Now that my writing life has slowed to a semi-normal pace, I’m back to my second favorite hobby: reading.
Full Disclosure: I love history. I love romance. Therefore, I love historical romances.
There’s just something about the regency period that hits me right here…
So, last week I finished The Marriage Act by Alyssa Everett. Since it has been a few years since I read a historical romance that was NOT a classic, it was interesting to dip back into the waters of high society England in the 1800s. Before I settled on The Marriage Act, I actually started three other novels and, before I was ten pages in, I deleted them from my Paperwhite.
Not so with Ms. Everett’s book. The first thing that struck me was how well-crafted it was from a literary perspective. Frankly, it was refreshing to read a book that was grammatically correct with strong sentence structure and expanded vocabulary. I’m tired of books that are thrown into digital format with crummy covers and even crummier stories…forget about the writing, dialogue, or character development!
…which is the perfect segway to Everett’s tale.
Not your typical storyline by any stretch of the (lack of) imagination. Ms. Everett took the time to come up with a new, different type of love story. Caroline is the daughter of a bishop who, on the spur of a moment, agrees to marry John Welford. Without giving anything away, the story fast forwards five years and things are not as they should be with the couple.
Ms. Everett has wonderful dialogue that moves the story along quickly and helps develop her characters. The story, while not necessarily believable (I don’t really consider a couple married for five years “newlyweds”, nor do I expect them to act lovey-dovey to each other in front of family), is exactly what I needed and that was a break! I wanted to get lost in the pages of a book that was different from what I write. The Marriage Act and the wonderful characters created by Alyssa Everett certainly did that!
The Marriage Act by Alyssa Everett is available for pre-order HERE. I received the book from the publisher who did not request a review, but I am giving one anyway because I really enjoyed this author’s writing and her story!
For the record, there is one love scene that was tastefully written, not too detailed, and not graphic. Finally, despite loving history so much, I didn’t care for the use of a word that dates back to the late 15th century (courtesy of Scottish poet, William Dunbar)–if not earlier.
2 thoughts on “Wednesday’s Wanderer: A Book Review by Yours Truly”
Thank you for the review. I appreciate strong writing with correct grammar. I am a bit neurotic when it comes to reading and I have this sick need to finish a book once it is started. OCD? Maybe? Recently, I received a book from an author and it was the last straw. I could not, for the sake of my sanity, finish the book. I, too, am getting frustrated with quickly thrown together books with odd covers. (A good cover always pulls me in) Thanks again for the recommendation. I have already placed it on my Amazon wishlist.
That’s great, Terrill. Thank you.
And it’s NOT OCD. It’s proper expectations. Now, to be very frank, no book is 100% without error. Even some editions of the Bible have typographical errors (did you know that? Maybe I’ll blog about it…they are actually collector editions). We are, after all, human. But, like you, I will fling a book across the room if there are tons of errors or even research blunders (as in the author does not know their subject matter…I once flung an Amish book by an “expert” because the author put a epitaph on a tombstone in an Amish graveyard!!! She might be a best-selling author but she’s clearly not an expert!).