An Affair at Stonecliffe by Candace Camp
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Thank you to the publisher, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of An Affair at Stonecliffe in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The Gist
Did somebody say historical fiction? Yes, please. Although I had some reservations, because An Affair at Stonecliffe is considered a romance novel, I was cautiously optimistic.
Now, I’m sitting at my desk with a slight headache starting between my eyes, wondering how much tea I can drink before I get the jitters. I have said it before, it looks like I’m not cut out for the romance genre. We just don’t mesh.
I nitpick. I ask too many questions. My analytical mind takes over and then it’s all downhill from there.
The Details
The protagonist. Is she rational? Does she understand what her situation is like? Does she know what she has to do? Probably. But we get so caught up in her thought process of making decisions that it’s hard to say for sure.
Every action, every decision, it seems needs at least five pages to describe her feelings, her thoughts etc. I swear, at one point I was almost shouting at the book for her to finally do something. The thing that is most obvious and she ended up doing, but we had to read how her mind came to the conclusion to act this way in very painstaking detail.
Why, oh why, is this book so longwinded?
It could have been so much better, if somebody had just cut out half of the telling part.
It’s never a good idea to tell rather than show in a story. Do not waste too much time going into mind-numbing details about how the character should run, or stay, or speak up. And do not repeat the same phrases over and over again to explain the character’s feelings/nerves.
Tell me once the character’s nerves are “jumping”. I get it. Let’s move the story along.
And what was the deal with the male character? He reminded me a little of a bad interpretation of Mr. Darcy, always sour, in a bad mood and grumbling.
I never got the dark, brooding type as sexy trope. It’s not sexy having a sourpuss to deal with.
Anyway, I’m on a roll and I should stop.
The Verdict
Overall, I must stay away from romance novels. We are not good for each other. I’m sorry, but this is another pass for me.
About the Author
Candace Camp is a New York Times bestselling author of over sixty novels of contemporary and historical romance. She grew up in Texas in a newspaper family, which explains her love of writing, but she earned a law degree and practiced law before making the decision to write full-time. She has received several writing awards, including the RT Book Reviews Lifetime Achievement Award for Western Romances. Visit her at www.candace-camp.com.
