A Western Family Novel: Long Time Gone by Mary Connealy

Friday, April 14, 2017

Genre: Historical Romace

My Rating: Two out of Five hearts ♥♥

About:

Book one left the Boden family after a tragedy as well as a victory, and book two, Long Time Gone, picks up where it left off. Trouble seems determined to entrap the Bodens and take over the Cimarron ranch, but it's a struggle to figure out exactly why. And through all this, Angie Dupree finds herself attracted to the wonderful (albeit slightly overprotective) Justin - and it's not the best time to become involved with a Boden. Who can be trusted, what in the world is going on, and will they make it out alive?

My Review:

The Bodens, despite their differences, are a tight bunch, and (while they might not always show it) love each other dearly. No one messes with that family and gets away with it, nor will they go down without a fight. It's an interesting story idea- siblings finding love as they fight to protect their home from a faceless, nameless threat- and there were times (mostly near the end of the book) where my heart would pound with the suspense, or jump in anticipation. That being said, this wasn't my favorite book.
Justin and Angie's characters are the focus in Long Time Gone (although the point of view does skip around to others a bit) and for some reason I couldn't get into them as much as I could get into Heath and Sadie from the previous book. Their love story also seemed very fast, perhaps because it begins in No Way Up, and maybe also because the main focus was not on the romance, but on the attack on the Cimarron. Also, the humor was funny, at times, but seemed to get to be too much. I longed for more seriousness in their characters.
I myself have only read a few Mrs. Connealy's books (the Wild at Heart series), and while they weren't my favorites, I still enjoyed them. This series (I borrowed No Way Up from the library to read before I tried this one), however, just felt different- not as engaging. The writing style wasn't my type, the characters (and certain descriptions) seemed to state the obvious a lot- instead of leaving the reader to see what was going on, they were told. I felt that more could be accomplished without all the explaining.
Another thing I had a problem with was the cover. It looks western and cowboy-awesome, but I've got to wonder- is that supposed to be Angie and Justin on the cover? Because it looks nothing like how they were described.
Oh, and just a warning- this is book two in a series, and could be hard to follow along with if you haven't read book one- the plot is continued on in this novel.
Despite all I disliked, I will be borrowing book three from the library when it comes out in order to see how this tale will end. And I must say- doesn't the cover for Too Far Down look awesome?