All righty then...It has been several years since I have read a Julianne Maclean novel and I am remembering why I stopped. Her American Heiresses series started out all right with To Marry the Duke but by the time the 4th out of eventual 6 books came out, I was pretty much done with it even though I did buy and read all six. Sometimes I am a glutton for punishment. I also tried the first 2 books of her Highlander trilogy, but they lost my interest even sooner so I didn't bother with the 3rd. I say all this so that no one can accuse me of not giving an author a chance. When I saw that this particular book was free through I-book, I decided to give it a try anyhow. Who can turn down a free book that seems interesting? I can't!
I realized within the first couple of chapters that I may be in the middle of a series, so I looked it up on GoodReads and found that yes, this is the 4th out of 6 book series. Ms. Maclean does a good job of not making the reader feel that there is more of a back story so I decided to continue on with the story. The beginning is really well done. I felt that the prologue was a good teaser, the first two chapters where we meet the heroine and hero are interesting, and even though the family is large (hence the six books!!!) I didn't feel the least bit lost or confused.
My issues really started about halfway into the story and it was all about the plot. I was having a real problem believing that the mother would bring an ex-lover/father of her last 2 children into the house to care for her elderly husband. I also wasn't buying the instant lust/sleeping together that was going on between Garrett and Anne. Yes, they were going to be married within a week or so, but after listening to both of them go on and on about how they refused to be trapped it just seemed a little out of character that they would decide to do the opposite. In the midst of all this, we have a dotty father who apparently has become all sweet and saintly as opposed to mean and gruff which is how he spent the first 70 years of his life, a maybe haunted house that never really gets explained (maybe book 6?), a not so surprising reveal that the doctor is more than he appears, a race to have a marriage by Christmas Eve to satisfy terms of a will, and a series of memories from Garrett about a boating accident he was in.
Garrett's lamenting about the boating accident is understandable - at first - especially since several people passed away in it including his pregnant fiancee and her young nephew. I was feeling very sorry for Garrett since I am sure it would be traumatic for anyone and definitely a cause for bad dreams. I stopped feeling badly for him when he tells Anne that the only reason he was engaged to the girl on the boat was because she "became conveniently pregnant". OK, for me that just crossed the line into jerkdom. This is the 1800's we are talking about. All the power of a lady becoming pregnant, OR NOT, laid solely with the man. This wasn't a case of her lying about taking birth control, he made her pregnant. So apparently we are to believe that is since one woman tricked him (by this I mean continued their mutual affair until the inevitable happened) into marriage, he decided that he would still marry to get his inheritance but only if he lived apart from the bride. I also lost all respect for Anne at this point since she spent time telling him how honorable he is and of course she understood why he was keeping her at arms length since he has trust issues. Of course, she is doing this while she is in bed with him!!!!
So the book ended on a bad note for me. I'm not going to touch on the whole Christmas Eve marriage/not marriage thing. How can a will have repercussions when the guy isn't even dying? And why didn't the sons just fight it in court since the dad was clearly having major mental issues? And lastly, why have a prologue that has nothing to do with the end of the story when it supposedly takes place? I mean, it is possible I missed it, but I don't think so.
In the end, this is a two star book for me. Good writing, very good beginning, terrible plot, and ultimately, not a likable hero. I am happy it was free, though. Now I just need to delete it off my I Pad!
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