Series: Seven Brides for Seven Scotsmen, #3
Tropes & Traits: heroine is a healer, helps hero's brother
Publication Date: 08.27.19
Genre/Setting: Historical; American
Rating: 2/5
With the Civil War finally at an end, Scottish immigrant to the U.S. Geordie MacEnroy decides to ease his wanderlust and a craving to see the ocean by indulging in a trip to Maine with his brother, Robbie. He finds a seaside haven at the home of the lovely Mehitabel Ampleford when he helps her chase off an increasingly violent group of men after her land. Belle skillfully treats injuries Robbie sustained as a result of the war and which never healed and Geordie begins to grow more and more attracted to her. But Geordie's life and family is in Missouri and after fighting so hard for her home and land, Belle is unlikely to leave it behind, even for love.
I try to be very lenient and understanding in reviews and to never leave a book unfinished, especially knowing how difficult the writing process is, but this one was a struggle. I skimmed quite a bit of it after awhile, looking for improvement, and found none. To be fair, this is the third book in a series and I haven't read the fist two, so I expected some confusion with regard to the characters, but even new characters didn't make much sense to me because the storyline and writing was so all over the place and made little sense at times. I've read this author before and while those stories weren't all time favorites or anything, they were enjoyable reads. It's almost as if this one wasn't even written by the same person. Even if it hadn't been so disjointed, the pacing was slow and rather tedious, with numerous scenes that didn't really fit and did little to advance the story. There was a distinct lack of dialogue and even interaction between the hero and heroine; it is simply stated that there is an attraction between them and bam, several pages later they're in bed. It took a quarter of the book before the heroine even appeared on the page.
Beyond all that, the writing itself also threw me because of the distinct lack of pronouns. I'm not sure why this choice was made but it was so prevalent it must have been intentional. This may not bother anyone else, but reading things like "Should be able to do it myself soon." or "Heavy decision to make." (this last in reference to whether or not to keep an old pan), annoyed me. Yes, the subject is clear enough, but this is a pet peeve of mine and just made conversations between characters seem even more disjointed and the characters flat. It was also hard to keep track of what was going on because some scenes mentioned it being morning, then afternoon, then morning again in the same scene. It seemed like there was a lot of filler to add not much substance. There were other storylines brought together sporadically that also served to add some confusion and make the story feel convoluted, but there was just so much potential here it makes me sad to write such a review.
To be fair, I read an ARC, so some of this may be much better in the final published version, but I think there are too many issues with the plot itself to be wholly resolved. It's not up to Ms. Howell's usual standards.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
I try to be very lenient and understanding in reviews and to never leave a book unfinished, especially knowing how difficult the writing process is, but this one was a struggle. I skimmed quite a bit of it after awhile, looking for improvement, and found none. To be fair, this is the third book in a series and I haven't read the fist two, so I expected some confusion with regard to the characters, but even new characters didn't make much sense to me because the storyline and writing was so all over the place and made little sense at times. I've read this author before and while those stories weren't all time favorites or anything, they were enjoyable reads. It's almost as if this one wasn't even written by the same person. Even if it hadn't been so disjointed, the pacing was slow and rather tedious, with numerous scenes that didn't really fit and did little to advance the story. There was a distinct lack of dialogue and even interaction between the hero and heroine; it is simply stated that there is an attraction between them and bam, several pages later they're in bed. It took a quarter of the book before the heroine even appeared on the page.
Beyond all that, the writing itself also threw me because of the distinct lack of pronouns. I'm not sure why this choice was made but it was so prevalent it must have been intentional. This may not bother anyone else, but reading things like "Should be able to do it myself soon." or "Heavy decision to make." (this last in reference to whether or not to keep an old pan), annoyed me. Yes, the subject is clear enough, but this is a pet peeve of mine and just made conversations between characters seem even more disjointed and the characters flat. It was also hard to keep track of what was going on because some scenes mentioned it being morning, then afternoon, then morning again in the same scene. It seemed like there was a lot of filler to add not much substance. There were other storylines brought together sporadically that also served to add some confusion and make the story feel convoluted, but there was just so much potential here it makes me sad to write such a review.
To be fair, I read an ARC, so some of this may be much better in the final published version, but I think there are too many issues with the plot itself to be wholly resolved. It's not up to Ms. Howell's usual standards.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2629696704?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
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