Entries Tagged 'Big Misunderstanding' ↓
March 13th, 2010 — 3.5 Stars, Arranged/Forced Marriage, Artist, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Captain, G-I, Georgian, Great Britain, Kidnapping, Low Self Esteem/Confidence, Pirate, Pirate, Rape/Abuse, Runaway, Sailing, Seas, Secret Baby, Survival, Travel, United States of America, Virgin Heroine
I first heard about Crimson Rapture
from a HaBo post over at Smart Bitches: Trashy Books. I can’t remember now if this book was the actual book or just one of the suggestions, but I guess it hardly matters. It sounded cool and I got it immediately from Paperback Swap.
It was originally published in 1986 and definitely has forced seduction in it—the kind where he does it for her own good and because he desires her too much to let another moment pass. There’s a lot of it, but it is well written, so if you’re in the mood for it, I would highly suggest this novel. A warning though… the comeuppance of the uppity bitch in the story is gang rape by the pirate crew which the pirate captain (hero) sanctions because she tried to kill someone (no, not the heroine.)
The story is one of those that goes everywhere (Boston, London, open seas, remote island in the Phillipines, Jamaica) and does everything (kidnapping, monsoons, shipwrecks, runaways, fake marriages, babies, plots and betrayal, and so on.)
It starts when the ship the heroine and hero are on is caught in the doldrums. The heroine is headed for Australia to live with her cousin and his family after her father’s recent death. The hero, Justin Phillips, is locked up in the hold somewhere on his way to his execution. He spies her presence one day and strikes up a conversation. He can’t really see her, but he figures she’s extremely plain.
Christina Marks is actually very beautiful. As the daughter of a reverend she is kind, naive, and innocent. Also, she is terribly shy except when she talks to Justin through the small opening. She gives him her rations to help him keep his strength up. When the wind breaks and Justin’s crew comes to his rescue he kidnaps Cristina determined to ensure her safety and wellbeing.
The adventure has only begun though and passion can’t be denied.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
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February 21st, 2010 — 3.5 Stars, 4 Stars, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Farming, G-I, Gentry, Historic America, Inspirational, Kidnapping, Marriage of Convenience, Religious, Survival, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Wartime
Tobacco brides were sent by The Virginia Company of London to the Virginia colony where men could buy the brides with 150 pounds of tobacco leaves. In the beginning, the brides were spinsters, widows, and orphans, but few women were willing to risk all to come to America. In 1643, more likely the brides were criminals and felons who had to choose between the new colony and prison. All except one, Lady Constance Caroline Morrow was kidnapped!
The daughter of an earl, Constance (Connie/CC/Sissy) escaped from her companion to visit her uncle onboard a ship headed for the Virginia colony before it set sail. He was to do his time as an indentured servant in the new world. She was detected and captured under the captain’s orders and locked with the other women below the hold.
Constance is bought by Drew O’Connor along with her friend Mary. Under the governor’s and council’s orders Drew must marry one of them, he chooses Constance. It is to be a marriage in name only, because Constance wants to go home to England and is certain her father will come for her. For his part, Drew wants to never love and lose again so the deal while not ideal is fine with him.
It’s a cute story. I don’t like it as well as Bride in the Bargain. There’s an equal amount of research. As the heroine is fond of mathematical equations there are a lot of strange little riddles littered throughout. You’ll be tempted to solve them, but it’s best to leave that to the heroine and hero.
The 1644 massacre, which starts the second Anglo-Powhatan War, sneaks up unexpectedly. It is the second massacre Drew has gone through. The reconciliation between Drew and Constance is wrapped up in it. Characters are lost in it. The ending is relatively happy despite the sadness of the events surrounding it.
Like Bride in the Bargain, it too is an inspirational Christian romance, but not as subtle. There’s more agenda to this novel than in Bride in the Bargain, so that’s something to consider. The presentation of it was still lovely, light, and sweet. It didn’t bother me, but it might some readers.
Rating: 3.5-4 Stars
Buy: A Bride Most Begrudging
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February 18th, 2010 — 5 Stars, Big Misunderstanding, Entrepreneur, Great Britain, Movie Reviews, Spinster, Victorian
Have you worn out your copy of Pride and Prejudice? Are Colin Firth
and Matthew MacFayden
in need of a little healthy competition? Richard Armitage is just the man to sooth your hunger for another hunk of delicious brooding male. You will melt. Mr. John Thornton is a new Darcyesque figure to fall in love with over and over again.
