Review: Good story, terrible editing
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 18, 2014
I appreciated the freshness of the story, in terms of a lady falling in love with a commoner, but the constant editing flaws (spelling errors, grammatical errors, typos - really, everything and anything) kept pulling me out of the story. I also felt like the author dwelled on the hero being so terribly damaged without giving us any real insight into why. Yeah, his mom died and he was poor, but usually people heal over time, and the pathology that he carries around didn't seem to fit with his past (but that may just be the mental health clinician in me talking).I was also frustrated by the lack of development with the evil butler. He was a jerk once, then ignored her, then had one bad scene. It felt like there needed to be more depth there.  Then there were several loose story lines that were never tied up. Ernie the valet seemed like he was going to play a pivotal role early in the story when he's musing to himself at the inn, but then really never does anything after that. The best friend is engaged to someone who is off traveling, and sometimes it seems like something may happen there, but it doesn't go anywhere. Maybe the author is saving that story for another book, but in that case too much attention was paid to it in this one.And finally, silly details bugged me. The heroine goes to a masquerade ball and powders her hair to make it white; several hours later she's in a carriage with red hair again, with no mention of how that happened. It wasn't as easy as jumping through a shower, so it seemed like a missed detail. The hero is working on ledgers and paperwork in his room at the inn, but we were told that nothing survived the wreck except the heroine's trunk.That may sound persnickety, but those are the details that pulls readers out of the story, as well as being the details that separates a good author from a great one.I don't want to come across as a negative Nancy. I did enjoy the story, and would read future books by the author if offered for free through Kindle. I wanted to be detailed about the things that I didn't like about the story, as I think that authors are always looking to improve in their craft.