Donna Smith

Wanted to like this and find another author in this genre...but alas. Characters seemed flat and mechanistic, conflict contrived and unengaging. Oddly in need of editing (how many times can we say “townhome” in the first three chapters?). A third of the way through and I still didn't believe in or care about the characters? DNF.

Ehhh... So, I was really interested in this title. Religiously celibate adults exploring relationships! Complex relationships to the meaning of sexuality and identity! The potential for really interesting, deep character development! Smartypants is usually a good bet!

Alas.

I wanted something nuanced and really revealing of what would be in the mind of someone who had chosen to join then leave a religious order, remained religious after leaving, and was making decisions post-institutional life about sexuality and independence, etc. Instead, this book is just a rom com, where “just” means “fairly flat characters that don't demand that much of you” (“...except a suspension of disbelief just a scritch too far for me.”)

While there were a few points of world building that showed the author had done some research (a dispensation from the Vatican to leave the order, the difference between novitiates and sisters and nuns, etc.), by and large I DNF at 40% convinced she hadn't read any biographies of people leaving the religious life, or really knew any Christians who were at any point in their lives committed to celibacy as a spiritual practice. (Such as I, for instance.) And it would have been SO INTERESTING if so, and I would have read the whole book in that case. Instead, the club of former nuns all seem to have opinions about sexuality that feels formed by a culture not in contact with the Church, and this seemed unlikely and uninteresting. I mean, of course “not all former celibate religious” and all that, and yet...

The scene that made me put down the book was someone who had previously been introduced as super observant of all the details around him as a habit of mind and a requirement of his job wandered into a mall store (while tailing someone!!) without realizing what kind of store it was and then clumsily knocking down displays. Blah. I don't want a bumbling comedy, I want a smart comedy! Poor me.

Maybe I should go back to reading non-fiction theology of sexuality (I see you there, Debra Hirsch!) and stick to romance books that don't engage religiousity at all because I just can't with this. Sexuality is SO interesting and so is spirituality!! Come on, Romancelandia, I want more nuanced characters who are actually religious, or who have a relationship to celibacy that is shaped partly or largely by religious convictions. I'd like to read those! (And, queue my usual rant about being unable to find any romance books published in the “Christian” genre with good character development and smart authors, blah blah blah, feel free to correct my misapprehensions.)

Dying for others–what an interesting new idea in an increasingly clicheed genre of urban fantasy. Good research and actually exploring what might be going on emotionally/biochemically in a death/rebirth situation. (Not actually scientifically convincing–still just ���and then something unexplained and medical-mumbo-jumbo happens”, but at least one feels the author has pondered some of this on a medical level.) What left me not willing to continue the series was character development that didn't have the same research/thought and just devolved into two-dimensional clichees, such as the love triangle (yawn), and the silly sister who was more of a plot device than a person.
Better concept than lots of the read-one-read-them-all urban fantasies proliferating currently. I wish there was better character development.

The good: realistic and interesting life-in-wheelchair details, including how it complicates romantic relationships.
The bad: badly written characters. if the plot needed someone to suddenly be the bad guy, a character who had previously been utterly reliable, the fairy godmother, someone that we were told we could trust, would suddenly be selfish, irrational and mean, then in the next scene when they were needed to be good, back they were to being good. This was true of supporting as well as main characters–this isn't a book that embraces the “show, not tell” or even the “explore real cause and effect in the human psyche” domains of writing. I finished it...but a week later I've already forgotten much but a vague sense of annoyance at the writing and a vague sense of interest in what I learned about living with spinal injuries and quadriplegia. As a pamphlet, it works; as a novel, not so much.

Hazelwood is just...so skillful at the writing things I care about. She writes characters with realistic problems who are already on the road to growing into who they should be, not having to be convinced by 75% through the book that they should take the first baby steps on the road to recovery. Friends are loyal to each other, and friendships between peers and men and women feel real. Believably quirky and believably smart people interacting in believable ways. Interesting, interesting problems (professional, personal, systemic). Sex isn't a decoration but literarily a tool of developing character, plot, conflict, etc. (It's not gratuitous, though may I say–the content warning should be heeded.) Skillfuly plotted (and edited–I see you there, editor, shaping this so tightly and making every scene and paragraph count) with believably complex conflict...which is a subject in need of a verb, but I'm going to bed, so, whatever.

Anyway, I'm still processing, and since the last few books I've gotten though have been fine but also kind of meh, I'm re-reading this one instantly to appreciate how all the threads are woven together, and because I'm in the bush for a month and want to re-read something so I shall. Maybe I'll go back and re-read Bride. Just because Hazelwood is skillful and insightful and good.

I those “Hazelwood is not for me” reviews and I feel you, as that's been my chief reaction to about 8 books I started in the past few weeks. However, “Hazelwood's books are for me” might be the TL;DR of this review.

