Enjoyed the story but found young Shruti's language annoying. 3.5*
350679
I found this book a little hard going, purely because of the irritating language used by Shruti. Overuse of the words 'cos', 'I go' and 'like' which continued as she got older made it difficult to read. Apart from that the story itself was very good, it starts with young Shruti who is 11, and lives alone with her mother after her father left them. Her insecurities become apparent as she worries about whether her mother will leave her to go home under family pressures to marry. She is also worried about Social Services deeming her mother unfit to look after her as she speaks very little English.  Shruti struggles at school with bullying and and latches on to the new girl, Meena who puts a stop to her bullying. She becomes quite obsessed with Meena all through to University so much so that she follows her to NZ, which ends up being a very bad decision.  It has violence, slavery and rape in the book which was quite difficult to read.

I recommend this book, giving it 3.5 stars it would have been 4 stars had it not been for the irritating voice of Shruti but others may not find it an issue.

I received an ARC from the Publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.
422982
I liked the story but the way it was told was a little questionable. This classy woman who has very proper grammar falls for this man who is extremely good looking(ofcourse) and owns a gym and a strip club. For some reason this guy can't put one sentence together without using F____ for EVERYTHING! totally uncalled for and very annoying.
4271648
I was looking forward to reading once I'd read the reviews. I was disappointed, though. Not in the story. The story itself is a lovely peek at a culture which has fascinated me for years and I found it totally engrossing.  However, if you don't know a lot about the Indian culture, keep a good dictionary handy.  I was constantly having to go look up unfamiliar words which impacted the flow of the story and that is why this is 3 stars.  The author assumed the reader knew the culture and making an assumption can cost you stars. Aside from that, read this story, it will make you smile and think about the married relationship in a whole new light.
2144552
I liked the story and the friendship between the 2 characters. HATED ALL THE SWEARING!
2447347
I loved the plot!! But not the English language.

The plot: loved the twist right off the bat. I loved how the whole relationship worked out. I have always wondered what it was like to be in an arranged marriage. Thank you for the example.

Language: I realized as I was reading the book that it was very repetitive. As you read you will see it. The author uses "are you sad" or "are you ok" a lot. Also "he said and she said" a lot. As I was reading it I felt like it was written exactly as it was spoken. The conversation is in hindi which is translated to English. Which does not seem to flow!!' Also, The author uses simple word 95% of the time and then put a sophisticated word in the middle of it.  Not sure what to think of that.

But it all in all it is a good book to read!!
2883390
I loved the story and the characters were charming. I think Julia could have kept her edge even with a few less blasphemes. I can deal with the fword, but when the author repeatedly uses the
Lord's name in vain, it's a turn-off.
2376412
I enjoyed reading this story. There were some hiccups which bothered me though.

Pros:
Interesting characters. I liked that Victoria had to slowly come to accept of her feelings for Thunder Heart, overcoming her prejudice and her religious and cultural taboos. Thunder Heart is also a like-able and believable character. He has many traits that are misconstrued by Victoria as being flaws because of her misunderstanding of the Lakota culture.

Good interactions between characters.

Interesting Plot.

Seemed to be well researched.

HEA- Usually books in this time frame and subject matter are dark and depressing, which is understandable, but I like that the author decided to avoid a lot of blood-shed in her story. It was refreshing to actually read about a better ending than the other novels I have read concerning the American Indian wars and the Lakota.

Cons:
First half of the story is long and drawn out but the second half of the story feels rushed (at the end of the story months pass with only a notation remarking on it) and concluded to quickly.

The mother was a bit of a mystery. We never find out wether she is slowly losing her sanity or if she was acting and if it was an act than what were her motivations? This character spends most of her time being loopy in the beginning of the story but then seems to be fine during the second part. No mention as to what her motivations were to learn the Lakota language, other than to tweak the nose of her husband. Or what made her so frightened of her husband. This character would have been more interesting and relevant, I think, if we just had more back story on her.

