Tuesday, January 27, 2009

"A Gentle Rain"

Synopsis from B&N.com:
A Connecticut heiress learns she's adopted and travels to northern Florida "cracker"cattle ranch to find her birth parents. There she also finds unexpected romance with the ranch's owner.
When I first requested this book on LT, I was a bit hesitant-- the cover and title looked intriguing, and the (short) summary sounded fairly good, but it wasn't my usual type of book. I went ahead anyway. As soon as my copy arrived in the mail, I started the book. Little did I know that I would be pulled into the story so quickly and easily.
While it's not the type of story that I normally read, when I say it was different, I don't mean it in a bad way. The plot was unique, at least from everything else I've read in my life, and I enjoyed it a lot more than I originally thought I would.
Not only did I want to keep reading and find out more about the special (and I mean that in a good way, not in a rude way!) friends and family at Ben's ranch, but I also enjoyed reading the conversations, which were almost always entertaining, witty, and very honest. Some of the conversations that were held in this book really made me stop and think 'You know what? He/she is right, that is how life is.'. While sometimes simple, the words were no less awe-inspiring.
Although the romance in this book took a back seat--heck, maybe even the back trunk--to the rest of the story, it wasn't half bad either. Kara and Ben's love story wasn't the steamiest by any measure (it was actually pretty non-existent in the book and when it was there it was very, very tame) but it did have it's share of warm, tender moments, which almost made up for it. Almost... (If anyone knows me, they know that I prefer a bit more.. sex in my books, so reading one like A Gentle Rain, I did almost find myself losing interest at times simple because, in my book, romance novels=sex. Yes, I realize this isn't true, nor is one needed for the other to happen, but that's how I like my romance novels (for the most part) and it's hard to change my ways. However, I will admit that I've read some amazing romances before that had little to no sex in it.)
4/5 STARS! In short, I would recommend this book to almost anyone out there-- it's a great story about family, love, and being able to tie those two together through thick and thin. The characters are very vivid and sweet, and the story, though gentle, flows along nicely. It will definitely leave you with a warm, fuzzy feeling in your heart, something that very few novels can do.
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I'm sorry that I've fallen behind *again* on my posts and reviews, but I promise that I'll work harder on staying on time! I'm going to be posting last week's reads/reviews tonight or tomorrow at the latest *I promise!*, but they may be shorter than last time.
I'm thinking of just putting my rating, the summary from B&N, and a very brief 'why I liked/didn't like it' instead of a three and four paragraph review for each one. I just don't have as much time as I used to, what with classes going on again, along with various other personal problems, and it's the only way I'll be able to post ANYTHING on a semi-regular basis!
Until Later,
~TBQ~

3 comments :

Erotic Horizon said...

I like the sound of this. There are time i like the assumption of sex than the actual description. More of a plot than the romance bit.

Loved the review.

E.H.

The_Book_Queen said...

Well thanks! It wasn't my best review, nor my longest, but considering the lack of time I've had lately, it wasn't too bad.

I know what you mean, and I agree. However, in this book at least, I felt that even the allusion to the sex wasn't really there, at not written really well. But then, like I said, the story's main focus was not the H/h love story, so I can understand that lack of 'rip-the-clothes-off-and-have-spontanous-sex' theme. Still, I would have enjoyed just a hint of that in it, just because I'm use to more erotic works.


Still, it's a great book, and I'm sure that you'd enjoy it. Maybe you'll have to look it up next time your in a library or bookstore. :)

Erotic Horizon said...

I definately will.
E.H.