4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Ho hum Christmas Romance, September 23, 2008
When Emma Harrison was eighteen she fell in love with her father's protégé Jack Stanton. When he proposed, however, she asked him to wait as her mother was ill and she felt duty bound to nurse her. He didn't though and left her father's bridge building company to start his own. Seven years later Emma is overseeing her father's company as they design and build a bridge in Northern England when Jack Stanton comes back into her life.
Emma is worried about her father's health and Jack's company has contracted for the railroad bridge. Jack is concerned about delays and visits the site. Emma is angry at the intrusion as she feels she is handling things well and lets her prickliness come through in every sentence. One thing that I grew tired of reading was that she lifted her chin in defiance or was always smoothing her skirts in agitation.
Jack is extremely likable and patient with Emma who has to always be right and makes the mistake of jumping to conclusions but only with Jack. She is quick to think the very worst of him. He recognizes that there are problems with the bridge and Emma even knows this but she is determined to protect her father's reputation. What about the safety of others, Emma?
There is a subplot with her father's health that really was very easy to figure out. It was surprising that Emma never did unravel that mystery since she has taught herself civil engineering and mathematics but cannot deduct a cause and effect with her father's illness.
There are not a lot of emotional interludes with the leads except when they are squabbling or rather when Emma is questioning Jack on his job performance. Emma even describes herself as an acid tongued spinster; she proves it time and again. I never felt like these people really loved each other, even toward the end of the book Emma still has doubts about Jack. I had doubts about how he could fall in love again with her too.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Got distracted into melodrama, October 17, 2010
I really enjoyed this book about Emma and Jack, who were re-discovering their love for each other after years of misunderstanding and estrangement but only up to a point. The first half of the book felt a little like the wonderful traditional romances that Mary Balogh used to write. But then, Styles got distracted from developing a very romantic relationship into a melodramatic plot involving attempted poisoning and a dastardly villain. Unfortunately, she neglected to bring Emma and Jack together in a credible way that made us believe in their love. My other big bug-bear was that Jack never acknowledged how clever Emma really was...he treated her a little like she was 'the little woman indoors' which does not sit well with me. An enjoyable story but a bit of a let down at the end.
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