Friday, July 22, 2016

Re(ad)treat: Hour 26.

Well, that was a startling turn events.  The Pacific Northwest does not experience many thunderstorms, as a rule.  It turns out the activity around dinner time last night was only a prelude. Thunderstorms rolled through at 11:30, shortly after 2, and then the granddaddy with accompanying buckets of rain at 4:15.  We get a lot of rain out this way, but it usually takes all day to amount to any accumulation.  There was a bothersome amount of water in the corners of the tent.

After last night's noisy interludes, I slept in until shortly after nine.  I then continued to hide in my sleeping bag reading until a caffeine headache started to threaten.  It took a while to set the campsite to rights, and I had my breakfast sitting in the car, it being the driest place.  

I just checked the forecast again, hoping for enough sun to dry things out a little.  I don't know why I bothered: I checked at 11:30-ish pm-- while it was actively raining!-- and no rain was predicted for the whole night.  Talk about an epic fail.

I did finish a book while eating cereal in my back seat:

Someone to love by Mary Balogh.  Netgalley grab.  I had to look this up several times last night because I could have sworn I read this before.  Everything I've seen though does make it look like a new 2016 title and not a re-release.  Maybe it's a recycled storyline or something like that.  There are only so many possible romance novel scenarios, after all.

This was fair.  My main complaint is that there are far too many unnecessary characters; fewer could have done the job more clearly and with more personality.  The book also starts by introducing a number of these side characters in turn, so it isn't clear for a while who the main characters will turn out to be.

It's clear that this is the first in a new series, with future books focusing on these various family members, but that doesn't really excuse it.

The ending is also a bit of a let-down: the hero is suddenly super-self-enlightened, whereas before he wasn't really in touch with how his feelings were developing.  It is a bit jarring and feels rushed, sloppy.

Romance readers looking for erotic content will also be disappointed.  

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