Thursday, September 13, 2012

Over the Edge, Mary Connealy

This review is part of a book review program with Bethany House. The Bethany House book review program is simple: I request a book from the links they send via email, then I read the book they send and write a review on this blog and a retailer’s site (such as Amazon). If this sounds like something that interests you, you can get more information and/or sign up here: www.bethanyhouse.com/bookreviewers

Book three of the Kincaid Bride series, Over the Edge starts with a blazing gun fight between outlaws and a fiery woman. If that's not bad enough, her runaway husband rides to the rescue and even in her crystal-clear rage, she misses him with the bullet she intends to shoot him with.

Seth Kincaid doesn't remember his bride, or the child that inarguably inherited his eyes. Actually, he doesn't remember much of anything of the events that happened after he fought in the Civil War. All of a sudden, he has a family: a wife that's spitting mad, a loud yet adorable baby boy, and a surprise brother that finds him at the most unexpected (and opportune) moment. Needless to say, he has a lot to sort out. But while Seth is willing to make things work, his wife seems more intent on shooting him.

Check out the trailer for the book here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeSzqacHzQM&list=UUOTCh77FT1ZAyg-Mrj97HWw&index=2&feature=plcp

Even though I was hesitant to start a book without reading the first two of the series, I started in right away, highly intrigued by the plot line the summary on the back of the book promotes. But as I kept reading, the less interested I became.

I think it's more than some of the interesting quirks each character possesses, it's more that all of the characters seem very two-dimensional (only because there is slightly more than just one-dimension, but just the tiniest bit). Instead of reading about characters that are very real in spite of the fact that they live on the page instead of in reality, I read about characters that had a single-minded determination to stay flat on the pages rather than springing up and taking on a life of their own.

The male characters, in particular, seemed very unrealistic. Each had about one real character trait and there wasn't any depth to them, which is a shame because I felt they had so much promise. Rafe, the older brother, is a control freak that treats his wife like a child (and she lets him!); Ethan, the middle child, is a smiling guy, that's it; and Seth is reckless and crazy, with a strong attraction to his "scary" wife (I've never heard a guy admit that out loud about a woman they're supposedly in love with). There's promise in each character trait, but without fleshing it out just right, you get what you read in this book (unrealistic , frustrating, and boring characters).

The plot, too, seemed a bit scatter-brained. It wasn't very focused and I found myself wondering why certain scenes kept jumping around and why some were even included in the book. It finally figured itself out, but I wasn't convinced - it definitely wasn't believable to me at every turn, which lost my interest at times.

While parts of the book were intriguing, I wouldn't want to read it again. I find I'm not particularly inclined to pick up the previous two books in this series either. Maybe it's a one-time fluke, but I wasn't overly impressed. I would rate this (on a 1-10 high/low scale) about a 3-4. The author has promise, but I think the two major things she needs to work on are: 1) character development and believability, and 2) plot structure/organization.

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