Review: could have been so much more
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 23, 2014
Historical novels with strong female leading characters are compelling to me, so I thought I'd give this one a chance.  The book started out well.  A woman with a mystery in her past makes friends in a new town, starts a business and begins to have feelings for one of her employees.  Then things went downhill.I don't care for graphic sex scenes in the novels I read, and there were several here, but I could have forgiven them if they had been congruent with the characters.  However, the scenes in this book were not.MAJOR SPOILER ALERT:  when a character has endured rape, and then her first encounter with her former fiancé is incredibly rough sex, followed by him storming off,  this is not only out of character, but is downright abusive and sickening. (Especially if she still moons about him and wonders if he will ever love her....sick) I started the book with a great sense of expectation and finished it with nausea and loathing.  Skip this one unless the above scenario appeals to you.