Skip to main content

Bit of a Letdown

I went so far as to buy a UK edition of Someone to Cherish, Mary Balogh's latest Westcott novel, and after reading it I regretted that a little. I think there's a point in a long novel series when you have to stop trotting out all the main characters from the previous books for cameos, and you really must quit providing all their backstory, too.

There are something like eight or nine couples now in this saga, and yep, they all show up in this novel (again) and we hear all about what happened with them (again.) Which is nice for new readers, I suppose, but how many new readers do you think are going to pick up the eighth or ninth book in a series? Honestly the backstoryitis took up like a quarter of the book this time, and seriously distracted me from Harry and Lydia's story. So that's my chief gripe.

Someone to Cherish is a nice story, but it missed a lot of opportunities. This book featured Harry Westcott, the son of the bigamous Earl of Riverdale, who ran away and joined the army after losing his title and inheritance and legitimate birth. He was originally one of the most interesing characters in the first novel, so I was looking forward to seeing more of his story. Problem is, there isn't much of one. Harry really doesn't have much presence as a main character, which is weird.

Harry moves to the country and lives in a nice manor, and casually takes interest in his widowed neighbor, Lydia Travenor. Neither of them are interested in marriage, but they do start a friendship and then (if you can call one night together this) an affair. Their chemistry with each other was pretty believable, and I liked the realism of their relationship.

The problem is that Lydia is the widow of a much-beloved pastor, and the nosy, sharp-eyed villagers expect her to mourn him forever. P.S., the pastor was secretly a religious nut who insisted after they got married that he and Lydia live as brother and sister, not husband and wife. I've never seen a dead villain who pissed me off more than this guy, either. Anyway, of course the village finds out that Harry and Lydia are romantically involved, and the social tarring and feathering of Lydia begins.

My second gripe about this book is the romance between Harry and Lydia, which seems to magically work itself out with no actual explanation. One minute they're resolved to be friends and have a nice quiet affair, the next everything blows up in their faces, and suddenly they're in love with each other. The rest of the Westcotts descend on the village and simply add to the confusion with their scenes, backstories, new kids, etc.

Mary Balogh's writing is wonderful, and I will forgive a keeper author a lot. I just wish it hadn't been this story. It would have been great to let Harry live up to his promise.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.
Post a Comment
Read more

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...
Post a Comment
Read more

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...
1 comment
Read more