Description: Violet Hawthorne is beyond mortified when her brother Ezra turns their deceased parents' New England country inn into a brothel to accommodate the nearby lumberjacks; but when Violet's own reputation is compromised, the inn becomes the least of her worries. In an effort to salvage her good name, Violet is forced into an engagement with a taciturn acquaintance; Vance Everstone.
As she prepares for a society wedding, Violet learns that her brother had staked her hand in marriage in a heated poker game with the unsavory Rowen Steele, and Ezra had lost. Now Rowen is determined to cash in on his IOU. With danger stalking her and a new fiance who hides both his emotion and his past, Violet must decide who to trust and who to leave behind.
My Thoughts: I am fairly torn on this novel. The first few chapters were not as interesting as I had hoped (outside of the hair repining scene) because Vance and Violet's brother continuously refused to tell her information that they should have, seemingly all in the name of building suspense.
Once Violet and Vance's engagement came about, the story quickly turned around. The relationship between the two was amazingly realistic and dealt with the issue of temptation before marriage, which I think is an important subject matter. As well, the author managed to show the role faith should have in someone's life without preaching or really even talking about it. The reader knows that Vance is different than he used to be and that Violet now often sees him reading his Bible, which allows the reader to actually SEE just how large a part God plays in his life instead of having to be told.
Yet the ending of the book was also not my favorite. It seemed to suddenly splinter into a number of different conflicts when only one of them was really necessary. For most readers, this ending will not matter as much as it did to me (obviously, based on the novel's ratings). However, in my opinion it was far too many sudden changes in how the characters were behaving for me to enjoy it as I had the rest of the book.
Because of how much I enjoyed the middle of the book, I will likely pick of the rest in the series. They should still be worth the read and I have hope that I might enjoy them more.
I have provided an honest review after having received a copy of this book through the Bookfun network and the author.
No comments:
Post a Comment