The Book: Millie Marries a Marshal by Linda Hubalek
The Particulars: Historical western romance, Novella, 2014, In print, Available in digital, Book 2 in series.
Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I love historical westerns and I picked up a print copy of this at the only RT Book Reviews convention I attended. Also, at some point this must have been a freebie because I also had an eBook copy languishing on my Kindle.
The Review: This is not a good book. Oh sure, there's a kernel of a good story here but everything about the execution is terrible. How do these people fall in love? Why do they fall in love? Who the heck knows! Because the author is much more concerned with burying her 120 page romance novella under a mountain of series-itis set-up and secondary characters instead of, oh I don't know, spending time developing her two main characters and the romance I'm supposed to care about.
Millie Donovan travels to Clear Creek, Kansas to become Sam Larson's mail-order bride. Born and raised in Chicago, she had to hastily leave her pit-stop in St. Louis with her toddler "son," Tate, in tow. Now she's on the railroad platform and has already, to her horror, attracted the notice of the town marshal. Then he tells her Sam is dead and she, promptly, faints. As you do.
Adam Wilerson has vowed to stay a bachelor, mostly because of his job. He and his brother had no idea their neighbor Sam was hooking up with a mail-order bride, but they discovered her letters when they were cleaning out his place after his death. He deposits the too-thin woman and her son at the hotel and heads off to the family dinner he's already late for, only to get a severe dressing down from his mother and sister. What do you mean you just dumped the shocking news on this poor woman and left her at the hotel? A hotel that very likely doesn't have any rooms available because the town is bursting at the seams with folks passing through thanks to a cattle drive.
Adam tracks down Millie (her and Tate just got kicked out of squatting in the livery and trash-can diving for food) and Adam's mother steps in and decides that her bachelor son needs a housekeeper. In exchange for cooking and cleaning, Millie gets room and board until she decides what to do next. Eventually what happens is that somehow these two fall in love after spending zero time together and Millie's secrets come home to roost.
Why don't Millie and Adam spend time together? Well, because he's actively avoiding her and the author instead chooses to fill a 120-page novella full to brimming with secondary characters. Millie spends more time with Adam's mother than Adam - and that woman is a saint. It would have been more believable for her to fall in love with Cate! This series is 12 books long and the reader is introduced to characters that show up in book one and books three through seven! THIS IS A NOVELLA AND IS ONLY 120 PAGES LONG! WHY DEAR LORD, WHY?!?!?!?!
Ahem, anywho - it's no wonder I didn't believe in the romance. With all these secondary characters floating around, when exactly does the author have time to develop the romance between Adam and Millie? The answer is, she doesn't. Compounding this problem is that when these two do manage to spend a few sentences on page together they lack any sort of chemistry or tension. This is a just-kisses romance, but just because there's no sex in it does not mean romances can't or shouldn't have tension. You can believe the characters are attracted to each other without them doing the mattress mambo, but they also have to spend time together to develop that tension, that chemistry. And these two don't. Instead I'm reading about Hilda's sod house and Cora running a ranch and Adam's widowed mother Cate and his sister Sarah and his brother Jacob getting married to Raina (see book one) and yada yada yada.
It's a shame because I do think there's a story here - uh, somewhere. Namely when Millie's past shows up in town and all her secrets come tumbling out. It's a compelling plot idea and could make a good story. It just didn't here. Oh well. Moving on. And on a brighter note, since I had two copies of this in my TBR I'm weeding out two books this month! That has a certain amount of logic to it, right?
Final Grade = D-
9 comments:
Aw, bummer this didn't work.
I read HER PRETEND CHRISTMAS DATE by Jackie Lau, b/c if it involves a free spirit heroine, a buttoned-up hero, and fake dating, I'm happy to stay in the Christmas spirit for another month.
