A review by craftyhilary
One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny

emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I want to preface this by saying I think that Emma Denny has a lot of potential as a writer. That said, this book just didn't work for me. It felt almost like a plot outline than a fully-realized story. There was a lot of moving from place to place, eating, sleeping, and assorted random encounters, but not a lot of character development. Since both Penn and Raff were lying about who they were for most of the book, it was hard for me to believe they were forming a serious attachment, and the agonizing about the deception became tedious. And once both their secrets were out, I was very disappointed in how Raff handled his
feelings of betrayal. He had been just as dishonest with Penn, which he conveniently forgot about till reminded by Ash. Raff also knew Penn had been seriously abused, yet struggled to understand that Penn had much better practical and emotional reasons to lie than Raff did
. Some of the plot elements felt overdramatized in a way that would make more sense in a movie, such as
Raff chasing Penn for days and riding up to the keep just as Penn was being dragged inside
. There were opportunities for more complex political issues to be explored--I was hoping
Penn's father was holding Raff's father hostage, and they'd have to come retrieve him
--but those were dismissed in favor of less complicated or believable ones, like
Penn suddenly finding he is both brave enough to stand up to his father and also a brilliant political strategist
I am fairly certain that the throwaway references to
Oliver were intended to set up a book for Ash, but including almost nothing about him, when his existence clearly impacted Raff and Ash in a way that's relevant to Raff's feelings about Penn,
was a wasted opportunity. I expect Denny may not have wanted to give away too much of what will presumably be Ash's book. The
correspondence between Jo and Lily
was a bit more deftly handled. Overall, I would definitely consider reading another book by this author, but this one was only ok for me.
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