Review: Bagpipes and Bull's Eyes? Not even close
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2012
I am a fan of Horton's second book, "Reaching for the Stars." Just a quick note to all that this is definitely the "starter version." She has not yet found her "voice" here, nor how to develop a plot. There is not enough "Scotland" in the book to make it a romantic get-away novel. The plot is so predictable that I could nod off while Kindle was reading to me, and sure enough, when I awoke a few minutes later, it was exactly where you would expect it to be. There is a silly "subplot" about the heroine, Orly, gaining weight by eating chocolate b/c she's a vegetarian and there was nothing else to eat. Then she's in an "accident" and the hospital puts her on a food plan to raise her protein levels. Her beau, who is Scottish, feels so bad about not feeding her well when she was staying with him, that he resolves to "take good care of her." Really? What is she, two years old? Doesn't she know what to eat? Apparently there was nothing in the house so she was living on chocolate that she would buy in town (apparently they had no other food there?) She was gaining weight b/c of the empty calories but her beau "finds her curvy body beautiful." Really? You definitely know a woman wrote this--not very believable (although I know we women would like to think it's true). You can read it to kill time; it is "finish-able." But don't expect it to be at the level of the second book.