I had expected a better written book with a leading character that wasn't so ...
591222
I had expected a better written book with a leading character that wasn't so predictable. The plot was pathetic and uninteresting. I will not buy any Bradley Wright books in the future.
1979318
I expected this book to be more edgy and entertaining.
1031146
I was only a few chapters (two to be exact) into reading the book, when I realized I didn't care at all for one of the lead characters.  The author (Julie Compton) describes Anders as being more intelligent than most people, but he shows no direction or goals in his lifestyle.  The way he latches onto Olivia Mayfield, especially when he realizes she comes from money, seems a little gold-diggerish to me. Anders being confused about and ignorant of Lawrence Mayfields anger towards him, is an indication that, although Anders may be smart, he is definitely lacking in socially emotional protocols.  It should have been obvious to Anders that a family of money with a man like Lawrence at the head would not take kindly to an aimless/penniless man (like Anders) hanging around his only daughter.

I think, as the reader, I am supposed to take an instant dislike to Olivias father, Lawrence Mayfield, when he clearly and coldly blames Anders for Olivias getting hurt and being in a coma after the motorcycle accident.  I absolutely understand and sympathize with Lawrence Mayfield and feel his reaction/anger about what happened to his daughter is justified.

After reading chapter eight, I am no fonder of the lead character Anders than at the beginning of the book.  His character, his actions and reactions to events unfolding in the storyline are selfish and naive. One incident in particular which emphasizes my point is his reaction to receiving an eviction notice.  How in the world could this (thirty-year-old) man think he could continue to live in the house that his deceased girlfriend owned?  They only lived together about a year, so common law would not have been considered.  He is adamant about finding out if the house belonged to his dead girlfriend, or to her father.  REALLY!

Chapter Seventeen is when this book began to warm up and through consecutive chapters it continued to get better.  The characters from previous chapters developed deeper and more complex personalities, and the newly introduced characters in the later chapters had fully developed personalities, even if some of them were not completely likable individuals.

It almost seems as if the author (Julie Compton) drastically improved on her storytelling skills between the first chapters which were set in Florida and the later chapters which took place in Africa.  The chapters covering the African adventure of the story are vibrant, and alive with descriptions of people, places and events.  The story meshed together very well during the African saga.

Readers of romance, mystery, adventure, action and travel would enjoy this novel.
4819783
I was looking forward to this book.  I wanted to read the end of the story and see how things came to completion.
I was disappointed.  I wanted to skip pages because it just seemed rather slow moving.

Lydia is a woman who lives life as she chooses.  She is a successful gambler and often wins large amounts of money.  At the same time, more than one person in the book describes her as having a blank expression and no apparent emotional connection to anyone.  I never understood what was the significance of those comments.

Because of a bet she makes, she ends up being compromised and must marry a Duke.  The Duke is Clayton, he is an old friend of the family and has known Lydia since she was a child.  He has a strong sense of responsibility and he is the gentleman who takes the bet with Lydia which ends up with the apparent compromise and their subsequent marriage.

I believe that I should have seen some passion and emotional attraction between these two.  It felt flat to me.  Lydia and Clayton are interesting people who have back stories which show what kind character and integrity they possess.  As main characters, they should have been more exciting to me.

The secondary characters are generally from the previous books in the series, so this reader is familiar with who they are and their expected reactions.  It was good to see old friends appear in the story.  Bet even though it is part of a series, this book does well as a standalone and it is easy to follow the story.

Ms Hunter is a talented author who has created interesting characters and plots which generally hold my interest.  This particular book just made me feel disappointed.

It was good to revisit Emma and Cassandra and their respective husbands.  It was also good to find the end of the story of the duel which took a life.

I received a copy of this book from the author in the hope that I would write a fair and honest review.  All opinions are my own.
770880
I was disappointed; expected better.  I found the premise interesting, but had difficulty getting into it with all the characters.  I thnk this is a book that should be read all at once; not in bits and pieces.
4557555
I was really looking forward to this book, but I think I set myself up for a little disappointment. I was expecting a love triangle with angst and passion, but there wasn't much passion and the triangle was kind of non-existent. Laura Rae Amos developed complex characters. However, the relationships were static.

The book was very well written, but I thought it was going to be something it wasn't. It just wasn't what I expected.
2306200
I did not read the first two books so I had nothing to base my opinion on but this one. I found the writing to be somewhat childish. I expected better, especially with the subject matter.  There were many levels of emotions to explore but I felt the author just grazed over them. In most cases the book is better than the movie, but not in this case.
1439046
I was a little disappointed in this book, not what I was expecting.
1392331
The entire time I was reading this book I wondered if I might enjoy it more if I were a Charlotte Bronte fan.  I do love the book Jane Eyre, but it doesn't strike me in the same way that the books by Jane Austen do.  I had hoped this novel might be the catalyst to piquing my interest in reading or re-reading the Bronte novels.  That did not happen for me.

I didn't find any of the characters in the book depicted in a way to make me sympathetic toward them.  The first part of the book is presented as Charlotte is caring for her father who has had surgery on his eye, probably the modern equivalent to cataract surgery, in the  city of Manchester.  The diagnosis for after-care was that he had to remain completely still and could not talk for six weeks.  This meant that there was no dialogue between Charlotte, her father, or the nurse who was performing the more unpleasant tasks associated with an invalid.  But then, Charlotte and the nurse very, very seldom spoke even when they had other opportunities.  It was very forcefully presented that the Bronte family was in severe financial straits and one of the ways Charlotte saved on the expenses during this time with her father was to be extremely parsimonious with the household expenses, including not having much food in their rented accommodations.  When Charlotte found the nurse in the kitchen late at night, eating (because the nurse was also expected to go without adequate food) the two women sat at the same kitchen table and yet still had no dialogue.

