Onward for the review!
Love Unexpected by Jody HedlundMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I think it's a win-win situation for reader, publisher, and author. Free marketing is awesome.
Anywho, this is my first dive into historical romance. I'm not very familiar with the genre, and so this review is going to be a little hard for me. I'm so used to reviewing mostly fantasy stories, which I have discovered have a very different sort of feel than this sort of story.
Characters
Our protagonist is a lady named Emma, who, along with her brother and father, immigrated from Ireland some years back because of the potato famine. She's shy and demur, but is a hard worker. I feel like the author could have delved more into her personality and quirks, but the main focus of her feelings was about her love interest Patrick, which included feelings of love, guilt, confusion, and anger. I do like how she explored Emma's ineptitude as a cook; it added some variety to the plot. I liked Emma, but she could use a little more work.
I had a harder time connecting with Patrick (as I do most male characters), but he too had his ups and downs like Emma. He deals with a lot of guilt, but still tries to take responsibility for his son and his duties as a light house keeper. I thought the happily ever after between him and Emma was sweet.
However, there were some times I wanted to roll my eyes at these two characters. They kept assuming things about themselves and each other, such as not feeling up to the roles in their relationship. In fact, they assumed so much about each other I wanted to shake them at one point. I can understand being kind of shy about it, especially in Emma's case, but I didn't like how she kept assuming everything was her fault, when in some cases it was no one's fault. Same goes for Patrick, who was rather tactless when (view spoiler) I understand he was afraid of Emma hating him like Delia did, but this still bothered me and made me like his character less.
Talk to each other, people!
Ryan was one of the secondary characters and Emma's brother. He served as Emma's relief outlet, and he had a much lighter personality. He didn't play a huge role in the story, though.
The last character I'll touch on is Mitch. Mitch is a pirate and a former cohort of Patrick. He was a believable villain, although he didn't play a huge role in most of the story, as the main conflict is really Patrick reconciling his past while Emma is reconciling her feelings for Patrick. He was believable up until the ending parts of the story, which I will touch on in the plot section.
Plot
Like I mentioned, I'm not familiar with historical romance or a heavily romance-driven story, so I'm not sure if I could give a fair analysis of the plot, but I'll give my honest feelings about it.
The heart of the plot, of course, is Emma and Patrick's relationship. She decides that the best way to get out of the desperate situation she and Ryan find themselves in is to marry Patrick. She gains a home, a child named Josiah, and a husband to take care of her while Patrick can better attend to his duties in the light house.
Most of the book from then on is the relationship building between the two. While I like a good romance (and I liked how this romance story ended), it seemed kind of boring. I'm used to characters going on adventures and such while having a romance. Emma and Patrick spend a large part of the book wondering if they're good enough for each other. The pirates threw in some excitement and tied into Patrick's angsty past. Emma's interactions with Josiah throughout were amusing, and while Josiah was there to help tie Emma and Patrick together, I didn't feel like Josiah had a strong enough presence in the story.
Towards the end Patrick almost gets arrested and shipped off to a city called Fremont. I was genuinely curious if his leaving and him and Emma getting back together would lead into a second book on these two characters (I understand the 2nd book in this series doesn't, but oh well :)). However, the way the author avoided Patrick's complete arrest really bothered me.
Mitch was getting arrested along with Patrick for trying to steal wood, and while Patrick is saying goodbye to Josiah, Mitch suddenly has a change of heart and confesses that he did everything wrong and Patrick was right. It took me by unpleasant surprise. It seemed too convenient a way for the author to solve Patrick's problem, and it was not true to Mitch's devious nature. It was all very strange to me.
I liked the ending. Emma and Patrick finally make up to each other, and it's implied that they make love after the book's ending. I don't mind an author implying it, especially if it's between husband and wife. I appreciate the author not going into detail, and doing their romance with the respect it deserved. This was a clean romance :)
Setting
I thought placing the story in Michigan and on the Great Lakes was so interesting. It must be a beautiful area, and I'm awed by the vastness of the Great Lakes even though I've never been there. The author did her research, basing the story on real locations and people. I had an easy time imagining the area.
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I want to thank Bethany House publishing for sending me a copy of this book, and I plan on reading the next book in the series :)
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