A Sweet Misfortune

Well, I hardly expected the title to express how I felt about the book itself! Strange thing is, I never did quite figure out why that's the title, but I suppose one can't have everything. I was sorely tempted to dole out one star in my frustration, as my dislike of the tale seems to grow every time I notice it lurking in my “you'd-better-review-that” stack. I'm calling it a 1.5 and rounding up, but reserving full right to come back later on and change it lower.

The romance part was fun, and I did like the ending. I loved the character Estelle and her spunk.

Okay, so...the details and the lame conversations totally killed it. And now I get to beat the dead horse for your edification, so I may have my vengeance upon lameness (with apologies to Mrs. Brendan...but do please hire a better editor next time.) Last year I read the first book in the series and found it hard to get into at first, but ending up loving the last half, so this time I kept going to see what would happen to redeem the direction of the story. But that never happened.

Next section: read at your peril. I'm putting up one spoiler here, so if you want the whole story of why I didn't like it, you're going to be spoiled.
1. The hero kidnaps the heroine. What? Literally. He throws her over his shoulder and rides off with her to his house and his grandmother. She's mad for a little while, but soon gets distracted. He tells her she must stay, and pretty soon she does. 2. She was a dance hall girl. She is very convinced of her own virtue and is incensed when anyone doubts it. She goes back and forth between saying "I loved that job!" to "If only it'd been my brother who rescued me instead." Okay, even if she didn't bring men to her bed for extra money, when is the last time you googled the style of underpants most women wore in 1862, and saw part of the reason the dance hall girls could be pretty tantalizing? I would have cared less about the occupation if she hadn't been everlastingly sticking her nose in the air and wondering why the good people of society didn't accept her. It might have, just might have, had a trifle to do with the lack of attire in the saloon??? But she is so convinced of her own righteousness that she came off as really stuck-up.3. The illnesses. A rancher who comes down suddenly when pneumonia...the little details were all over the place. First, the doctor diagnoses pneumonia right away, but they keep hoping he won't cough, and it "made her think it was deep in his chest"—or on the first night "he still had a fever"—then, after he recovers, he's riding the range within days, coming home tired; the doctor told him right as he got better that his lungs were permanently damaged. So, as someone who has had pneumonia, it takes weeks to fight it off, and there would be no way to know for sure if he had permanent damage until he begins to recover and get about life again, weeks after the fever breaks. This turned into a major plot point and was not plausible.Yet, with "severely damaged lungs" he is able to go out and rescue her in the snow. After a bout of pneumonia, it is extreme painful to breathe cold air in the recent months after, especially if his lungs are still messed up.4. Beatrice. Really, she wasn't so bad. She was used to the status quo and had deluded herself into thinking that the man who'd asked her out was interested in her. She's portrayed as a villainess, but the scenes with her in them don't justify the heroine's opinion of her. When the rich man who propositioned Rachel in the saloon more than once begins to court her, it's mentioned that "they deserve each other." Oh really? Why? And then they feel all sorry for the man, who has insulted Rachel and patronized a saloon, for getting a hoyden who might be too much for him. How about showing more of this? Because I liked Beatrice a lot more than I liked the rancher.5. The secret about John's sister. Really? Estelle felt guilty for not sharing it, and yet it had no bearing on the plot at all. A space waster. It did not advance the story in the least and did not make sense for the pacing.6. Annabelle. I liked the character, but one minute she was speaking the King's English like a duchess and the next Southern drawl like a comfortable mammy. If you can't figure out dialect, leave it alone or add one or two words, but make it consistent. We have: "I want to take a minute to tell all of you how much I appreciate the way you've always treated me as part of the family in your home." Or: plumb, ridin', etc. It didn't ring true.7. Preston. Was he near or far? He was supposed to have died suddenly, but had time to create a riddle for Rachel to find his money. If he was close enough to make the money riddle, why was he not close enough to visit Rachel and rescue her himself?And so on. Contradictions after contradictions. It got so totally on my nerves that I could hardly wait for the ending.

9/2/16:
Okay, so the book just took another hit for me. I'm researching mold because of finding it in my car, and the problem these cows faced was not diagnosed as mold related until 1930.