My Review of The Wronged Wife: A Medieval Historical Romance about Misunderstanding and Jealousy by Margaret Brazear

Despite the lengthy title, this was a pretty quick read, which ended up being a good thing, because even though I loved the premise, I found the story to be fairly predictable and unbelievable with characters that were difficult to like. I was actually pretty disappointed since the first part of the book started off so strongly. I had high hopes for this one....
Occasionally, I like to read something tragic to remind myself that my life is pretty good. So when I read that this book was about a woman whose husband leaves her once he returns home from war and finds her pregnant, I wanted to find out more. Philippa and her husband, Richard, have always had a very close relationship. He goes off to fight and comes back over a year later to find that she is with child.  Without even bothering to ask what has happened, he beats her so badly that she loses the child and almost dies.  We find out quickly that it is his own brother who has done this to his wife. Richard takes his then five-year-old daughter, Madeleine, with him, and refuses to hear any other explanation from his wife. For seven years.
That's where we come into the story.  Richard learns that his brother has been stabbed by a woman and is dying. Upon visiting his brother on his deathbed, he finds out that the woman stabbed him because he was attempting to rape her. And that's when Richard realizes he has made a terrible mistake....
He immediately gathers up his daughter and returns to Philippa--who actually welcomes him in!  This is where the story began to fall apart for me.  Every action Philippa takes from the moment Richard shows up at her door makes no sense to me.  The story also starts to drag here, and when another plot point finally enters the picture, it seems contrived, like beta readers may have said, "Something else needs to happen!" so the author threw something together really quickly.  This leads to more actions that don't make sense on the part of both lead characters and an ending that is anything but mind blowing.
While I really loved the concept, I felt that it was poorly executed. I understand that women were treated much differently back then, but the story is set up to make it seem like Philippa and Richard have the type of relationship that isn't bound by the laws and restrictions of the time.  Yet, her reactions seem right in line with how a woman would be expected to react.
Another important detail I found lacking was character and setting description. While I agree that some authors spend too much time describing the scenery and the outfits of each day for every character, I felt like I was having trouble imagining what these characters and their homes looked like because there was so little detail included.  I had actually switched the time period to Regency in my mind inadvertently for the whole middle section of the book, and it didn't really matter.  We find out Richard has a beard somewhere towards the end of the book.... I have no idea what their houses looked like. Things like that are problematic when one is really trying to get involved in the story at the same level as the author.

Could Costa's Portrait of a Woman be our Phillipa?

There were a slew of punctuation errors as well, which drove me crazy. Same old story--commas missing before transitional phrases, periods at the end of quotation marks instead of commas, etc. Nothing egregious, just annoying.
The cover is lovely, however!
If you really like Medieval romance novels with tragic premises that don't quite turn out the way you'd expect, then by all means, give this one a try. You can purchase The Wronged Wife here for the current price of $4.99. You can also read my three star review on Amazon here. If you appreciate my review, please give it a "yes" vote on Amazon so that other people see my reviews. I don't promote my blog through my reviews, but it will help other people make an informed decision.
If you've read this book or anything else by this author, please let us know in the comments!

My Review of Little Love Affair: A Clean Civil War Historical Romance (Southern Romance Series Book1) by Lexy Timms

I am constantly on the lookout for good Civil War era romance novels, so I was thrilled to see this one free on one of my many email lists.  The story sounds great; a young woman, Clara, is struggling to take care of her family farm, her younger sister, and her mother, when her father dies and her older brother goes off to join the Union Army.  When two Confederate soldiers show up on their farm, she is torn between trying to help them survive and following her convictions.  Since it is a romance novel, it isn't unexpected that she would develop feelings for one of them, which leads Clara to even more questions about whether to follow her heart or stay true to her country. Sounds pretty good doesn't it?
It was--until about halfway through. Then, things started to slow down, mysteries started to unravel, and reality started to let go.
First of all, this is advertised as a "clean" historical romance. It's not. The fact that it isn't doesn't really bother me, but I don't think it's very honest of the author to describe it as such when it's not, and I read a lot of reviews that weren't really happy with the deception.
Secondly, the way the characters react to the revelation of one of the minor characters is extremely unbelievable. I won't give this part of the story away, although it's pretty obvious just a few chapters in, but Clara doesn't stay true to her own characterization when she finds out the secret, and it made me lose some respect for her.
I found many of the characters to be rather flat, including Jasper, the lead. We don't know much about him. The younger sister is completely helpless until the very end, and the mom seems like she is in a trance most of the time.  The beau who is attempting to court Clara reminded me a bit of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
I like my Civil War books a little more heavy on the battle action. This one had very little mention of warfare at all. As a matter of fact, the author could have written it only with the knowledge that the Battle of Gettysburg happened in Pennsylvania in 1863. There's no mention of battle tactics, any other engagements, or really even anything about weaponry, etc. This lack of information removed me from the era quite a bit.

