Are you a Julie Lessman fan? In love with the Boston O’Connors? Did you think you’d seen the last of them when the Daughters of Boston Series ended? Then boy are you in for a treat! The Winds of Change Series follows the other three O’Connor children through the end of the Roaring Twenties and into the Great Depression–but you won’t be left depressed. A Hope Undaunted, about feisty and sassy Katie Rose who’s once again butting heads with “Cluny” Luke McGee, is . . . is . . . ahhhhh. It’s heart-thumping and pulse-racing and loyalty-tearing and all sorts of things that will drag you in and not let you go.
Now, allow me to also say that it’s no fault of the book that it took me 10 days to read it. I wanted to sit down and spend the whole day with it, but I’m on deadline and was in a really great writing groove–so I hid the book from myself during the day. 😉
That’s the “shhh” from the title. Now onto the “grrr.”
I have had for waaaay too long a book that belongs to my mom’s friend, so I figured I’d better read it. This is a mainstream romantic suspense by a NYT Bestselling author, and everyone raved that this book was awesome. I’ve read many of her stories. The first ones, back before I knew all these pesky writing rules, I enjoyed. The one I read after learning all these rules made me shake my head at all of them she’d broken. But I’m okay with breaking rules when it works.
The thing is, as I’m reading this, even ignoring some of the rules she breaks, the writing is still just weak. It’s a little frustrating–but still the story’s compelling. So I suppose I’ll give it a few more days and see if I can finish in a respectable amount of time. Though if I have as little time for reading as I have the last two weeks . . . yeah. We’ll see how it goes. =)
Roseanna M. White is a bestselling, Christy Award winning author who has long claimed that words are the air she breathes. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two kids, editing, designing book covers, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of a slew of historical novels that span several continents and thousands of years. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to find their way into her books…to offset her real life, which is blessedly ordinary.
I LOVE the cover of "A Hope Undaunted."
Revell does such good work.
Thanks for the teaser:)
Hmm . . . the main plot would stand alone just fine–she brings you up to speed on all that has passed between the H&H in prior years. But there's still some stuff going on with the rest of the family that is mainly of interest to those invested in the previous series. So I guess I'll come down with "It's BEST if you've read the first series, but you'd still enjoy the main love story without having done so."
Do you think you need to have read the Daughters of Boston series to "get" this series?
Aren't I lucky?? I had to beg her publicist for an ARC, and I suspect I only got the last one because I've endorsed her others. =) Not sure why they wanted to hold off on the review, Stephanie–but they asked, so I shall oblige.
But oh!, what a lovely story. Ahhhhh. 😉
Grr. That's definitely the downside of being educated about writing. It can really distract you from anything good in the book (i.e. The Shack).
Why aren't you supposed to post a review until the book releases? I would think they'd want "buzz." Or is it too early for buzz to translate to sales?…
*Sigh* you're so lucky that you got to read Julie's book and didn't have to wait till August like the rest of us. Thank you for sharing your "non-review." 😉
XOXO~ Renee