Aaaaaaaaah!!!!!
Sorry, I didn't mean to scream! Well, actually, I did. Sort of. I just finished reading the book less than a minute ago so I'm still a bit... uh... charged. (You know that blissful feeling that you get after you've finished a book and everything turned out great and left you perfectly satisfied, nearly ecstatic, and on top of the clouds??? I have that right now. It's glorious!)
My first thought when I started this book was: Yes! She wrote a book about Neill! My next one wasn't as pleasant: Oh no! It's going to be terribly short and I'm not going to like it at all!!
Then I unplugged the not-so-positive part of my brain, put all other thoughts aside, and just READ. Oh, how I love doing that!
To my infinite relief, Neill is exactly as I'd envisioned him. (I suppose I somehow got the absurd thought that he'd be different because he didn't have his own novel.) He's charming, adorably sweet, ornery (as he says), loyal, and wonderful. I see a little of Travis' protectiveness peeking through his character and find that sweet too.
Clara is great as well. Kindhearted, independent, and loving. I think she and Neill are awesome together! (As Meri says: “Yes. You are definitely the right woman.”) I like the “Just until dawn” part. Too cute.
Mack – You know, I didn't find him as irritating as the other bad guys in Karen's books. Probably because he softened in the end. Not quite sure whether I like that or not...
While I really enjoyed this novella (obviously), I do have one complaint. It was too short. Don't get me wrong, Karen did an awesome job as usual. (The characters were appropriately developed. There was a delightful amount of adventure and romance. And the return of the beloved Archers was awesome, of course.) But it cut my romantic-adventure time shorter. They had to fall in love within a few days, though she wrote it to where it didn't seem nearly as rushed as it was. And I read it within the space of two hours.
Oh yeah, one more thing. I don't know if this is just me, but this novella didn't seem as... faith-filled as the other books by Karen Witemeyer. Perhaps it was just because of the lack of space provided, but whatever it was, I don't care for it. Our faith must be apparent in all things.