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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
dissapointing, May 21, 2011
This review is from: Place of Peace (Kindle Edition)
I wanted to like this book, but I was completely distracted by unlikable characters and a lack of cohesion to the story.
The story starts with Genny Romayne being annoyed with her family, and the demands they place on her. She sees herself as a commodity, and not a loved member of the family. So she does what anyone would do... runs away from home. With a great deal of unbelievable coincidences and a few well-placed lies, she becomes a nurse/receptionist/bookkeeper for a respected doctor. Although she has no training as a nurse, she quickly finds herself a part of the household. When the doctor, Ethan Carey, discovers the truth, they decide to run away and get married. It is not all wedded bliss, but rather than confront the problems, first Genny, and then Ethan decide running away is the best course of action... ending up in Memphis in the middle of the yellow fever epidemic.
Genny is an unlikeable character. She is selfish, lying and manipulating things to suit her fancy. At one point, the author goes into great detail about how Genny wishes to manipulate Ethan. Her solution to any problem is not to solve it, but rather to run away. She is childish, and doesn't grow up until the last fifty pages or so. At that point, it felt required rather than natural. Ethan himself isn't above avoiding things, and his love for Genny seems superficial. He struggles with dark demons of his past thanks to a faithless fiancee and his participation in the War of Northern Aggression.He doesn't grow and change as a character until the last handful of pages, and the change is rather inexplicable. At several points throughout the story I felt the desperate wish to shake some sense into the characters. No one had any depth.
The constant changes of setting were abrupt, and interrupted the flow of the story. There were parts that went right from "I'm going away" to "I've been here for a month and am on a first name basis with everyone". Time kept passing, and nothing happened. People weren't met, they were just suddenly best friends or beaus... there was a lot of telling what happened rather than have it happen. It was frustrating that there was so little to keep the story moving forward. The few attempts at suspense were lackluster and felt out of place.
As much as I wanted to enjoy this story, I found myself deeply disappointed in the writing.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Christian historical fiction, May 21, 2011
This review is from: Place of Peace (Kindle Edition)
This is another Christian fiction book (although this is not apparent until about half-way through as in "Woman of Sin") by Debra Diaz. Complex characters and good historical detail. Not for the queasy when you get into the part about the epidemic. I have read all the books by this author and they are highly recommended.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Post Civil War Action/Romance, May 21, 2011
This review is from: Place of Peace (Kindle Edition)
The character of Genny Romaine is reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara; vain and self-centered. Being somewhat more independent and willful than most women were "allowed" to be during that time period, she leaves home to avoid an arranged, loveless marriage.
Arriving in Nashville, she accepts an offer of employment from the eligible Dr. Ethan Carey, as his receptionist/nursing assistant - a dubious position in which many untrained women found themselves both during and after the Civil War.
The story weaves together the tortured past of Dr. Carey, and the personal struggles of Genny, who develop a troubled romance. Genny undergoes subtle, badly needed, character changes which culminate in following the doctor to Memphis, during the height of the yellow fever epidemic.
The reader travels the post war roads of Tennessee eventually witnessing the aftermath of the war, in the advent of the yellow fever epidemic. We experience the sights, sounds and smells of this horrfying time period as seen through the relatively innocent eyes of Genny, who finds herself in a situation that she cannot manipulate with her beauty or resourcefulness.
The book reveals only gray shadows of the former South and concentrates on the events of a country turned inside out. It explores the spiritual and emotional crises of its leading characters and makes us thankful that our nation survived that time period.
The one thing that could, in my opinion, have been different in this story, would have been to lengthen the events at the end of the novel, as it seemed to end a little too quickly.
Overall, I thought it to be an entertaining combination of southern charm and some darker elements of history.
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