Review: Good idea, poor execution
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 5, 2013
From the cover (eta: which has since been changed - I liked the old one better) and the story description, I thought I'd enjoy this book very much. I'm a fan of American historic romance. Unfortunately, it didn't live up to my expectations. The basic story set up is good, but the writing and the details of the plot were mediocre at best.The writing had a very sophomoric, amateur feel. There was way too much telling and hardly any showing. The dialogue was stilted and sometimes sounded too modern. As far as the plot, there was very little tension or conflict. The potential was there, but the author didn't milk it for anywhere close to all it was worth.Everyone but one character was kind. Everyone loved each other. Everyone got along, ad nauseum. And then there was the nausea. Okay, it was cute the first few times the author mentioned it, but it got old. And gross.At one point, the heroine wants to bathe because she has vomit on her and smells of it, yet she cooks breakfast for her and her husband first. Um, yuck. Then another time, she is planning a picnic lunch with a visiting friend and talking about the wonderful food, only to mention that where they will be stopping to eat was the same location she stopped to throw up when she first arrived. Eww. NOT appetizing.The excessive carrying on about 'relations' got old, too. It made the MCs sound immature and silly. All in all, the book read like something written by a precocious middle-schooler.It wasn't horrible; I got through it. I even found many of the characters likeable. But I won't be reading any more from this author. Barely 2 stars.