2008-03-25 Disappointing book - lacking humour, wit, romance and depth!

I picked up this book because of the fun and cute cover that grabbed my eye and then when I read the plot, it made me chuckle: a spitfire heroine who abducts the hero and ties him up to force him to marry her! That's quite an unusual way for a romance novel! Usually it is always the heroine who is forced to marry, so it was interesting to see that Karen Hawkins took an unique spin on this storyline and I was intrigued to see how she would pull it off. But what a disappointment this book was!

It wasn't funny nor cute (which the very nice cover and the jacket blurb led me believe it would be), the story was shallow and Karen Hawkins didn't make any effort to make her characters 3D and interesting, she kept them one dimensional and simple, the "twists and turns" in the storyline were forced and not even surprising, I seriously regret spending those few hours I spent reading this. I tried to warm to the heroes and though there were a few characteristics that made me like them and root for them, I think it's the author's fault that she didn't give us enough to fall in love with them. The romance part was kept basic and simple too: one moment the hero and the heroine realise they are in love with each other, but you can't see what or how they came to love each other. There is no character transformation, yes it is stated that just with a snap of fingers Jack the gambling and unfaithful playboy wants to forsake London and his previous lifestyle and "bury himself" in the Scottish countryside and become an exemplary husband and family man. Which wouldn't be so unbelievable, I have seen such transformation completely credible in other stories, but here the author just states he was a new man, but doesn't show how and why he came to be so different.

This book lacks humour, wit, romance, character and storyline depth, so everything that makes a story a good one.

If you'd like to read a good, funny and cute Scottish romance I'd rather suggest you read some Julie Garwood (The Secret, The Wedding..) than waste your time and money with this.