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jaceyBook MCDIX of Harlequin American Romance
I can hardly bear to admit to reading this, but the worst thing about this book is its truly cringeworthy title, though I guess it means that what's on the outside of the tin is a pretty accurate description of what's on the inside. I like a touch of romance in my reading, but except for one Mills and Boon more than thirty years ago I've never been a reader of formula romances, so I thought it was about time I gritted my teeth tried one.
I suppose as far as they go this is up to standard. The writing style is transparent; the characters are well developed; Ms McDavid writes horses well (sometimes better than people) and seems to know her stuff about rodeos, vets and horse breeding. The plot is slight and all the problems would have been resolved on the first page if Ace had told Flynn he loved her. There - that was it. Spoiler.
But this is formula romance. I guess the main characters are allowed to be stupid and avoid resolving their relationship until the end of the book otherwise there would be no romantic tension.
So... plot.
Flynn and Aidan (Ace) live on neighbouring ranches. They had a thing going back in their student days but Ace's dad – a mean drunk – almost ruined the family farm due to mismanagement. When he died Ace dumped Flynn due to impending pressure of work and took over the farm as well as running his vet practice, taking on all the hard work while his brothers did their own thing, one riding the rodeo circuit and not to be depended upon, the other skipping off to join the marines. Broken-hearted Flynn married on the rebound, but that didn't work out – mainly because her husband put work before her. Now Flynn's back home and due to an unfortunate night of passion with Ace (before the book opens) she's pregnant
Ace wants Flynn to marry him so he can look after her and they can raise their baby together but absent-mindedly forgets to tell Flynn that he's been suppressing his love for her for years. Flynn loves him but doesn't think he loves her. Oh sure he'll take on the responsibility of a family. He's good at grabbing responsibility and hoarding it. She sees a workaholic and wants to be sure she'll not be ignored like last time. Yeah, right, it will be no surprise that eventually they figure things out.
There's a sub-plot about rehabilitating a mistreated rodeo stud stallion (and possibly more than the average reader wants to know about collecting stallion sperm for artificial insemination) which does resolve itself.
There's an unresolved sub plot with the two brothers. Colt acts as though his nose has been put out of joint when he learns of Flynn's pregnancy, but there's never any reason given. The other brother is never on the page, but apparently has been discharged from the Marines but hasn't been in touch since then. I expected this to be resolved at the wedding (What? Wedding? Did that come as a surprise?) but the last we hear Colt just fails to show up for best man duties and the ex-marine sub plot remains unresolved.
I can only assume they are dealt with in another book since this is number MCDIX (1409) in the American Romance series, but I can't find details on the author's website. (Additional note: that's because other books in the same series are not written by the same author, so they must be commissioned as a series. That makes sense in the context of this being number 1409.) When I worked in libraries we used to buy this stuff by the yard. Ingterchangeable romances with the same predictable plot only then it was most likely doctors and nurses. Well, my goal this year was to step out of my comfort zine when reading and this certainly made me do that, if not in the way I originally intended. It's not a bad book, but I could feel redundant brain cells leaking out of my ears as I read it.
I can hardly bear to admit to reading this, but the worst thing about this book is its truly cringeworthy title, though I guess it means that what's on the outside of the tin is a pretty accurate description of what's on the inside. I like a touch of romance in my reading, but except for one Mills and Boon more than thirty years ago I've never been a reader of formula romances, so I thought it was about time I gritted my teeth tried one.
I suppose as far as they go this is up to standard. The writing style is transparent; the characters are well developed; Ms McDavid writes horses well (sometimes better than people) and seems to know her stuff about rodeos, vets and horse breeding. The plot is slight and all the problems would have been resolved on the first page if Ace had told Flynn he loved her. There - that was it. Spoiler.
But this is formula romance. I guess the main characters are allowed to be stupid and avoid resolving their relationship until the end of the book otherwise there would be no romantic tension.
So... plot.
Flynn and Aidan (Ace) live on neighbouring ranches. They had a thing going back in their student days but Ace's dad – a mean drunk – almost ruined the family farm due to mismanagement. When he died Ace dumped Flynn due to impending pressure of work and took over the farm as well as running his vet practice, taking on all the hard work while his brothers did their own thing, one riding the rodeo circuit and not to be depended upon, the other skipping off to join the marines. Broken-hearted Flynn married on the rebound, but that didn't work out – mainly because her husband put work before her. Now Flynn's back home and due to an unfortunate night of passion with Ace (before the book opens) she's pregnant
Ace wants Flynn to marry him so he can look after her and they can raise their baby together but absent-mindedly forgets to tell Flynn that he's been suppressing his love for her for years. Flynn loves him but doesn't think he loves her. Oh sure he'll take on the responsibility of a family. He's good at grabbing responsibility and hoarding it. She sees a workaholic and wants to be sure she'll not be ignored like last time. Yeah, right, it will be no surprise that eventually they figure things out.
There's a sub-plot about rehabilitating a mistreated rodeo stud stallion (and possibly more than the average reader wants to know about collecting stallion sperm for artificial insemination) which does resolve itself.
There's an unresolved sub plot with the two brothers. Colt acts as though his nose has been put out of joint when he learns of Flynn's pregnancy, but there's never any reason given. The other brother is never on the page, but apparently has been discharged from the Marines but hasn't been in touch since then. I expected this to be resolved at the wedding (What? Wedding? Did that come as a surprise?) but the last we hear Colt just fails to show up for best man duties and the ex-marine sub plot remains unresolved.
I can only assume they are dealt with in another book since this is number MCDIX (1409) in the American Romance series, but I can't find details on the author's website. (Additional note: that's because other books in the same series are not written by the same author, so they must be commissioned as a series. That makes sense in the context of this being number 1409.) When I worked in libraries we used to buy this stuff by the yard. Ingterchangeable romances with the same predictable plot only then it was most likely doctors and nurses. Well, my goal this year was to step out of my comfort zine when reading and this certainly made me do that, if not in the way I originally intended. It's not a bad book, but I could feel redundant brain cells leaking out of my ears as I read it.
