Review: Good characters
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2014
A Love Discovered by Ella Jade tells the story of Cali and Carter. Cali is a laid-back bar owner who lives life by the seat of her pants. Sometimes this works well for her and sometimes it gets her into trouble, like financially with her bar. Carter, on the other hand, is a methodical professor who likes order and planning. He is on sabbatical in the small town where Cali lives while he works on a book and decides if he wants to return to his position following a personal tragedy.When Cali shows up at his door to deliver some books he ordered, the reclusive professor at first accuses her of trespassing, but neither miss the sparks that fly between the two of them and he can't stop thinking of her. When she comes around again, he is much more welcoming and the two almost end up making love. The physical attraction continues to draw them together.I enjoyed this book, but there were a few things that pulled me from the story. For example, the author seemed to feel the need to explain why the characters did/said the things they did. Sometimes this kind of clarification is needed, but the excessive amount of it in this book distracted me from the meat of the story and had me skimming. Also, on occasion, what the author told me the characters did wasn't backed up by the actions in the story. For instance, throughout the whole book it was asserted that Cali had to persistently pursue Carter to make a relationship work. Yet there was very little evidence of this (aside from Cali pushing him to open up about his past, which doesn't take much prodding). There were also several week or longer time gaps. Sometimes this doesn't bother me  in a story, but in this case, I kept feeling like I missed things.I really liked Cali and Carter as characters and was rooting for their happy ending. I'm a sucker for hot intellectuals! Ms. Jade avoided making Cali seem flaky, which I've seen happen when the character is a free spirit. Instead, you see her good heart and optimism. There were some wonderful dialogue sequences and tender moments between Carter and Cali that show the growing love between them. I do wish the author would have spent more time showing the push and pull between the characters. They are such opposites that I expected to see more conflict between them.Although I was never as fully captivated as I'd like to be, there are many nice moments.