Richard Armitage is not only singularly fine; he’s also a terrific actor. When he proposes, you’ll die. Loved Mr. Darcy’s fumbling attempts at wooing Elizabeth Bennet? You’re going to enjoy watching Mr. Thornton try to win over the forthright Miss Margaret Hale. Daniela Denby-Ashe does a beautiful job portraying the vicar’s headstrong opinionated daughter.
The story is about a retired vicar and his family moving to the North to Milton, a fairly large factory town. Here they confront illiteracy, poverty, ignorance, and social mores their life in the South leave them unprepared for, especially the mother and daughter. Mr. Hale befriends Mr. Thornton soon after Mr. Thornton makes a singularly bad impression on Miss Margaret Hale. Misunderstandings and stubbornness are rife throughout the miniseries as the protagonists dance around each other trying to understand one another.
If you come into this knowing nothing, you will love it. If you have read the Elizabeth Gaskell novel by the same name
, you will love it. Trust me, if you borrow this instead of buying it outright you’re going to be bummed at the thought of returning it. Sandy Welch’s screenplay is phenomenal—four hours of 100% heart-warming goodness can’t be beat. This may just have replaced the BBC Pride and Prejudice miniseries
as best BBC miniseries.
Rating: 5 Stars
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Originally posted 2009-03-24 05:18:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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January 7th, 2010 — Big Misunderstanding, Guest Blogger, Jane Austen, P-R, Regency
by Abigail Reynolds, guest blogger and author of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World
Darcy and Elizabeth are wonderful characters for variations because Jane Austen leaves so much unsaid and unexplored about them. Depending on which passages you choose, you can form very different impressions of them. Part of the fun of writing variations is finding new aspects of their characters to explore in each book. Each Darcy and Elizabeth in my books is different.
Does this make the dynamics of their relationship different? My answer would be yes and no. There are certain basics about the Darcy/Elizabeth pairing that can’t be altered without destroying the basic dynamic, the one that makes them so magnetically drawn to each other. For example, Darcy avoids talking about his feelings and assumes Elizabeth knows more about them than she does. Elizabeth is lively and loves to tease, but because she does that with everyone, it is difficult for Darcy to guess what she means by it. And, of course, there is the profound sexual attraction – Darcy is fascinated by Elizabeth’s intelligence and wit, but that doesn’t stop him from meditating on her light and pleasing figure.
But within that dynamic, there are details that can change depending on which features I highlight. In Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World, Darcy’s lack of ability to read social signals, especially from Elizabeth, plays a prominent role. In most of my other books, Darcy is driven to pursue Elizabeth, but in this one, he withdraws. That means Elizabeth has to take more risks.
Elizabeth is complex, drawing on some passages in Pride & Prejudice often overlooked by readers. Jane Austen focuses her attention on Elizabeth’s lively spirits, but she makes it clear that her normally cheerful heroine also passes through periods of low spirits. During her weeks at Hunsford following Darcy’s proposal, Elizabeth ruminates at length on both her own failures and those of her family:
In her own past behaviour, there was a constant source of vexation and regret; and in the unhappy defects of her family a subject of yet heavier chagrin. They were hopeless of remedy….When to these recollections was added the development of Wickham's character, it may be easily believed that the happy spirits which had seldom been depressed before, were now so much affected as to make it almost impossible for her to appear tolerably cheerful.
After she returns to Longbourn after Lydia’s elopement, she mourns the loss of Darcy in a way that again depresses her spirits and keeps her awake at night:
The present unhappy state of the family, rendered any other excuse for the lowness of her spirits unnecessary; nothing, therefore, could be fairly conjectured from that, though Elizabeth, who was by this time tolerably well acquainted with her own feelings, was perfectly aware that, had she known nothing of Darcy, she could have borne the dread of Lydia's infamy somewhat better. It would have spared her, she thought, one sleepless night out of two.
© Both Excerpts: Abigail Reynolds, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2010
So in this book, I wrote Elizabeth with a wider range of emotions than I’ve written in my other variations where I focus more on Elizabeth’s impertinence and her tendency to speak a little too much of her mind, but in this book, I worked from Austen’s original description of her reaction to Bingley and Darcy’s minor argument during her stay at Netherfield. At first Elizabeth participates in the fray, but once she perceives Darcy to be somewhat offended, she checks her laughter out of concern for him, even though she doesn’t like him. She is impertinent, but she also modifies her behavior out of a desire not to cause pain. Thus my Elizabeth, when forced to marry the man she still despises, holds her tongue when possible to avoid conflict with Darcy, who she still perceives as ill-tempered and prone to holding grudges.
