Review: All in all, not a bad read
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 11, 2013
I enjoyed this story quite a bit. The writing was good overall and the pacing moved. The hero bordered on abusive at times, but he is a good, hard-working man whose true feelings come out in his actions, despite the wall he tries to put up. Also, this novel is apparently set in the late 30's. Times were different then--people married more for practical reasons, and women's rights weren't what they are today.The characters were likeable (esp. Cole), and a few of them quite hate-able. The way the folks in church treated the family gave me pause, though. A few of the members should have behaved in a friendly manner. As it was, it felt a bit unrealistic.As far as technical details, this book would have benefited from an editor. It wasn't so rife with errors that it was unreadable--it was well written for the most part--but it could have been better.As another reviewer noted, the characters sometimes used modern terms like 'retail therapy,' which didn't fit the decade. Introductory phrases (way more than 3 words in length) were often not followed by a comma. There were also verb errors ('...you could have just came and got it.' Past participle is 'come,' not 'came.'). These errors not only felt out of place, considering the character spoke well otherwise; but also were repeated in other characters' lines, making me wonder if the error was the author's and not theirs. The only other thing that stuck out (besides a couple of missing hyphens that got a laugh) was a few repetitive descriptions, like 'china doll' for various character's faces. Those could have been varied more.That said, I'm glad I read this story. A solid 4 stars.