PET PEEVES: (These are small things that don't necessarily detract from the story overall but I found personally annoying)

This poor character doesn't get to take a bath for what seems like WEEKS! I felt itchy while I was reading and just rushed through passages just so I could get the satisfaction of Victoria getting to bathe. This of course has no bearing on the story, after all the character could have taken a bath after everyone reached main camp and was just never mentioned but I wanted the scene where she FINALLY gets to wash off the funk and get her hair clean after weeks of trudging through the prairie coated in grime and sweat.  There was a scene where Victoria ALMOST made it to take the waterfall but then ran away before getting to bathe that made me want to scream.

A doe was killed and her fawn left to die because the Lakota didn't believe in keeping pets. Okay, I know this would be a hard fact of life but it bothered me. This a romance and I wanted the heroine to keep the fawn and raise it, maybe as a symbol that sometimes change can be good, or whatever. I'm just an animal lover and it bugged me so much that I just skipped passages until the story progressed. Once again, this has no bearing on the story as a whole just a personal pet peeve.

In the Epilogue section, the children are described as running around and talking but these children are only A YEAR OLD. One year-old children are not running around and speaking in coherent sentences at this stage. That one little thing just completely took me right out of the story. You can suspend disbelief on some things but this wasn't one of them.

I wish Amazon would provide a larger star rating. If I had ten stars I would give this story a Seven stars out of Ten but have to settle for a Three star rating. Overall this was a good story and I enjoyed it despite some hiccups. It would be great if this story was expanded and tweaked in a future re-release - *shrug* Just saying.
4585763
I received an advance reader copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.  I found the story line to be quite engaging however I also found one particular aspect of the story to be difficult to accept.  All characters, other than the humans, speak in rhyming sentences.  At first I didn't mind it too much, but, as the story progressed I felt that it eventually got to the point where it was quite annoying.  Having a five year old grandson I also felt it important to look at the story from the point of view of whether or not I would read it to him since the listing says for ages 6 and up.  I didn't find anything offensive or inappropriate however I'm not sure that he is (or will be in 6 months when he turns 6) ready for something as deep as this.  I think ages 8 or 9 is a better age at which to introduce this story to children.  Overall, not a bad book, but certainly not one that I'll be raving about anytime in the near future.
1948586
I loved the story and the characters but found myself becoming really annoyed at how many times the words "he gushed" or she gushed"  were used. This spoilt the book for me and I wondered why this over use wasn't picked up. I'm not sure if I will read any more in the series or not.
4675850
The story was good, although the beginning had us skipping around but was necessary to get the background of the character.
What I didn't like was the "f" word, and the explicit sex.  It's just as interesting to leave some things to the imagination.
2676271
I liked the story except for the vulgar language and full blown descriptive sexual content. I realize there is a market for it and those who like it. I do not. I managed to skip over those parts and finish the books. Again the story was good would have scored it higher had it not contained so much bad language and descriptive sex.
2458235
Language Language Language!  Great story with lots of side drama but the cuss words are beyond belief.
43496
This is a good suspence story but could have done without the filthy language.  That distracts from the book and makes the characters unlikeable.
44088
The story is very good, but I got somewhat frustrated with the many grammatical errors - a good proofreader would have been nice. Another slight problem was in not always being sure who was the lead speaker when they changed. In spite of my "concerns," I did enjoy the book. As a more mature Reader, I do think the story is perhaps one that might be more apropos to the young adult audience; the trials and tribulations of finding love in that age group might be helpful to them.
1360273
The way the heroin spoke just aggravated me. The story was just fine, but I couldn't connect with the heroine due to her overly formal way of speech. Totally a personal preference.
4120177
I liked the story. It wasn't Shakespeare but entertaining enough, especially if you like the TV series. What was annoying however was the reader. I can live with a reader who can't do voices but then he shouldn't try. With many characters his attempts at voices are ridiculous to the point of cartoonish. It is a pity because when he doesn't fake the voice he does a decent job.
152760
Wasn't a bad story line but way too much of the f--- word for my liking.  I realize I'm from an older generation and young people use this kind of language all the time but since you have access to all audiences, I am sure others feel as I do.