one sided, as I never got to see any aspect of the relationship from Samuel's point of view.Additionally, there is absolutely no description of Emma, other than references to her beauty (oh and we are told she's 20 years old)...but we don't know hair or eye color, nor anything else about her physical appearance.  We do know, however, that her best friend Ella, who briefly appears in the beginning of the story, is a beauty with eyes "the piercing blue color like a beautiful spring Vermont sky" and skin "a delicate shade of cream."The author does do a better job describing Samuel...at least we are told he is tall, muscular, with dark hair and eyes.  But as for his age, well that's a mystery.  The bottom line is that the characters are only superficially developed...physically or otherwise.  Overall this is a decent story.  I was able to finish it quickly enough, by which I mean it wasn't boring.However, it is not a book that I could recommend.  I do see that many others enjoyed this book very much, and I'm happy for them.  We each have our own tastes and opinions.  I do know that I'm not so special as to be the only person who will have this opinion about this book...this review is for those readers who potentially share my taste in reading.  BTW, this is essentially a clean romance.  There is a love scene, but it is minimally described.  Happy reading!