Book Notes: September 14, 2022 - Historical Romance

 Welcome back, dear readers! I hope you're having a great week so far. I just discovered I'm five books behind schedule. I knew reading a one-volume collection would probably set me back. 😞 It's kind of daunting to realize you're five books behind schedule on your Goodreads reading challenge. I'll be reading some more of the R.C. Sproul short nonfiction in the next few weeks, so maybe I can catch up. But I'm going to also keep reading the entertaining books, too. I have a couple reviews of those to share with you today. 

Book Review: Breed's Mail-Order Bride by Cia Leah

BREED'S MAIL ORDER BRIDE by Cia Leah
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If we could give partial stars, I'd generously give this story 3.75, but a few technical issues keep it from being four in my opinion. There were several instances where the dialog didn't match the character. In a couple places, the wrong character's name was used and/or the spelling changed.
So why the generous rating? I liked the simple story. It was clean, fanciful, and interesting enough to keep me turning pages. I believe it was worth the price I paid. If you're looking for a clean, historical romance which is short, and you don't mind a few typos, then I'll recommend this one to you.

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Book Review: Crumpets and Cowpies (Baker City Brides #1) by Shanna Hatfield

Crumpets and Cowpies by Shanna Hatfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Loved the plot idea! The story flowed a little slowly for me. I read it as part of a collection which I'd thought was all inspirational romance. This book is technically clean, but pushes at the boundaries too much for my liking. The characters were interesting, though, and there were some funny parts. If you enjoy clean, historical romance with a bit of spice, you might enjoy this book.

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Further Thoughts on These Two Books

I was so excited to get a collection of clean, sweet cowboy romances. Imagine my disappointment when I'd already read three of the six stories in the volume. However, I can tell you that of those, I recommend most of those authors on a regular basis. 

Shanna Hatfield, however, should be approached with the knowledge that her MCs almost always lead with attraction and passion and that the building of their actual relationship doesn't always come across so strongly. I have a problem with that because passions burn out and looks fade over time. 

I prefer a story which presents a couple whose relationship is formed slowly, but steadily and based more on trust, respect, and deep, abiding love. So I hardly ever recommend Shanna's books with five stars. She scraped by with a four-star for Crumpets and Cowpies for the reasons I listed in the review. 

As for Breed's Mail-Order Bride by Cia Leah, I was interested in reading the work of an unknown (to me) author. The story was interesting enough, and fanciful enough, to keep me reading. There were definitely some unrealistic chunks, which might turn some readers off. I felt they worked well enough to create an enjoyable fairytale. 

The technical issues were troublesome for me. I wanted to give this book a higher rating but with the amount of technical issues going on between the cover, it would've been a lie. Still, if you can get past the technical mistakes, it's an enjoyable story and good for winding down at the end of the day. 

I know my post is late going out today (no matter what the time-stamp says) and I apologize for that. I've been studying in the mornings and it's taking me longer than I expect to finish up. I'll still keep putting the 10:00 am stamp on the posts, for a consistent look, but please forgive me when I'm tardy. 

I'm looking forward to autumn. This week, we're having some cooler weather and our windows are wide open today to catch the slight breezes blowing through. I love fresh air and being able to freshen the air in our home. An open window seems to invigorate me and spark creative flow even better than my morning coffee! 

I hope you'll check back, at least on Friday. I should have a couple more chapters of the short story I'm working on from that first word prompt post I shared a couple Fridays ago. I've been having fun with it, for the most part. 

I may also be able to post a word prompt tomorrow, so you can check back for that if you enjoy little writing challenges.

Until next time,

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