Kris Tualla - A Woman of Choice

The Missouri Territory, 1819...
A woman is viciously betrayed and abandoned by her unfaithful husband.
She is rescued by a widower uninterested in love. In desperation, she becomes engaged to his best friend.
One woman, three very different men. Life is about choices.

Comment: This is one of those books that somehow seems intriguing enough after a review or even a simple comment somewhere and now I have no idea what exactly made me want to read it but I keep going back to the idea this would be time travel...really no idea why I thought this. 

In this historical story we meet Nicolas Hansen and his friend Rikard as they are riding their horses and they suddenly find what seems to be a bunch of cloth but it turns out to be a woman in a very dire situation. They help the woman and Nicolas takes her to his house, where his servants help taking care of her. When she wakes up she can't say her name, she doesn't remember what happened to her so everyone decides on call her her Sydney. As time goes by and Sydney tries to be useful she and Nicolas become close and they even think of becoming more than that, but they still don't know who Sydney really is and if she is married. After some attempts to find something with the little clues Sydney feels are real, such as recognizing names of certain locations, perhaps they will find who she is... but what if the truth is too impossible for their desired happiness?

I had not heard of this author before starting this book and while her style wasn't totally bad for my personal preferences, I cannot say I am a fan of this book. Perhaps it's only this book and all her others won't make me feel this way, but I don't know if I'll try to prove myself wrong anytime soon. I actually enjoyed the story as a whole and even graded this 3 stars on GR, but now that I've started writing this, the more my mind wandered into a specific situation in the story, which is making me feel mad. Thus, a downgrade to two stars.

I'll include spoilers!

This is an historical set in the territories of what is now Missouri, in 1819. I assume the author researched this and all the other more historical elements used, but it's not one of those stories where everything is as accurate as it should. This rarely bothers me in fiction, but I suppose some readers would find the choice of using specific historical information and some "liberty" in how to use it a bit off. Still, the focus seems to be more on the plot/romance and not as much in the context, although there are times where that also influences what happens.

I was happy enough with the way things were developing. Sydney having amnesia made for an interesting situation, and I liked the secondary characters. Most people were friendly and understanding about her situation, except a neighbor, who had her sights on Nicolas. I feel the story would lead into a cute romance, she and Nicolas would find out they were in love, etc, and this did happen, with a few conflicts on the way, but everything was going on in a very predictable but still entertaining way. I think the romance development wasn't as great as it could, but it was fine.

Then, some situations are introduced to add drama, to highlight the difficulty of Sydney not remembering her past and why would this also affect the protagonists' decisions in how to act towards one another, but a few clues were made to be obvious for the reader where things would go. And, it really wasn't surprising to me to discover Sydney was, indeed, married, and that she had lost her memory due to a traumatic episode. But then, I got really, really mad and thinking about this is why I downgraded the book.

Basically, Sydney, whose real name is Siobhan, has a father and lived in a certain city and then married a man but her marriage wasn't a happy one. We find out that her husband had a lover, a male one at that and Sydney is so incredibly disgusted when she finds her husband kissing his lover one day that she screams and the shock propels her husband to try to placate her and somehow he ends up pushing her, she falls into a river or something, and later on washes up near Nicolas' estate. I mean! 

I can assume this is realistic for a woman in this period who had been sheltered to not even consider such a thing, but I can't tell if what annoyed me here was the way this was written (it's implied her husband was guiltier of having a male lover than of just the betrayal) or that the author found this to be a necessary situation to use in her story. Why not because he was violent? Why not a female lover as it was certainly more likely? I feel annoyed that the idea of homosexuality is so abhorrent, even if this is an historical. But then, why use some historical aspects so realistically and others not? If it's a matter of convenience for a specific story, then the decision is unfair.

Anyway, this annoyed, but then very quickly Nicolas finds a way for Sydney to sign a paper accepting divorce, he blackmails the husband with the fear of denouncing him, then things move on and at some point Nicolas rejects the other woman who was interested in him. As expected, she gets revenge, but also this is more or less quickly solved. By this time in the story Sydney had already discovered she was pregnant, from the only time she was with Nicolas, then again we have his inner fears in play, since he had lost his wife and a son when she was giving birth, and the drama keeps on.

I should say this was an entertaining story, despite the problems, and why I felt interested anyhow, in reading until the end. I was already convinced this was only going to be average to me, because there were elements, even more than the one I was more annoyed at, I feel should/could have been done better, but then, closer to the end, after some hints and apparently innocent conversations about Nicolas' family heritage in Norway, we discover he is a prince. Yes, a prince in Norway! I mean, a Scandinavian prince living in the wild territories in Missouri (I should add that at some point he had also gone hunting, as he does every year, with some Indian "friends", so an accepting guy he certainly was) is quite an idea...

There was also some talk on slaves and I even went on to search when was the American Civil War just to check Nicolas, whose state doesn't have slaves, and his friend Rikard who does, would not go into war. This clearly doesn't happen in 1819 but I had a feeling it might be something for a later book. Investigating this book and the series and other things by the author, tells me things go on towards other ideas and settings, but I don't think I will want to follow those adventures.

Grade: 4/10