Writing a quieter, more careful Elizabeth was a challenge for me, but it paid off when the inevitable confrontation between Darcy and Elizabeth takes place, and even more so as they learn to love and trust each other. I think it gives the ending more power and more joy, but then again, I love all my Darcy/Elizabeth pairs. After all, who couldn’t love them?
Thanks for inviting me!
MR. FITZWILLIAM DARCY: THE LAST MAN IN THE WORLD
IN STORES JANUARY 2010!
In this sexy Jane Austen sequel, Elizabeth Bennet accepts Mr. Darcy's first marriage proposal, answering the "What if...?" question fans everywhere have pondered
" I had not known you a month before I felt that you were the last man in the world whom I could ever be prevailed on to marry."
Famous last words indeed! Elizabeth Bennet's furious response to Mr. Darcy's marriage proposal has resonated for generations of readers. But what if she had never said it? Would she have learned to recognize Mr. Darcy's admirable qualities on her own? Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy follows Elizabeth and Darcy as they struggle to find their way through the maze of their prejudices after Elizabeth, against her better judgment, agrees to marry Darcy instead of refusing his proposal.
Two of the most beloved characters in English literature explore the meaning of true love in a tumultuous and passionate attempt to make a success of their marriage.
About the Author
Abigail Reynolds is a physician and a lifelong Jane Austen enthusiast. She began writing The Pemberley Variations series in 2001, and encouragement from fellow Austen fans convinced her to continue asking “What if…?” She lives with her husband and two teenage children in Madison, Wisconsin. For more information, please visit http://pemberleyvariations.com/
Giveaway: I have 2 copies of Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy: The Last Man in the World up for grabs thanks to Abigail and Sourcebooks generosity. That means 2 winners! Open to US and Canadian readers only. Enter by sharing what you love best about Darcy and Elizabeth. One entry per relevant comment; multiple entries allowed. Ends January 14, 2010.
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December 20th, 2009 — 2 Stars, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Category, Contemporary, Foster/Orphan, P-R, Police, Rape/Abuse, United States of America, Virgin Heroine, Western
I wanted to read another Western story when I selected Rogue Stallion. It’s set in Montana and is part of the Montana Mavericks series in the Silhouette line. I like the yellow and brown cover it reads and feels very Western.
The book itself is kind of average. I finished reading it because it was there, not because it was all that entertaining. It’s not bad, it’s just not that good.
The hero, Sterling McCallum, is a brooding plain clothes cop and ex-military. He grew up in foster care after sending his mother to jail for abuse. He has no family and no real close attachments. He knows he has issues and more specifically one of them is that nobody (especially a woman) lies to him.
The heroine is Jessica Larson. She grew up very sheltered, two parents, no real problems or hardships. She began a career as a social worker in her early twenties. Very early in her career, she went out alone based on a call about spousal abuse and was very badly beaten and nearly raped by the husband who blamed her for his wife leaving him. It’s not something she talks about and she took the hit publicly to protect the wife. Now she is in charge of the local unit and makes sure to send social workers out in twos or more. She too has no real family left.
Both are loners.
Jessica wants a baby, but can’t have babies herself. She couldn’t have them before the attack (supposed improbable at best) but now she definitely can’t have one of her own. Much of the book is focused on Jessica’s deep desire for children. In an effort to find Baby Jennifer’s mother Sterling and Jessica get close.
Rating: 2 Stars
Buy: Rogue Stallion
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December 8th, 2009 — 4 Stars, ARC, Big Misunderstanding, Category, Contemporary, Cursed Lead, Entrepreneur, Executive, United States of America, V-Z
Coming on Strong in three words: kinky, flirtatious, sassy. Bonus on the cover for the sexy as sin hunk. If you're looking for a heroine who owns her sexuality and turns her hero into a pile of mush this is your novel. Weber has a way with words and is very clever. I'm positive you will devour this novel with enthusiasm and delight. I know I did.
Mitch Carter is in trouble. Somebody is sabotaging to his hotel; nothing overt, at least not yet, but he needs to find the culprit before the opening. Meanwhile, his event planner has canceled and he is in desperate need for a new one. Desperate enough in fact to hire the woman who dumped him at the altar for the job.