This was cute, but didn't quite come together for me enough to be an A read, which is typical for me and Jackie Lau. I'm more of a slow burn, little gestures adding up to the whole type reader and Jackie Lau tends to write characters getting physical fairly early and then dealing with the emotional fallout. And there's nothing wrong with that! But it doesn't hold my interest as well. She also really loves to pile on quirky annoying family members which is everyone's favorite.
I would still give this a solid B for cute execution of fake dating premise, endearing main characters and lots of delicious food descriptions. This was really hard to read at night because it was making me hungry!
Onward!
Well, DAMN. The premise (mail-order bride gets to town to find groom dead, now what? add at least one decent single guy--OR, hell, WOMAN/PERSON) is MOST EXCELLENT, but yeah, they either need to spend time together, or pull something like LH's Son of the Morning, which is tricky and hello, paranormal-level suspension of disbelief.
UGH! Romance novellas can be so tricky. It takes time to develop a meaningful relationship, so if the pages are spent on secondary characters, the romance doesn't develop for the reader and becomes unrealistic. I feel the best romance novellas are ones that support and focus on a secondary character from an established series OR when the main couple is friends before the story starts, so some of that "getting to know you" happens off page. I picked a novella for my "quickie," too, and it fits into that second category I mentioned.
I think one of the problems with novellas is that they are often used to introduce readers to a new world/series, and many authors take that to mean, "dump the whole worldbuilding and cast of characters in less than 150 pages". What works is when the novella has the worldbuilding so tight, and the characters/relationship so well written, that you want to look for what else the author has written in that world (this happened to me with Milla Vane's "The Beast of Blackmoor", to the point that I remembered that novella for almost seven years, and jumped on the novels when I found they were finally out)
It sounds like I had the opposite experience from you. I chose "The Admiral's Heart" by Danelle Harmon, which is also a novella and is considered part of not one, but *two* different series. I've not read any more than the summaries of the novels in either series, but I thought the story stood well enough on its own, without drowning in series characters or lots of setup. It's a second chance romance with an explicit love scene, all neatly tucked into 60 pages. Aside from the too-abrupt ending, I thought the character development was nicely done, and the history weaved into the story without being too obvious or interfering. I've read other novellas by this author and have a couple of her novels on my Kindle, so definitely looking forward to reading more :)
I like the idea of knocking two books off Mount TBR! It definitely counts if you have two copies of the same book, LOL.
oh my - that would annoy me, too! I love novellas when they focus on the couple and maybe a mere mention of a few, like 2-4, characters I've enjoyed in previous novels. Two books off the pile is a win - it has to get better from here, right?
Az - I agree completely. I was introduced to Ilona Andrews and Meljean Brook via an anthology of novellas, and I immediately purchased their entire backlists - Meljean Brook is also Milla Vane. She is one of the most talented writers out there.
I picked a novella that, executed it a bit better, was clearly a series baiting set-up, too. Novellas don't really have that much room to maneuver.
weeding out two books this month! Sounds like you earned it, lol.
Jill: Oooh, I love the fake dating/relationship trope!
AL: It's been years since I've read it - but Maureen McKade had a great mail-order bride comes to town and her groom is dead titles - wait for it - Mail-Order Bride. It's a great premise which is why historical western writers have come back to it - and sigh, just so disappointing to not work here. And it totally could have - if only the author had brought out a clown car's worth of secondary characters.
Jen: For me novellas are like category romance on speed. You can't faff about in category, which means you sure as hell can't faff about in novellas. You need that strong, intense focus on the romance, which ultimately is why all romance readers are there in first place.
Eurohackie: Now see, that's how you do a novella. Glad Harmon's worked for you!
Dorine: I have a hard time DNF'ing novellas, but I also HAD to find out what Big Secret the heroine was hiding - and it was a good one! Sigh. It would have made a much better story if the author had just lobbed off the seemingly dozens of secondary characters. Oh, and to have the hero not intentionally avoid the heroine.
Whiskey: Exactly! "Room to maneuver" is a good way to put it.
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