Not a lot of fighting in this war book

Another missing aspect was discussion of what life was like at that time as far as dress, transportation, home life, etc.  It's like anything true to the period was glossed over or left out so that the author didn't have to do any research. I like my historical romance a little more historical.  Using current vernacular and phrases was also annoying. People really didn't start using "hello" as a greeting until the twentieth century, but these characters use it a lot. That's just one blaring example.
As the story was starting to wind down, I was aware that I was only at about 70% on my Kindle.  I kept trying to figure out how this story, which was clearly ending, was going to last another 20%. Well, it didn't.  It ended at 80%. The rest was filler material--ads, requests for reviews, and then a chapter from another book which I didn't read because I was too upset about the other one ending so abruptly.  Granted, this book was free, so I can't complain too much, but if I had paid for it and only gotten 80% of what I thought I had purchased, I wouldn't be too happy.
If you really like Civil War era reads and you can get this one for free, then I say go ahead and give it a try. It is not a cliffhanger, so you don't have to read the rest of the series to reach a good breaking point, which is something I really do appreciate. If you'd like to read my three star Amazon review, you can find it here. If you find it helpful, please vote "yes" so that other people will see my reviews. If you'd like to try Little Love Affair, you can find it here. The price is currently free.
**Edit:  My nine-year-old is a huge 101 Dalmatians fan, and I just realized after a conversation with her that the two Confederate soldiers have the same names as the bad guys in that movie--Jasper and Horace. Coincidence? Now I'm curious....
What is your favorite era for historical romance?

My Review of Reflections of Queen Snow White by David Meredith

When author David Meredith contacted me a few weeks ago and asked me to review his novel, Reflections of Queen Snow White, I was intrigued, and though it wasn't quite what I expected from the book blurb, it was a good read which didn't take too long to finish either.
Snow White has been struggling with the death of her beloved Prince Charming for over a year, and when her daughter, Princess Raven, begins to plan her wedding, Snow White is despondent and closed off. In an effort to find some solitude, Snow White explores areas of the castle she hasn't visited for years and comes face to face with a ghost from her past--the magic mirror.
When I read the book description, I thought the mirror was going to literally help her go on an adventure to find herself. That is not the case. Since the mirror is a reflection of her true self, it simply guides her on a journey of self-reflection. We travel back in time with Snow White as she explores the key relationships of her life--her father, her evil step-mother, Prince Charming, members of her court, and others.  Each time the magic mirror begins to spin her back in time, we get more of a glimpse into who Snow White was and who she has become. Ultimately, the magic mirror forces her to make a decision to either accept the fact that Prince Charming is gone and move on with her life or continue to wallow in her own despair for the rest of her existence.

Will Snow White ever find her smile again?

I really enjoyed Meredith's spin on this classic fairy tale. I've always loved Grimm's fairy tales, and Snow White is one of my favorite princesses. I feel Meredith did a nice job of using the language of the era, which is difficult to do.  His prose is flowery and descriptive, but not in a way that makes one grow confused or feel overwhelmed.  The pace was steady, and I feel that many of the characters were well developed, although I would have liked to have had more information about the evil step-mother, six of the seven dwarfs, and Princess Raven, who hardly has any interaction with the reader at all. I really liked the flashback scenes where we get more information about Snow White's life, though many of them are a bit disturbing due to the violence inflicted upon our main character.
I did not feel that Snow White came across as a strong female lead, despite the fact that the mirror tells her (and us) that she is strong several times. She almost always needs someone to come and rescue her with each predicament she finds herself in. Even when she attempts to handle things herself, it doesn't go as expected.  Far from the Snow White portrayed by Ginnifer Goodwin on Once Upon a Time, this Snow White is more in line with the soft-spoken fairy of Disney's original movie from the '30s.
There were also several proofreading errors that caught my eye, particularly when it came to punctuation.  I was constantly pulled out of the story when a lengthy sentence incorporating two independent clauses with a conjunction joining them did not have a comma. This might sound a bit picky, but it makes it difficult to read these types of sentences when they are not properly punctuated. This is another instance when I am wondering if there was an editor because none is listed and most of the mistakes seem to be in line with a careful proofread by a writer who may or may not be familiar with all of the punctuation rules or can't see them because we tend to read things the way we thought we wrote them....
There are some explicit bedroom scenes to go along with the violence already noted, so keep that in mind. I wouldn't recommend this for younger readers. I didn't find it horribly offensive but I read a couple of other reviews from readers who did.  Definitely not one to plan on reading aloud to your kids at bedtime!
I gave this book four stars on Amazon. You can read my review here.  If you find it helpful, please indicate so on Amazon as that helps my recommendations to be seen by others.  If you'd like to find read Reflections of Queen Snow White for yourself, you can purchase it here for $1.99.