A review by turophile
The Bride Wore Scarlet by Liz Carlyle
3.0
When I searched for this book, Goodreads asked if I really meant the Bride wore Chocolate. Now that's a book I could love. This one, my feelings are mixed. The rating should really be a 3.5.
It's a book that I wanted to love more than I did. I wish I could better identify why, but the relationship between the two main characters never rang true from me. I know in 99.9% of romance novels there will be a happy ending with the two main characters pledging their undying love. But in the middle I still want to feel like there's a real conflict. In this book, the end never felt in doubt for me. These two characters clearly had the hots for each other and the heroine's concern that he was committed to someone else did not seem like enough of a barrier.
There were a few other things that drove me crazy. This is the second book in this series and I did not read the first. I thought it took too many chapters to feel grounded in the story. It also seemed that several characters made random appearances in the story simply to set them up for a sequel.
The author has clearly done a lot of research into this era as was evidenced by the level of detail with respect to clothing, dialogue, and other aspects of the story. Yet the story seemed to swing between "I swallowed a Victorian dictionary" and modern, boring language. For example, the first sentence starts with a description of a "dark, old-fashioned house." This is Victorian times. What does old-fashioned mean?
And since I appear to be on a rant - why do so many romance novelists use the word "coltish" when describing the heroine's legs? Seriously, why would you want a woman whose legs are like a young, uncastrated horse?
At times I like the detail and language, at other times I thought it was a tad bit overwritten. "the sky wisped with a fog that twined like languid cats about the bare masts of the ships." I'll buy a beer for the first person to explain to me what that even means.
I'm going to stop now because I may be starting to sound mean (and as a Minnesotan, generally we don't like to do that.) This book did not work for me. It will work for some readers. Readers who enjoy paranormal elements more than I do (did I mention the heroine and hero have the undefined "Gift") and who enjoy flowery detailed language. I can't condemn the book, but it's just not my thing.
It's a book that I wanted to love more than I did. I wish I could better identify why, but the relationship between the two main characters never rang true from me. I know in 99.9% of romance novels there will be a happy ending with the two main characters pledging their undying love. But in the middle I still want to feel like there's a real conflict. In this book, the end never felt in doubt for me. These two characters clearly had the hots for each other and the heroine's concern that he was committed to someone else did not seem like enough of a barrier.
There were a few other things that drove me crazy. This is the second book in this series and I did not read the first. I thought it took too many chapters to feel grounded in the story. It also seemed that several characters made random appearances in the story simply to set them up for a sequel.
The author has clearly done a lot of research into this era as was evidenced by the level of detail with respect to clothing, dialogue, and other aspects of the story. Yet the story seemed to swing between "I swallowed a Victorian dictionary" and modern, boring language. For example, the first sentence starts with a description of a "dark, old-fashioned house." This is Victorian times. What does old-fashioned mean?
And since I appear to be on a rant - why do so many romance novelists use the word "coltish" when describing the heroine's legs? Seriously, why would you want a woman whose legs are like a young, uncastrated horse?
At times I like the detail and language, at other times I thought it was a tad bit overwritten. "the sky wisped with a fog that twined like languid cats about the bare masts of the ships." I'll buy a beer for the first person to explain to me what that even means.
I'm going to stop now because I may be starting to sound mean (and as a Minnesotan, generally we don't like to do that.) This book did not work for me. It will work for some readers. Readers who enjoy paranormal elements more than I do (did I mention the heroine and hero have the undefined "Gift") and who enjoy flowery detailed language. I can't condemn the book, but it's just not my thing.