Review: Interesting and fun light reading and a pleasant surprise for something outside my normal reading
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2011
When I do my ratings and reviews I try to keep the scores in line with whatever genre, format (namely short story vs novella vs full length novel) and style.  I don't read a lot of historical romance type stories as, in general, I am less interested in the motivations and circumstances of the era and I would rather read other things.  That said, I do like to try a variety of reading materials.  Somehow I picked this one up and I am glad to have done so.In terms of format, this title has 3002 Kindle locations which are divided amongst three novella type stories.  At the beginning the author explains that she initially wrote these in 2005-2006 as 'interactive novellas'.  It sounds as though she would post a chapter on her website then give 3 options as to what might happen next, take a vote of her readers, then write the next chapter based on the voting.  The book in hand is not interactive, but the generation of the stories was.The first of the three stories revolves around the marital wishes of a young lady who was dumped in a rather humiliating fashion by her fiance and wants to win him back and/or exact revenge.  This one came the closest to what my preconceived notion of historical romance reading might be about.  I feared a too-stupid-to-live heroine, determined to marry as her life's ambition, with a generous helping of 'would the two of you please talk'.  Thankfully this was not the case.  I think this novella length suited the level of conflict nicely--things got resolved in a reasonably timely fashion and made for a nice, enjoyable story.  A little pat and no real surprises, but that is what reading a nice romance is all about!  I like a good HEA.The second of the stories was the shortest and featured a prominent character from the first story.  Here I think is where the readers/voters perhaps led the story progression into a bit of a rushed conclusion.  Things progressed from matters of duty and conduct to love awfully fast.  I think this was a nice story that of all three would have made the best longer novella or even novel.  These, to me, were the most interesting of the characters and fit the mold of my expectations the least.  All in all I would have liked more development,  but I did enjoy the story.The third of the stories followed a minimally seen character from the first--the daughter of a Duke who also manages to not be a stereotypical society lady and who gets to show off a nice amount of personal growth.  Of all the romances  in this book this one seemed the least likely to succeed--and though I liked it--I was left wondering if this could have been even remotely historically accurate.  It would be nice to think so.I think that the shorter the story the more difficult it is for an author to draw in the reader, make them believe in the actions and the characters and resist the temptation to explain everything with too much internal dialog.  The shorter format also requires that the plot fit the style.  This author did a very good job with all these factors and of all my forays into the historical romance sub-genre this has been one of the most enjoyable.Recommended!JTG