Review: Third Time is Definitely NOT a Charm
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 17, 2014
This is the third book I've read by this author, and I'm sorry to have to say, it will be my last.  The writing is extremely amateurish and overly simplistic.  I keep reading Ms. Charlins books hoping her writing will improve, but alas that has not happened.  On the contrary, so many people seem to enjoy her books just the way they are, that I've come to the conclusion that she probably will never change her writing style--why would she, when she has so much success the way it is?  Consequently, I have accepted the fact that Ms. Charlins and I are not meant to be.  Sigh.It's a pity as I love mail order bride historical romances, and Ms. Charlins has a real talent for creating unique and intriguing storylines.  Alas, the execution of her stories leaves much to be desired.  In my view, all her books that I've read to date are flat, and feature characters that are one dimensional and lifeless.  Furthermore, her stories seem to include aspects that are overly long and pointless.  Specifically, in this book, the beginning of the story where we first meet Sarah and her family, that part of the story where we hear so much about her sister, Rose, and Rose's fiancé is long and drawn out and, IMHO, serves absolutely no purpose to the story.  Did I really need to know that Rose's fiancé fell from a tree, had a concussion, and then woke up and proposed?  And even if you wanted to add that to the story, did it really need to be that drawn  out?The end result is that we don't see hide nor hair of the hero until 33% into the story, and even then the only glimpse we get of him is through the letter that he sent to the mail order bride agency.  It's not until 43% into the story that we finally meet Charlie.  This is when Sarah discovers that Charlie is actually a widower with an infant daughter.  From there the story progresses.However, the only romance I saw was between Sarah and the infant Lilly.  There wasn't any between Charlie and Sarah...true they seemed to have a connection of sorts, that resulted from the single letter they had exchanged, but we don't get to see any tender moments between the two, no progression of their relationship, or anything even remotely close.  Sarah is, understandably, upset that Charlie lied by omission, but for the most part, she seems consumed with the concern of whether or not she could be a good mother to Lilly.After Sarah and Charlie get married and confessed their love to one another I was completely flabbergasted!  I couldn't for the life of me figure out WHEN they had fallen in love.  After the wedding and confession of love, I lost any minimal interest I had in the story.  The rest seemed to ramble along for the sole purpose of allowing the reader to see how Sarah, Charlie, and Lilly's life together was progressing.  But, by this point I was more than ready for the story to be over.The book is also sadly lacking in detail.  Once again there is no description of either of the protagonists.  Is Sarah tall, short, plump, skinny, blonde, brunette?  I have absolutely no idea.  The same is true for Charlie.  The only know that Sarah thinks Charlie is very handsome and she think she's pretty.  The character for whom we are given a description is the woman who helps Charlie with Lilly, Marie, is young, and beautiful, with blonde hair and blue eyes.  Marie plays no real part in the story and is an insignificant character at best.  This lack of attention to detail seems to be another unfortunate of Ms. Charlins, as this is certainly not the first time she's provided a full description of a lesser character, while failing to provide any description of the protagonists.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.  I gave it two stars because as usual I liked the premise of the story...the plot is interesting...and of course Ms. Charlins deserves credit for her effort.  BTW, this is essentially a clean romance. There is a love scene, but it is minimally described, and is easily skipped. Happy reading!