Jane Corrie

This was a fun little book. I liked both the hero, Cal, and the heroine, Della. There were a few times though when I questioned the hero's actions. Punishing her for wanting to go to a dance for example. Not that he hit her or anything. He just took her to a barn dance and made her dance the square dances without any instruction or rest to teach her better than to want to kick up her heels?

Then he says "Had enough?" he asked softly. "Yes, thank you!" she bit out, quite understanding the silent message: in other words, so much for her liking dancing. There would be no more parties or dancing while she resided at Rimmer's Way, and if Cal didn't see to that Della would!

Heaven forbid she might want to see a movie someday.

Still he did say that he was bad with women. And he definitely was if he couldn't see that having the cute but malicious neighbor girl spend every waking hour with them was sabotaging his marriage.

Also large parts of the book were covered by words like Cal spent the next week trying to court her but then gave up. Show me some of those courting scenes. For heavens sake that's what makes a romance not lots of scenes with a jealous school girl. That sort of thing was the biggest reason it didn't score higher for me. More show, less tell. I did feel the ending was a bit too short and simplistic too. But I guess it matched the tone of the book overall.

So I enjoyed it and will probably try more by the author but it had some flaws.… (mais)

You have got to be shitting me. That was the all time lousiest ending ever written in a romance novel. There I was happily reading along about an ass hat hero who treated the heroine like dirt and worse than dirt. Knowing that he was going to fall in love with her and there would be some nice I love you's and please don't leave me's. But WTF? Could someone please write a real ending for this book? The lame "I'm happy with the wife I have and don't want to go through all that rigamarole of having to get married again" that was the only declaration of any kind. Crap that totally made any enjoyment I got out of the downtrodden mistreated but ultimately staunch heroine totally worthless.

I'm telling you the book could have been old skool brilliant with the right ending but this was so far from that that I'm left with my jaw hanging open.

4 stars for the first 180 pages of the story. -10 stars for the last page and a half.

… (mais)

Thea calls off her engagement to handsome and wealthy Marcus because she thinks he only proposed to her because he feels responsible for her after her brother's death. (Her brother, Michael, had worked for Marcus, and Thea came to the Virgin Islands at Michael's request. Michael died in a car crash before her arrival.) Thea now sets off on her own trying to become more independent, only to find that she can't get rid of Marcus so easily.

The St. Thomas, Virgin Islands setting was nice. I liked the jobs that Thea had--first as a hotel receptionist, and then at a beach café. Thea was likable but I didn't like Marcus. He was too overbearing and dictatorial. When he was trying to "win" Thea back, he treated her more like a child he could boss around instead of someone he supposedly cared about, and therefore, he ruined the book for me.… (mais)