Edit: I re-read the book the day after I read it the first time I'm in the bush and there's not a lot to do, so why not re-read a book I gobbled down too quickly the first time? I also wanted to pick appart what about it worked so well for me, to wit:
-Gender relations. I love how men and women treat each other (the heroes, not the villains) with honesty, friendship, in integral community.
-Multiculturalism/multi-nationalism assumed. The interesting last (and first) names! The people in any of Hazelwood's worlds are just varied in nationality/ethnicity in a totally assumed way where nobody is a token. This matches my world (I'm an expatriate American living in the western Pacific).
-No wasted background characters, scenes, details, or conflicts, and no tropey tropes. The details are complex and interesting and exist to further the characters and plot. Anything that approaches a trope is of sufficient complexity to make me think, “Ah! This kind of poignant situation is why this devolved into tropes, but this just feels like life.”
-Honesty is sexy. What does he like about her? “incessant honesty.” What is he like, asks her friend? “Honest.” Swoon! I love, love characters who tell the truth.
-Communication is sexy. These characters know their own minds pretty well and are willing to communicate. I LOVE that.
-But also: I wish there were fewer sex scenes and f-bombs; my preference would be for fewer (or none; I'm in this genre for the emotional journey not the sex details).

OK, now I'm off to re-read some other Hazelwood. Woot!

2 1/2 stars
Held my interest enough to finish–I liked the development of the relationship of the engaged couple, coming to terms with who they were deeper down and choosing to grow in love for each other–but the mystery seemed pretty obvious, and everyone was rescued with minimum peril. I shan't be searching out more in this series. I did appreciate that there was a not-too-bad sense of the setting, using not too many modernisms in language and customs. Most characters were pretty flat, though.

So, I've recently finished Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score, and then found myself quibbling at traumatized characters in fiction who were not acting traumatized like the people described in psychologist van der Kolk's book. Not so with the Bollywood bride, which I'll give 4 1/2 stars because, despite some plausibility gaps that bothered me a tiny bit, I found the depiction of trauma in the main character utterly believable, and was there with her for her journey toward wholeness, supported by realistically-reacting people who loved her in a real way.
(But I still don't get the title. I mean, she's not the bride.)

I was entertained and committed to the characters until the plot hit the “let's explain the science/magic explainable” which was absurd. DNF at 40%

Mmm...not in love with this book, for all that I am a keen food historian, cook, and researcher. I still recommend “Salt” to friends, 20 years after getting my first copy, but while I'm going to finish “Milk”, it is tedious and doesn't grip me. Perhaps a tiny bit it's the narrator's voice on Audible...but the contents also aren't amazing me. Huh. Too bad, but I have added a few factoids to my history-teacher's brain so all is not lost.

This review contains spoilers.
What to say? I want to recommend Katherine Center to you, but any other title than this. (I really, really liked “Things you Save in a Fire”–start there.) I guess my childhood sense of being overwhelmed by embarrassment when I or others mess up in social situations and get people's names and identities wrong is still part of my psyche. This well of shame meant I couldn't relax into this as a cute romance with a fascinating neurological condition but rather kept tensing for the inevitable errors that face blindness creates. I do appreciate the research Center puts into finding unusual, believable human circumstances that provide welcome twists on familiar tropes in romance and women's fiction. But–I could not finish. I feel too much the second-hand embarrassment! Not something authors think to issue content warnings about, right?!

Mmmm...meh. I liked the historical mysteries by this author (“Still Life with Murder” had me coming back to buy more in the series) but this romance felt more shallow and contrived, like the characters fell for each other because that's what they were supposed to do in a book of this genre, not because they necessarily would do that without authorial intent. Also, the mismatches between a story written decades ago and re-relased/updated are what stuck with me as I kept coming over the plot in my memory to figure out what anachronism kept snagging my attention. I'll be reading more P.B. Ryan mysteries, but not the Patricia Ryan romances.

How to break into a new-ish-to-me genre, Christian romance? Venn diagram book bloggers' recommendations and my library's catalogue.
Interesting! I'll seek out more by this author.
I loved the sense of rich historical research that went into tiny details and big plot points. (And I'm picky about the history and world-building; Camden got things right.) Living in a tiny apartment with no kitchen! The cost of poverty! Sexism in that historical moment! Legal opium addiction in the USA! Development of the US Naval programme and intelligence gathering!! All these features felt well-judged and satisfyingly complex. (No detected anachronisms, and–I'm an historian–I do so value that. My list could go on: non-anachronistic medical treatment, government offices, local transportation, social networks, immigrant experiences and migration patterns, rabies scares, etc.)

The fortress-of-solitude-drug-lord plot was a little over the top as I reflect on it from a week's remove, but the sense of peril I felt by 50% through as the heroine and a kid were in genuine danger–yup, well-written enough to creep me out and the danger and believable conflict and evil.

The push-pull of the slow-burn romance was interesting and believable in most parts; some beats felt out of sync with reality with me and I wish there had been a wee bit more character development about WHY the characters reacted as they did, especially the heroine when she decided to pursue the hero, then to pause for months.

