Wealthy wool magnate Tremaine St. Michael is half French, half Scottish, and all business. He prowls the world in search of more profits, rarely settling in one place for long. When he meets practical, reserved Lady Nita Haddonfield, he sees an opportunity to mix business with pleasure by making the lady his own.
Nita Haddonfield has a meaningful life tending to others, though nobody is dedicated to caring for Nita. She insists the limitations of marriage aren’t for her, then Tremaine St. Michael arrives—protective, passionate, and very, very determined to win Nita’s heart.
Comment: This is the 5th full length book I read by this author (I have also read a novella) and I've decided to do it because I have liked the other stories, but I have to say this one wasn't as rewarding to me.
In this story we meet Tremaine St Michael, a man who came from difficulties to become a wealthy and successful man of trade. While in the process to deal with a business project regarding some sheep, he is invited to stay with the Haddonfields and becomes smitten with Nita, one of four sisters of Nick, the man Tremaine is going to be in business with, hopefully. Getting involved with this family, however, means he starts realizing all the little things they are involved with, and being with Nita will be quite a task, for she is headstrong and always going everywhere to help others with her healing abilities, often without much care to her own safety and health. They seem to get along and Tremaine even envisions a future for them, but is Nita ready to be thew wife he needs?
What I liked best about the other books by this author was her style, which is quite practical in how everything is described, one could even say it is a little too aloof, but the simplicity of most things and the dynamics between the characters have seduced me in those other books I've tried. This one wasn't as great because the historical aspects, which this author conveys well enough I'd say, irritated me terribly here.
Although Tremaine is a man in trade, he is still someone women should consider but he has been traveling for so long and that isn't really stable for a family. However, meeting Nita and her family has made him realize he is ready for that and more, to move close so she could stay near her family too. I've found this dedication to be a good example of how good of a man he is and in terms of rooting for him, all the little details about his personality made him into an endearing man.
Nita is a likable heroine because while she is in a good family and could have a less demanding life, she chooses to follow her late mother's steps in helping the community as best she can, and that means providing healing skills, which doesn't place her at a very popular place with the vicar and the local doctor, clearly wary of her being "out of her natural place". This historical aspect is certainly quite realistic and I didn't mind the author stressed this out but it did irritate me how often this portrayed some male characters as being misogynistic and unfair, but even some women shared that view. I mean, I understand, it was how things went but it drove me nuts.
Besides being helpful to all, Nita is also a modern woman when it comes to help the less fortunate, such as Addie Chalmers, a mother of five or six, I couldn't keep the right number straight, who had those many children due to her "profession". Of course others shunned Addie despite knowing her since she was a child, and it was even worse to think no one helped her, but such were the injustices, to not say more, of this situation. The presence of Addie in the story was more than cautionary tale, but it did seem her role was more to prove a point than anything else.
Of course, as the story moves along, we get to discover more things about the characters and all the connections they share. There are some unpleasant people in their community and situations which weren't as easy to deal with as they might be now, I do like this sense of historical facts/notions being part of the novel, but unlike other romance novels in the genre, perhaps there are some moments or scenes in which the less than good things bring the story down. There were times I felt the focus was too much in negative things or things that while I would not want the author to avoid, could have been presented differently.
The romance was a little meh to me. Yes, they were attracted, they were in sync with one another and things were going well until a certain point, where a certain conflict of opinion between them was exacerbated and it felt they could not work after all. Everything is a matter of compromise and this easy way to deal wit their problem was, again. exaggerated a little... surely the author could have found a way for them to discuss this in a way that would not be so out of proportion.
I did dislike a little how some things are just shared out of nowhere, though. I mean, we are led to think of the characters one way and then something is told about them and it seems so out of character that I think whee it came from. I've seen this is part of the author's style and sometimes it doesn't bother me, but in this book yes. It's simply annoying to be surprised this way, so with a certain practical writing style makes it seem s if some things are just too sudden and put the character in a less than positive light.
I have a couple of this author's books in the digital cordillera of doom myself, though I've only read three of her stories, and my impression of her work is very much in "meh" territory. I hope whatever else by her you read next, works better for you.
ReplyDeleteHi!
DeleteI think her style isn't for everyone, no. I say this in the sense that some of her writing quirks might not be appealing all the time... in this book, part of why I liked it less than in others was due to that.