Hilbrand Filman Filman থেকে Udesipur, Haryana 131102, India
I never actually finished this book (although don't worry--I know all about the ending), but I think I might have, and I might have even liked it better if it had been marketed as a first novel and not the second coming. Why are novels on this topic 'struggling with identity' when men write them and 'chick lit about dating' when women do?
I'm very glad that the next installment of this series has a Northern heroine, because Ms. West is killing me with her nitwittish interpretation of post-Civil War Southern belles. The first book The Outcast featured the personality twin of Scarlett O'Hara, and this one was almost as bad, but for different reasons. However, I have to say that if you're going to read one of this series, you should probably start at the beginning. Hamilton Dodge is a former Union lieutenant who has bravely marched into Pride County, KY, to help his friend Reeve get the local bank started up again. Neither man are much liked in the Southern-sympathizing town, and in the first book, Reeve is almost hanged and Dodge is shot in the back because of it. When he meets Starla Fairfax - a native of Pride County and friend to just about everyone - he's struck by her sassy manner and her exotic beauty, even if her brother Tyler was part of the group responsible for his injury. Starla, however, wants nothing to do with the brash Northern banker, no matter how refreshing it is to meet a man who's so honest with her. She's still dealing with the ramifications from a disaster that began with a betrayal by a man: she's pregnant. When Dodge finds this out, he proposes - he doesn't know if he'll ever be able to father children and he's been longing for someone to make a life with. And Starla agrees, because she has no where else to turn - certainly not back to her evil father, and she can't go back to the past that's following her either. But this marriage of convenience turns out to be bringing up some very inconvenient feelings in both them. Starla is probably one of the most emotionally tormented heroines I've ever read about. She's been hurt by her father, her husband, and her lawyer, and she's now stuck as a woman alone with no where to turn except to her friends. All of that should have made her a sympathetic heroine, but there was just some things that really bothered me about her character. I don't want to spoil the plot, but there are things she says, does, and neglects to say or do that don't really make any sense in the story. She could avoided a lot of heartache by divulging even just a small crumb of the truth to anyone, but instead she takes it all on her own shoulders. I felt more bad for Dodge than anything else. The history is incredible, and Ms. West knows how to accurately portray the divisions of lifestyles, and how some perverted the loyalty of others to push their own agendas. But the romance fell flat for me, there was just too much other stuff going on. C+