In Christian genre fiction, the role of faith has to feel authentic to my lived experience as well as supporting critical plot and characterization developments, and Camden did pretty well. It felt a little bit contrived, like, the story won't be over till everyone prays the prayer we know is coming; however, the plot thread of an orphan finding family through struggle and having a unique and personal doubt-filled dark night of the soul on the road to faith–that worked for me.

The scene where the Brothers Sinister plan a bachelor party that consists of celebrating the sexiness of women's thoughts and arguments through published essays and novels!!! Be still, my heart.

The world building and realism of Nelson's navy was so good that the romance almost got in the way. I loved the character development and pacing. This was my first E. Essex and I'll come back for more.
Minor quibble: When a headstrong young woman runs away to the sea/circus/gypsies/army/mines and with no planning and pretends to be a dude, I always wonder: what is she doing about menstruation!?! I always wish this logistical difficulty would be addressed in this archetypal plot. I mean: white navy pants plus an era of using rags = lotsa laundry, amirait? I get that sailors can hand-wash laundry in buckets of sea water on deck, but how does our gutsy heroine hide the yards of rags hung to dry on the deck? Are we to suppose that Pinky washes her menstrual rags for her in the one brief explanation of laundry given? Am I alone in wondering this??
Minor quibble 2: the realism of the naval descriptions and character development was so engrossing that the minor tone shift in the text when it went from “naval adventure and coming of age” writing to “I think you're hot” writing was jarring. Suddenly people's voices are like ash and fire or whatever and normally level-headed people are all cray-cray and unable to stop thinking of velvet skin blah blah. Huh. I get that this is a romance first and a coming of age adventure second...but I guess what I loved more was the adventure story. Which is a minor quibble since I came to this title via lists of romance writers. So I should know better.

Swoon. This book really worked for me! This is the kind of romance and quest fantasy that I wish all the others could be. Sigh.

An author who wins my regard because she's done her historical homework and handles plot deftly: by mid-book I couldn't predict the plot twists, and I appreciate that very much in what is generally a very formulaic genre.

Did not finish.
While the initial set-up and character development was engaging, by the half-way mark my annoyance at mistakes (the nozzle of the gun?!?) and unrealities (because one lone person can ALWAYS take on 8 or 12 professional gunmen and always always kill all of them...) outweighed my dwindling interest in the characters. The character of the 5-y-old son, while initially engaging, soon seemed to be just a plot device rather than a living-breathing kid (who never chucks a wobbly, insists on his own way, has to pee at inconvenient times, spills food...), a plot device to introduce prophecies and provide some deus-ex-machina plotting (telling his mom that she and Will have to be together...because every 5 year old just wants his mother to be happy...?!?) so that we can get to Act II and the sexytimes. I wonder: does the author KNOW any five year olds? young single mothers traumatized by violence and being chased? soldiers who fought in wars? The initial promise of mulit-dimensional characters soon faded to cardboard cutouts with a lot of Destiny and Promise and Being Chosen-Ness Plus Psycic Stuff and Bad Men who are always Gunmen wearing Black.
Meh.
Skipped to the last chapter to see if I could re-engage...quit after two pages.
While this is better than other self-published blergh, I'm not going back for more from this author.

It's probably a mistake to read fanciful romance at the same time as reading Bessel van der Kolk's The Body Keeps the Score because I have in my head detailed descriptions of the myriad ways humans react to complex trauma, and Kleypas' heroes don't react consistent with the detailed and gripping exampels in van der Kolk's influential text. They bought and paid for their HEA far too easily and were messed up far too little for the trauma Kleypas describes.

However, they did feel like real humans with some real reactions set in a well-researched world written by a skillful author–and maybe the genre isn't really about realistic trauma reactions, and ploddingly working through the years and years of re-writing brain and body reactions to overcome trauma before a stable, loving, mutual relationship can be earned and believable? There definitely were some true-to-life trauma reactions–the hero's trouble sleeping and violent nightmares, the heroine's reaction to teenaged abuse of freezing (one of the fight/flight/freeze reactions to danger).

I'll keep reading Kleypas, whom I've enjoyed in the past...but maybe I should read non-fiction alongside van der Kolk for a while unless I wish to be unduly critical of the whole fantasy world of a romance script.
3.5 stars

Lyrical, literary, engrossing, violent, redemptive (-ish), thought-provoking, a paean to nature and the hopeful/hopeless state of human community. The kind of book that keeps you pondering it after you finish, both for its portrait of human society, but also to unpick the literary sleight-of-hand that went into its construction.
I'm taking a break this Lent from reading books on my kindle–which means that instead of binge-reading easy-to-digest sci-fi, fantasy, romance, mystery, and popular fiction, I'm pulling never-got-around-to-it paper books off my shelves. I'm grateful for the change of pace which brings me to harder-to-digest but far more memorable books like Cold Mountain.
And Cold Mountain makes me want to go find my book of Han Shan poems about another Cold Mountain (referenced in the novel's epigraph). And probably read more of The Odyssey to sniff out parallels.