Review: This novella manages to pack all the punch of a longer story
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 6, 2013
This novella manages to pack all the punch of a longer story, while not leaving great gaps in understanding or detail for the reader. The premise for this story was utterly delicious, and thanks to Harlequin Australia, NetGalley and the author for the book was a delightful escape.Evangeline and Angela are the two daughters with an overbearing and quite insufferable mother. Evangeline is close to that dreaded time when she will be 'put on the shelf' at the ripe age of 22. Her mother, ever the manipulator is unwilling to allow that to happen. So unwilling in fact, that she has arranged a "suitable" pairing for her, with a man that Evangeline finds boring.Katherine Givens created lovely characters in the girls: although there were more than a few moments where I wanted to smack Angela for her sanctimonious parroting of "I am a dutiful daughter", although even that showed her attempts to be very proper and restrained, it was nice to see the growth and changes in her as well. Evangeline was more to my style, far more modern in her thoughts and behaviors, even as she was placing herself into situations that could have been ugly, her wish for love and acceptance was so strong that she would take risks for it. And that is where the mother comes into play: horrid woman. Grasping, calculating and cold, with no care (perhaps from jealousy) for her daughter's wishes or happiness.The plot is so unique and the story, while getting a happy ending that we so enjoy, does not have a straight line to the end. The twist between the dream visions to reality, and Evangeline's realization that the dream man was flesh and blood was both well constructed and utterly understandable. And I am sure, a situation that many of us would like to be confronted with.I really enjoyed this story and the pacing, and despite it's length, no ends were left loose to niggle at readers. The challenges that the girls met and conquered, and the often-absent father finally speaking sense in the "woman's matters" was more than needed and actually had me laughing out loud. Kudos for a wonderful debut offering.I received an eBook from the publisher via NetGalley for purpose of honest review. I was not compensated for this review: all conclusions are my own responsibility.