Once Charlotte and her father had returned to Haworth I had hoped that the style of writing the story would have reverted to the more conventional form of characters having conversations with one another, but that didn't happen.  The book was presented with one character at a time thinking their own thoughts.  The most dialogue in the entire book seemed to me to have been in the chapter devoted to Branwell.  Then it went back to the thoughts of the individual characters.

The point of the book was to have events taking place in Charlotte's life ultimately show up in the novel she was writing, Jane Eyre.  It was a good idea and this author is obviously a talented writer.  For me it didn't work because I didn't like this Charlotte Bronte.  I found her to be self-centered and selfish.  Since I know only a few facts regarding the real Charlotte Bronte I'm left with no choice but to say that I did not like the woman depicted in the pages of this book.  As I said, maybe I'm just not enough of a Charlotte Bronte fan.
1005730
I went into this book expecting something different, namely drawn-out characters with depth.  However, this book reads more like a video game without even a good backstory to keep it interesting. The characters are one-dimensional, the story flat and some of the twists are quite farfetched.  But it is well-written in terms of language flow, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for an uncomplicated fantasy book with fast paced, well-written action scenes.
3476217
I didn't like the way it was written. The author was more like the main character than the victim.
3974545
I read this immediately following reading Autumn Getaway.  I actually felt the writing was better and with less of an overload of words.  I was a bit invested in the characters and was disappointed in both of them in this book.  Their romance is fine and seems sweet, I enjoyed the time they were taking to get to know each other.  However, Sam does jump in bed with another person to scratch his itch - I find that disgusting and he lowered several notches in my opinion.  Also, although Lydia is wounded and hurt, the way she deals with her ex-husband is just wrong.  They are both parents with a needy child between them.  He is being much more adult about their need to work it out for their son's sake,  She is a teacher trained to work with troubled and learning impaired kids - I can't believe she doesn't know how critical the involvement of two parents is.  Therefore, I lowered my opinion of Lydia also.  I'm rooting for Tyler - he seems to have his head on straighter than anyone.  I was sorry that the book was incomplete and ended up in the air.
2706053
First off I have to say that I was highly interested at the book by the sample chapter that I read and then it fell short on me. The Main Character was a great guy and an interesting one that I will agree.  I bought the book and left it on the shelf for a couple of days to read.
Once I started reading the book it was a very easy read. I read the whole book in a matter of 2 days. So being that said, it was a little off setting because it was nowhere near what I was expecting for a book that I had high expectations for.
The Main Character Alaeron  was a great one, I just wish that he was fleshed out a little more and some more thought given to his abilities and his skills.  The Secondary characters were a great addition to the party. It made the book readable. I think that there should have been more development into a structure as well.
The storyline was too short. There was enough to the point where I wasn't upset when book ended but there could have been a lot more done before the end. I really was not happy with the story between the main character and one of the side characters played out either, That really made me upset when I finished the book.

Over all I would have to say that I sort of liked the book and I was disappointed by it more then I was happy about finishing it. I was expecting a lot more out of this compared to what I have read in the past form other novels in this genre
1340827
I'm surprised at how kind the reviews at Amazon are.  I found this to be a quite average book - certainly not written with the strength or wit of something like, Lush Life which brought New York so vividly to life,  or the charm of something like Cross Road's Cafe.  Instead it passed the time adequately enough but none of these characters will linger in my head,  and I won't reread this.  I also found it really hard to place how old these characters were,  I thought Sophia was in her 30's but then it said somewhere that she and T Wayne had been married for 25 years.  That really surprised me.  If I can't figure out the basics of how old all the characters are,  then it is not a well written book.

Mercy is coming home to see her sister Sophia and mother Gloria,  but her sister isn't there.  Instead she's gone missing. But Sophia is an alcoholic who has gone missing before,  so Gloria's worries initially seem a bit misplaced.  However it turns out that this time something has happened. Billy is looking for Sophia at the same time his long respected partner Lou (also couldn't place his age,  none of the timelines really worked for me in this book) is having a meltdown.  Shocking things happen.

I didn't really engage with this book,  it wasn't well written,  it didn't have that great southern gothic atmosphere that some books can create and the characters,  (with the notable exception of Lou) were fairly cliche.  And Lou,  well,  we needed to think about him,  but I'm not sure how much I believed his story or found him to be a coherent character.  I guess we spent so much time looking at him through Billy's eyes, and it turned out that Billy had a lot to learn about Lou...
4233929
I expected something different. I thought it would have more about historical events rather than just being a rather tacky romance novel about women's egos.
52963
This book is cleverly written, with the main character gently portrayed.  I can understand why it was shortlisted, but I can also understand why it didn't win.  The focus is on a character who at times is less believable, and some of the minor characters are sometimes opaque.  I wasn't gripped, sometimes enchanted, but more often looking for plot which didn't come.  Maybe I was expecting more, the book was very satisfactory but not outstanding.
227732
While the writing seems promising for this new author, the story lacked originality and didn't flow very well. I didn't connect with the characters and I can't stand cheating in a book. That's just a personal pet peeve of mine.