Don't Waste Your Time

Fireside
Lakeshore Chronicles, Book 5
Susan Wiggs
Mira (2009)
Mass Market Paperback, 416 pages
Rated 3 stars of 5 possible

Fireside is a sweet, sticky, formulaic romance with a little more plot than most books of this type, but still not my cup of tea. 5th in a series, yet stands alone too. Not really bad (the author does a good job with grammar, spelling, and punctuation), but not good enough to make me want to look for the previous four books, nor any that may come after... or anything else by this author.

Character development is far too slow and tentative in this book, almost experimental, or so it seems. Too much description, too little action, and too little dialogue to the story for it to be really good. Fully half of the book was past before I sensed any realistc characteristics to the people involved in this story... and then I could not bring myself to care overly much for any of them.  Why'd I finish reading this if I don't like it?  I'm clueless about that myself... it surely wasn't worth wasting my time.

Recommended to those who like sweet and sticky, mostly plotless and formulaic romance novels; anyone else should steer clear of this... This review has been simultaneously posted on Amazon.com, Dragonviews and Library Thing.