Review: Nice Plot, but the Writing...Oh My! **SPOILER ALERT**
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2013
This story it pretty short, only about 150 pages, a novella really.  I was able to finish reading it, but only just.  While the story had a really nice plot, the writing is extremely amateurish.  Furthermore, there were all kinds of spelling errors, grammatical errors, improper verb tense, and the list goes on and on.  The story had no life to it and was completely flat.  All I kept thinking was, if this plot had been in the hands of a truly gifted author it could so easily have been a 4 or 5 star read.I mean no disrespect to Ms. Charlins, but really I don't understand how authors can go through all the hard work of creating a unique plot only then to ruin their work by not bothering to take the time to make certain that, at the very least, the rudimentary rules of grammar are correct, not to mention the historical facts, such as in this case.I agree whole heartedly with a previous review of this book where that reviewer expressed disbelief that a woman in the 1800's would share a bed with a man before they were wed.  That did of course happen, but they had a name for those women.  Then of course there was the fact that Jo, the wet nurse, was a young, unmarried woman who had never given birth to a child.  However, in that instance I was willing to go along with the author's explanation of Jo's ability to produce breast milk.....basically it was an unexplained miracle.  I mean we have all sorts of unexplained phenomenon in our world today, so why not in a historical romance?Anna is the younger of two sisters.  She is pushed into marriage with William, a rich businessman.  William is an asset to Anna's parents and helps them not to lose their house and land.  However, a condition of the marriage is that Anna must give William a child.  After a year with the unfeeling, self-centered bastard, Anna is unable to produce a child, and so William tosses her aside like an old pair of boots.  Anna is, of course, devastated and feels a great sense of guilt for having let down her parents (two more undeserving people you couldn't find if you ask me.)  It doesn't help that her parents can hardly look at the poor girl, as if it was her fault she couldn't get pregnant!Anyhow, we also have Anna's big sister, Abigail, who at twenty is a widow.  IMO Abigail's character served absolutely no purpose to the story, except perhaps to make Anna feel more miserable.  It seems the author meant Abigail to be a source of comfort for Anna, the big sister with whom Anna is very close, but instead, as far as I could see, she just caused Anna more grief and was ultimately a useless character.  Poor Anna's life is an extremely unhappy one after her divorce from William (not that life with William had been happy by any means!)One day while in town Anna meets Henry who introduces her to his sister Mary.  It is Mary who gets Anna to write to Thomas (a widowed rancher with a two month old baby son.)  Thomas and Anna share a couple of letters then Anna travels out west to marry Thomas.  She doesn't, for reasons I don't understand, tell her parents or her sister that she is leaving.  Abigail does figure out that Anna has a plan, but she isn't sure what.  I didn't get the feeling that Anna's parents would have tried to stop her had they known what she was up to (but then again this wasn't the type of book to instigate any type of feeling in the reader whatsoever.)Anyhow, Anna and Thomas meet and from there the story develops.  The next thing you know they are in love.  I don't know when it happened or how, but all of a sudden they are proclaiming their love to each other.  As the reader you do get to see a little bit of the development of Anna's feelings towards Thomas, but only just a very little bit.  But, as for Thomas, I have no idea when he came to love Anna.The manner in which the story unfolds led me to believe that Thomas had loved his first wife very much, but then he says things that seem to contradict that assumption.  Even Anna at times feels inclined to ask questions of Thomas concerning his relationship with his first wife, but because she doesn't want to cause him anymore grief she refrains from doing so.  As a result she, and us the readers, are left in the dark.This is a straightforward romance.  There are no intrigues, no misunderstandings between the parties, and no secrets.  Still, had it been better written it could have been quite a compelling story!Jo, the wet nurse, and Anna become very close and she, Jo, is like another member of the family.  Once again the writer displayed her lack of knowledge of the time period by having Jo breast feeding baby Thomas in big Thomas' presence with no apparent concern for modesty....a man who is not her husband or even a close relation.This book was pretty horrible.  It's not the worst that I've read, but its definitely on my top twenty worst books read.  I gave it two stars for three reasons (1) I was able to finish it, which means it wasn't horribly boring, (2) I really liked the plot and, (3) I actually liked Thomas and Anna, even though they were so one dimensional.  I cannot, in all honesty, recommend this book.  Save your money.  I was lucky and got it for free.