Title: China Rose
Author: Marsha Canham
Read copy: eBook (Kindle)
Published: July 2010
Publisher: Marsha Canham
ASIN: B003WQBINM
When China Grant arrives in Portsmouth, her wedding to Sir Ranulf Cross is two weeks away. The first night there her life is threatened, and as the days unfold, threads from a decade-old mystery on the high seas begin unravelling faster than her wits can keep apace. Soon China is forced to choose between a promise made to her dying father...and the reckless desire to follow her heart's destiny.
My rating:
China Grant is just two weeks away from her wedding to Sir Ranulf Cross, a betrothal arranged by her late father. She knows he doesn't love her and she barely likes him. He's cold, condescending, judgmental...the complete opposite to his younger brother, Justin.
It's obvious this was Canham's first book and she was still finding her footing. While the premise itself was promising, the delivery disappointed.
The book could've benefited from an expanded page count; there was just too much crammed into to tight a space. It had all the requisite elements of a bodice reaper—double identities, brotherly rivalry and hatred, a dashing rogue of a hero, an annoying damsel of a heroine, villains galore, blackmail schemes, mysterious nightly visitors, secret passageways, murderous plots, traitorous mysteries etc., but it seldom felt like everything was connected. I felt like she wanted to explore everything at once and just kept heaping twists and turns on top of each other.
There also seemed to be a few scenes missing, misedited or misplaced. But maybe that's just me. Sometimes one scene following another seemed simply out of place.
While one of the villains was rather easily detected, the main architect came out of the left field, with liberal amounts of expositions thrown in at the end to explain his motives and multiple misdeeds, while there was nary a mention of any of it in the story itself.
And the romance was the most bodice-riper-y element of them all, since it wasn't really a romance. I have no idea when or how the two fell for one another, when they were barely in a scene together before they were lustily romping in the sheets. Hence the feeling some scenes were missing.
What could've been an enjoyable read with an intriguing plot turned out to be a rather forgettable mixture of requisite elements of historical romances of old.
2 stars, bitchslappable heroine/hero, georgian, historical, historical romance, Marsha Canham, suspense/mystery/adventure/thriller
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