Willy W. reviewed on + 503 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
After reading three books (I read a later book from the series first), Grace Burrowes' long-winded storytelling has gotten on my nerves. As well as the "terrible secret" that has the heroine in every book tied up in knots and assuming she can never marry or be happy (over what winds up being pretty trivial), each book has long periods of absolutely nothing happening. Burrowes' style is not particularly faithful to the period, people "my lady" and "my lord" while at the same time sitting at the dinner table with servants. I may not be an expert on how things were in England in the early 1800's but I'm pretty sure that taking meals with your cook or governess would be quite uncommon if not unheard of.
The story of Emmie, Winnie, and Devlin worked for the most part. I was occasionally jarred by seemingly contradictory behaviors and statments of the main characters. Emmie deeply loves and is raising Winnie however at the start of the book the child is filthy, skinny, starving, and alone. Devlin wants the child to leave immediately and in fact yells at her to depart at the start of the book. The next thing you know he intends to care for her forever. It's confusing.
Most confusing is the tender physical relationship that Devlin has with not one but two different men in the book. If I didn't know better, I would have thought certain scenes were leading to some sexy guy-on-guy action. Men half-naked together, hugging, rubbing each other's backs, crying togther. One of the men started the story as a near stranger and suddenly they're rubbing lotion on each other? It seemed weird and out of place and context.
Too many references to Emmie's menses for no story-propelling purpose. If she'd eventually been late or something it would have made more sense to build a back story of it being discussed. But instead it was just repeatedly mentioned for no real reason. That it is a fact of life doesn't make it a necessary story element. It's only necessary if a man and woman are together 24 hours a day for a month. The inevitability of that fact becomes a story point and not mentioning it would be odd (like books where people spend 20 hours together and the woman never has to pee).
I do still enjoy Burrowes books but I'm not in a hurry to read another.
The story of Emmie, Winnie, and Devlin worked for the most part. I was occasionally jarred by seemingly contradictory behaviors and statments of the main characters. Emmie deeply loves and is raising Winnie however at the start of the book the child is filthy, skinny, starving, and alone. Devlin wants the child to leave immediately and in fact yells at her to depart at the start of the book. The next thing you know he intends to care for her forever. It's confusing.
Most confusing is the tender physical relationship that Devlin has with not one but two different men in the book. If I didn't know better, I would have thought certain scenes were leading to some sexy guy-on-guy action. Men half-naked together, hugging, rubbing each other's backs, crying togther. One of the men started the story as a near stranger and suddenly they're rubbing lotion on each other? It seemed weird and out of place and context.
Too many references to Emmie's menses for no story-propelling purpose. If she'd eventually been late or something it would have made more sense to build a back story of it being discussed. But instead it was just repeatedly mentioned for no real reason. That it is a fact of life doesn't make it a necessary story element. It's only necessary if a man and woman are together 24 hours a day for a month. The inevitability of that fact becomes a story point and not mentioning it would be odd (like books where people spend 20 hours together and the woman never has to pee).
I do still enjoy Burrowes books but I'm not in a hurry to read another.
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