Odd Info Dumping and Weird Language Errors
I had a gut instinct when I read one of the author's disclaimers for this book that it might be an odd one. Unfortunately, I was correct. In that disclaimer, she stated that the people on the cover were models and were not meant to portray any characters in the book. Say, what? Isn't that the point of having people on the cover of a novel… they're supposed to represent the character is? And if the book is a romance with a couple on the cover, isn't it the reader’s expectation that they are characters? Of course, we don't expect that fictional characters are equal to people in real life, yet we expect a couple on the cover of a romance to be the hero and heroine of the book! Then, within the first page, I started seeing some strange language errors, both normal ones I see far too regularly in self-published books and ones I typically do not. For instance, the first error noted was the improper use of a hyphen between an adjective and its noun (“icy packed-snow”). Sometimes in British English, authors do this (e.g., drawing-room instead of drawing room, but this author mentioned central Florida in the introduction as the place she lived. The book has some standard comma issues, like not using them between independent clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction. Other language issues had to do with consistency, like sometimes italicizing thoughts, but sometimes not. Within the first 3% of the book, the author had at least two spelling errors, “decent” for “descent” and “enduring” for “endearing.” Since the author had mentioned an editor in the front matter, I checked out a preview of the book online, and unfortunately, these errors persist in the published edition.
The author engaged in way too much info-dumping at the start. She did it, though, in a very strange way; it seemed like she kept reiterating the same backstory points (e.g., the heroine didn’t have time for romance; she was unsure of her abilities to run the inherited tree farm business) over and over. Yet she did not give current and past context that was needed to understand the first scene. Did the heroine only recently move to town? What precisely was her relationship history with the adult male she was drooling over (all the while thinking she shouldn’t contemplate a relationship)? Frankly, it was confusing. I never reread a book's description before I actually read the book, as I believe the book should stand on its own. It shouldn't need the book description to help you understand the story; a book description is supposed to be a sales tool, hooking the right potential reader. When I went to give this review, I did check out the description, and this author certainly relied on the reader’s foreknowledge of having read that book description to understand the novel's setup. Not good. Finally, one issue the heroine has is something that should not affect modern heroines: whether or not she can run a business because she is a woman. Yes, both a past boyfriend and apparently her father believe that women have no place in business. She kept questioning her abilities to run her business, stating or thinking multiple times that women can't run a business! Seriously! And the small town of Snowflake has few women business owners. The small town I lived in two decades ago MOSTLY had shops and businesses run by women! Hellow! The 1950s called and wants its narrow view of female abilities back! I understand this is the author's fourth book, but by now she should have some of these points down, and she certainly needs to find a better editor!
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.