Lucky Stars

Rating:
Summary: Charming & funny Americana romance - one of best this year
Review: I really liked this one. It was cute and charming and so easy to read. The story was filled with interesting and vivid details of the historical period but it was the characters who made the story. They both grew up surrounded by the worst kind of relationships and it did affect their outlook on life but didn't make them bitter people. Their banter is humorous and natural and their attraction and love for each other is heartfelt and undeniable.

My only complaint comes towards the very end of the book. Up until this point the characters had been pretty open with their feelings, even as confused as they sometimes were, but the author suddenly resorted to a ""lack of communication/big misunderstanding" plot device that tore the couple apart for a few months then wrapped everything up neatly with an epilogue written in first person by the heroine. I thought the epilogue/letter was a neat idea but I would've liked to have *seen* the couple resolve a few things rather than be *told* how everything worked out in two short pages. Despite that little nitpick I thought LUCKY STARS was a terrific love story, one of the better ones I've read this year and I can easily recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK
Review: This book is original and amusing and well written. You won't go wrong if you purchase it. I myself can't wait until this author publishes again.

Rating:
Summary: I'd really like to give this a 3 1/2 star rating
Review: This book was definitely better than average - which is a 3 star rating - but it does not quite rate as a four star. I had a hard time relating to the hero of this story. Leon is such a "nice guy" throughout the entire story, yet I didn't feel that his upbringing would have produced such a person. Even from the begining, when he's "forced" into getting married (I use that term lightly, I feel he could have gotten out of it is he really wanted to) he just sort of rolls along with whatever Marjorie says. Where's his backbone? I don't mind a sensitive male lead, but Leon seems a little too soft for his upbringing and his background. Here's a guy who went through 15 step mothers - always being the left out child, the Civil War, hearding on the Texan plains, and wandering the west. You tell me that this kind of man is going to meekly find himself trapped into marriage, have little to no sexual relations with his "wife" and settle down? I don't think so. On a more positive note, I enjoyed the secondary characters, and felt that they added a great deal to the story. Hank, Ruby, and their family gave the reader an interesting perspective of the post-War west. This isn't a bad book to pick up and read if you like this genre, but I think there are better books availible today.