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Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Review of Upon Your Return, by Marie Lavender

I won this in a Facebook giveaway, and promised my honest opinion, which I give below. Please bear in mind that it is likely I would never have read this book on my own, and that may have an impact on what readers think of my review. 

Well, I finished it, and I wasn't very impressed with this novel. I always try to find positive things to say about books I review, but I'm having trouble with this one. The only reason I gave it 3 stars was because there were a few cute scenes between the couple, and despite all the confusion I felt, I rather liked Grant. And even Fara, when she wasn't insane. I also quite liked Eric.

I was mostly confused by the dialog and the logic. I called Fara insane: she went hot and cold on Grant, thinking one thing and then saying the complete opposite, so often I thought surely she wasn't playing with a full deck. The repetition of "what society expects" was tedious as well as incomprehensible.I have read other historical romances and never been so boggled. 

It was also just...long. If you factor what the story really was, and took out all the repetition and convoluted conversations, it would have been about half the length.

It could use a good editing - in form, function, and story execution. And maybe I'm not as funny as I like to think I am, but I can't help saying, if the author reads this... You keep using this word, "diversely"... I do not think it means what you think it means. (The word you were looking for is conversely.)

However limited my experience of historical romances, I have read more than a few and enjoyed them, so I am not completely ignorant of the genre. Granted, I think the only fiction I previously read set entirely in France was Les Miserables (the unabridged version - so you can see I'm not simply put off by long fiction.)

Anyway, I don't think I'll be reading any more books by this author. I very nearly didn't finish this one.


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