Belle Forsham has never forgotten Mitch and the stupid way she acted. Her only excuse is that she was young and vulnerable. When Mitch's sister played with her nerves and fears, Belle chickened out of the wedding. Now it's years later and the opportunity to be with Mitch has come again. Grabbing at this second chance, Belle plans to give it all she's got and knock Mitch right off his feet... and if by any stroke of luck she can get him to help her father so much the better.
Problems continue for Mitch after Belle's arrival. He finds himself as strongly attracted to her as he was before. Grown-up Belle packs more of a punch to his gut, tightening him knots right from the very first. Despite his attraction, Mitch is determined to keep it just business between them... and pardon the pun, but it's going to be harder than he expected.
For a Big Misunderstanding plot that is sexy and full of quirky humor pick up Coming on Strong.
Rating: 4 Stars
Originally posted 2009-03-20 05:17:35. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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November 14th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, A-C, ARC, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Estranged, Gentry, Great Britain, Heiress, Jane Austen, Regency
Before I start this review, I would like to make it known I have never read the original Jane Austen novel Emma
. I’ve just seen different movie and mini-series renditions. I know from glancing through the Wikipedia article about Emma that Billington started the sequel with a very similar first sentence to set the mood.
Much of Emma and Knightley is graceful and lovely. The word choices and sentence structures are very poetic. Some of the passages on the other hand are fairly stuffy and take a bit of concentration to slog through. Part of this I must blame on my lack of character knowledge. It might be helpful to some readers to start this novel only after reading Emma or learning more about the characters through cliff notes.
The novel starts approximately one year from Emma and George Knightley’s marriage. They are returned from their honeymoon by the sea and are resettling at Hartfield. Knightley is everything magnanimous to Mr. Woodhouse, Emma’s father, even though Emma knows he would wish them both to be at his home, Donwell Abbey.
Sad news reaches them and the surrounding village town about Jane Churchill’s death in childbirth. Frank Churchill is rumored to be a very bad husband, having spent his time in London well away from his poor wife. When his return to Surrey and Highbury is discovered by Emma, Frank manages to convince her to keep her silence.
Meanwhile there’s trouble in paradise. John Knightley, George’s brother is in bad financial straights. Emma and Knightley are under severe strain to keep this unhappy news both from Mr. Woodhouse and Emma’s sister Isabella who is in confinement.
If that were not enough to worry about, Emma begins to notice more and more how Knightley takes himself off to Robert Martin’s home. At first she resents Robert, but as her insecurities mount she believes Harriet to have supplanted Knightley’s affections for her. A regular comedy of manners is taking place!
There is one character whose back story and later actions seem to be a bit over the top. I am fairly certain this character, Mrs. Philomena Tidmarsh, is new and not found within the original Emma. While I liked the friendship between Philomena and Emma, the rest took away some of my enjoyment for the story.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: Emma & Knightley
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November 10th, 2009 — 4 Stars, Big Misunderstanding, Category, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, G-I, Greece, Love Triangle, Mistaken Identity, Science, Teacher, Writer
This category romance would make a great farcical romantic comedy movie. Just keep reading and you’ll know what I mean.
The Bryants – Jane (heroine), Guy (brother)
The Dysons – Stuart (fiancé), Pauline (future sister-in-law)
Two pairs of brother and sister pretend to be married to each other in order to land a job on an archaeological site in Greece. The heroine is engaged to the brother of the other pair. Her future sister-in-law crushes hard on the site’s leading archaeologist. The dig boss and hero fights falling in love with the heroine. The only supposedly single man on the site falls hard for the future sister-in-law. The only one not romantically inclined is the brother of the heroine.
Sounds crazy? It was!
The hero, Dr. Nikolas Vallas, hates adulterers. He rides hard on the heroine, Jane Bryant, who he sees as the worse of the lot. Guy is either clueless to his wife’s behavior or doesn’t have the masculinity to reign her in or divorce her. Pauline is a creature to pity as she’s utterly clueless to her husband and best friend’s deception. Stuart is a cheating bastard. But Jane--- she takes the cake. She cheats on her husband, with her best friend’s husband, and the son of his long time friend, Tim.
