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sarah_moynihan's review
5.0
I really enjoyed this novella. It followed the same theme as the first of the series, where two siblings trade places in order to be with the person they love. But all the ways that it didn't work for me in the The Wrong Brother, it really worked in this one. Though as a general rule I don't care to read books centered around when characters purposely lie to and deceive another character, but in this book the reasoning for the deceit was well founded and done in the best interest of the character whom they were deceiving.
While out for a ride his brother, Will falls from his horse and strikes his head. When he wakes up, he has forgotten the last five years of his life. Therefore forgetting his marriage from about a year prior and his beloved wife.
I really felt for Catherine, such a hard thing to see the person you love so much look at you and not see and ounce of recognition or love in their eyes. Will feels so guilty for inadvertantly hurting her every time they see one another that she despairs of a way for them to find their way back to the connection they had before his accident. Therefore when her sister suggests she take on the guise of her so that she can interact with Will without him feeling pressure or fearing hurting her, she is hesitant but willing to try. While acting as her sister, she assumes her name, but not her personality, so that he may hopefully feel some sense of recognition and attraction to the woman he loved. By simply behaving as she normally would, he starts to feel an attraction to her quite quickly, but he is naturally ashamed of himself for thinking he is capable of feeling so attracted to his supposed sister-in-law while he cannot seem to feel anything for the woman he believes to be his wife.
The charade nearly goes on too ong though. Had it gone on any longer I probably would have lost interest in the plot and lost respect for the characters. As it is when the truth is revealed Will is rightfully, confused and upset by the deception. Further everything he thought he knew has already changed twice now in such a short amount of time that he's not quite sure what to believe now. But the time happens to be just right and things come right in the end, and although he has not yet and may never remember their shared past, there is hope it may come back to him now that they are together with so many reminders of their time together. But failing that, they have at least found their way back to one another, and for that I was happy for them.
Even though the premise of this novella was frankly far-fetched, Bree Wold made it work and it didn't feel at all rediculous or silly. I was wary of this one at first, because it had so many similarities to the first of the series, which I wasn't a huge fan of. But I really enjoyed this one. Even though there are parallels between the two, they really are completely different.
This book can serve as a stand alone, you don't need to have read the previous two in the series to understand what is going on. Anything relevant to this story from past books is explained so there's no confusion. But I suggest you read them all anyway. There fun and quick to read, a great novella series, so why not?
*I received a copy of this book form the author in exchange for and honest reveiw.
While out for a ride his brother, Will falls from his horse and strikes his head. When he wakes up, he has forgotten the last five years of his life. Therefore forgetting his marriage from about a year prior and his beloved wife.
I really felt for Catherine, such a hard thing to see the person you love so much look at you and not see and ounce of recognition or love in their eyes. Will feels so guilty for inadvertantly hurting her every time they see one another that she despairs of a way for them to find their way back to the connection they had before his accident. Therefore when her sister suggests she take on the guise of her so that she can interact with Will without him feeling pressure or fearing hurting her, she is hesitant but willing to try. While acting as her sister, she assumes her name, but not her personality, so that he may hopefully feel some sense of recognition and attraction to the woman he loved. By simply behaving as she normally would, he starts to feel an attraction to her quite quickly, but he is naturally ashamed of himself for thinking he is capable of feeling so attracted to his supposed sister-in-law while he cannot seem to feel anything for the woman he believes to be his wife.
The charade nearly goes on too ong though. Had it gone on any longer I probably would have lost interest in the plot and lost respect for the characters. As it is when the truth is revealed Will is rightfully, confused and upset by the deception. Further everything he thought he knew has already changed twice now in such a short amount of time that he's not quite sure what to believe now. But the time happens to be just right and things come right in the end, and although he has not yet and may never remember their shared past, there is hope it may come back to him now that they are together with so many reminders of their time together. But failing that, they have at least found their way back to one another, and for that I was happy for them.
Even though the premise of this novella was frankly far-fetched, Bree Wold made it work and it didn't feel at all rediculous or silly. I was wary of this one at first, because it had so many similarities to the first of the series, which I wasn't a huge fan of. But I really enjoyed this one. Even though there are parallels between the two, they really are completely different.
This book can serve as a stand alone, you don't need to have read the previous two in the series to understand what is going on. Anything relevant to this story from past books is explained so there's no confusion. But I suggest you read them all anyway. There fun and quick to read, a great novella series, so why not?
*I received a copy of this book form the author in exchange for and honest reveiw.
pelicanfreak's review
1.0
Cover:
Pretty colors but graphically, looks amateur. Gives the book a look of unprofessionalism; that turned out to be fitting as clearly nothing professional was ever involved with the production of this book.
Editing/Proofing:
A professional editor clearly wasn't involved or I wouldn't have found instances of things like the wrong to/too and your/you're.. also I'd recommend an editor for the sake of continuity- since the author clearly doesn't know what this is.
Character development:
Really, there was no character development. There were no personal traits that distinguished them from one another. All fell very flat for me; this could've been because they were all the same.
Continuity:
Pretty lacking. I'd have more to say on this, except I cannot comment on what doesn't exist. A professional editor could help with the lack of continuity.
Also the book was set in the early 1800s but the manner of speaking rarely matched this. There were appropriate phrases thrown in but, they ended up just standing out since it wasn't the norm. I suspect this is considered by the author a 'historical romance' but I wasn't taken back into the past like I do with historical pieces that are well done. I found it awkward and frankly: painful at times.
Plot:
Well... this exact plot has been done before in romance books as well as movies and... nope, I cannot respect it. I respect originality - this book has none. So I can't say it has no plot but... it has no original plot so that is disappointing.
Overall... probably not even worthy of one star since it's a complete rip-off of storylines that are already out there and the author couldn't be bothered to give the characters individual personalities. She mentions use of beta readers; I'd give her one star for effort but.. they aren't doing her any favors if they aren't pointing out the things I've already mentioned. I realize it's part of a series, but I've no desire to find out what happens next or what happened before. It's just so underwhelming. I'm only sad I spent any of my time on this, as I'll never get that back. Even at the .99 it's listed at, it's over priced, considering zero professionalism is involved.
Most things have 'been done before' - that isn't the issue here. Lack of originality can usually still at least achieve mediocracy - however, in this instance, mediocracy would be a vast improvement.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/edit/32618070#
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