Tim figures out the deception and what Nikolas perceives as more acts of adultery is in fact very innocent. Tim is using Jane as a sounding board for his attempts to win Pauline’s affections. Pauline however is mooning over Nikolas and doesn’t like Tim’s attention one bit. Jane meanwhile is reeling from something Tim said about love. He said something along the lines of “If you’re really in love, you couldn’t wait to be married.” Jane finds herself falling in love with a man who hates everything about her and seems to be falling in love with Pauline.
Petals Drifting is a very erroneous title for the plot. They’re there in the off season for tourists. It’s not fall. It’s more like spring. Anyway, the story is very tense, very quick, and solid. I devoured it.
Rating: 4 Stars
Buy: Petals Drifting
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November 8th, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, 4 Stars, Asia, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Contemporary, Crime and Protection, D-F, Estranged, Great Britain, Journalism, Lawyer, Plump/Endowed Heroine, Travel
There was a different reader for this book. It’s something that bugs me when it comes to series and sequels. Same reader please! Tracie Bennett was okay part of the time.
Sometimes I found her Bridget’s voice too harsh. I absolutely hated the mother’s voice; she sounded like she hated her daughter every time she saw her/spoke to her with the sharp hoarse, “HEh-LLooo DAH-ling.” Darcy sounded like a nancy boy instead of a sharp sexy lawyer.
There was more cursing in this book than the first.
The book and the movie are also very different:
- Plus – storyline is better than movie. Go Helen Fielding.
- Rebecca the Jellyfish is the woman after Mark not Rebecca Gilles. The Rebecca in the book is not a lesbian and is truly after Mark. Bridget is not crazy.
- No Daniel Cleaver, which is where the movie is better than the book. Hurrah for mixed up stories and sightings versus giving the wrong slip of paper. Grant and Firth are hot and dorky when they fight.
- I wasn’t a fan of the Gary the builder/fisher sideline. Seemed more like filler.
Bridget finds out not long after she quit her job with Sit Up Britain in September, that upper management loves her. She supplied 68% of the ideas for the year she worked there, that they produced and put on the show. Talk about awesome! Go Bridget. They want to give her a raise, pay her for the months she wasn’t working for them and call it paid leave, and rehire her as a manager something or other, forget the exact title, or as a consultant. Oh and Richard was fired due to personal reasons a month after she quit. Hurrah!
Rating: 3.5 because of reader, 4 otherwise.
Buy: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (paperback)
, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (audio)
Buy on Audible.com: Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason
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September 18th, 2009 — 1.5 Stars, A-C, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Gentry, Great Britain, Heiress, Mistaken Identity, Regency, Rogues and Rakehells, Secret Agent, Spinster, Teacher, Travel, Virgin Heroine
This was definitely not one of my favorite novels. Not only did Boyle use hair color to give stereotypical traits to the heroine, but the big reveal didn’t feel so big! Major bummer! As Susan would say thank goodness I’m FF (finally finished)!
A kiss can change the fates of nations. It certainly changed the fate of one Miss Miranda Mabberly. She was going to marry an impoverished (or at least highly strapped for funds) Earl and become a Countess but one kiss altered everything, including the world on its axis.
Miranda’s family force her to flee London into the country and into permanent hiding from the shame of that kiss. Along the way she manages to make it back to Miss Emery’s Establishment and gain a teaching position in decorum (irony at its best) under a new name. It’s been nine years since that kiss and Miranda can still recall its flavor of it.
Mad Jack Tremont or Lord John can too. Poorer than a church mouse, he’s been banished to the country seat where disgraced relatives of the Tremont’s have been living for generations. When crossing Miss Porter’s prim façade and tightly wound red hair, Jack can’t help but think of ways to seduce her out of her hairpins.
Rating: 1.5 Stars
Buy: This Rake of Mine
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September 14th, 2009 — 2 Stars, A-C, Architect, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Children, Great Britain, Handicap, Heiress, Historical Romance, Rogues and Rakehells, Scarred Hero, Virgin Heroine
Merrick and Maddie were young, impulsive, and madly in love with each other. A wild dash across England through Scotland to Gretna Green ends in marriage and betrayal. For the dashing young lad Merrick MacLachlan, this mad run would be his last act of reckless spontaneity. When Maddie’s father catches up with them – he does all in his power to break them apart and succeeds.
Merrick is beaten, trampled, and whipped and left to die. He wakes up alone, in pain and forever scarred. He tries to get in touch with Maddie but his letters go unanswered. When Merrick manages to stumble free from the hellhole he was left in back to Maddie’s childhood home he is not received. The news he receives there wretches his heart out of his chest as he realizes what a fool he’s been. Maddie has married another man and is touring Europe.
It is nearly thirteen years before they meet again quite by accident. Maddie’s second husband is dead and she is desperate to find help for her son, Geoffrey, who experiences visions of accidents/death or something similar. London is her best shot to help him. I’m sure you can guess that Geoffrey was Merrick’s son and that her marriage to her second husband is not at all what it seemed. Her choices were slim and her circumstances were grave and she thought Merrick had used her to gain her fortune. Marrying again was her only hope.
Almost immediately after seeing each other for the first time in so many years Maddie and Merrick exchange their versions of the past events that led to their marriage being dissolved. Unfortunately, Merrick and Maddie, are incredibly stupid. I’m not sure they have ears and they don’t listen to each other both so certain they were the wronged party and both so certain the other one is a cruel-hearted bastard. It gets really irritating after the second/third time through explanations. Somehow they manage to extract themselves from their past in order to see a future with each other – then amazingly they both take the risk to trust the other and fall in love again.
Rating: 2 Stars
Originally posted 2008-09-17 05:54:44. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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July 22nd, 2009 — 3.5 Stars, A-C, Big Misunderstanding, Book Review, Comedy of Manners, Gentry, Great Britain, Jane Austen, Regency, Virgin Heroine
These Three Remain is the last installment of the Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman Trilogy by Pamela Aidan. This is the one you’ve all been waiting for, or at least is the one I’ve been waiting for. It starts just before Darcy’s trip to Rosings and goes through to the final proposal.
It’s very long and engrossing, practically too long, if I had any complaints. I was sorely tempted to pull out my (oddly enough a very neglected) copy of Pride and Prejudice to compare both proposal texts. In the end I decided against doing that in case Aidan took liberties because I would enjoy the book more without knowing.
Moreover, Aidan wraps the time period more firmly into the piece than Austen. Darcy’s friend, Dy, is back and is revealed to be something other than he is. A lot of words are devoted to this end and with Dy in the picture as Darcy’s best friend, Bingley comes in second rate. Additionally, Colonel Fitzwilliam is proven correct on Dy’s feelings toward Miss Darcy.
I’m not really sure why this whole segment is really necessary or for that matter Dy’s character in general. Dy’s contacts come in handy with tracking down Wickham and Lydia but as is mentioned by Aidan through Darcy there were other elements already in place to that end.
Darcy’s original proposal and backlash is fantastic. I love how it takes him a while to really grasp what Elizabeth meant. He is determined to become a better man because of her. He thought he was the man he always wanted to be or at least well on the way to becoming that man until the proposal in Kent.
How Bingley and Darcy patch up is another good scene. Not nearly as exciting as I had hoped, but decent. I was surprised to see it happen as it did in the timeline, having expected it earlier. As it was it happened after Bingley returned to Hertfordshire but before his proposal to Jane.
I think the most intriguing piece in the whole story however is the interview with his aunt. Very rewarding! I always wanted to know how that went.
Overall a very strong finish.
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Buy: These Three Remain
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May 25th, 2009 — 2 Stars, ARC, Big Misunderstanding, Contemporary, D-F, Great Britain, Guest Reviews, Pregnant
By: Zarabeth, guest reviewer
I give props to Holly's Inbox
for being constructed using a very unique style of writing; however as a read the whole going through email thing… well there’s a lot of narrative I missed. I wanted more when I had less. That last statement is kind of cryptic so I’ll explain a bit further. It would sometimes take 3-6 days before a new email showed up to share the background behind something that was mentioned.
You really feel like an outsider, because Holly clearly knows what all is being said and what it refers to but as a voyeur to her story, I felt pretty clueless at times. I wish that as a reader I was enlightened sooner. Overall I must say I was not a fan of reading through email.
The romance part was sketchy at best because they weren’t writing romantic love letters to each other. No poetic prose for me to sigh over. Instead of wildly romantic notes it was just the barest, the most vague of details. As a reader, we only know what she tells the other secretary in email so a lot was not very clear it bothered me…
The story came together eventually and it’s definitely a Happily Ever After. It was nice, but the email format not so much. That sentiment is probably redundant at this point, but clearly the formatting wasn’t for me. I hear there’s a book that’s all done with instant messaging style, ttfn (Internet Girls)
, and I certainly won’t go looking for that. The idea of that is just excruciating.
Rating: 2 Stars
Buy: Holly's Inbox
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