Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

First off, I have to confess I am no fan of romance novels, never have been. The last romantic stories I read were “A Woman of Substance” and “The Thorn Birds”, some 30 years ago. I don’t even like novels at all, preferring instead non-fiction, true stories about history, spy stories, and especially anything about the U-boats. So it’s conceivable that my review of this book may not be very objective. I mean, are all romantic novels so schmaltzy? I chose this book because of the title; my family owned a cottage by the sea in Wells Beach (on the opposite coast), where I spent all my summers, so I figured I could relate to the story. HA! Not even close. Also, quite frankly, it had been on the Seattle Times best seller list for MONTHS. I figured, how bad could it be, right? I just needed a little fluff to read at night when I can’t sleep, something to get my mind off whatever it is that’s keeping me awake. And, frankly, this book did that, which is the only reason I gave it two stars. The author has proffered up an interesting story line and established her characters quite well. I often felt like giving up and throwing the book in the GoodWill bin, along with all my clothes donations, but I had to find out what happened to the characters — which is the only reason I stuck with it. I had to read past a lot of pages, skipping lots of redundant fluff that the author said over and over again, ad nauseam. It’s an insult to the integrity of the reader, as if the author can’t remember that she already said it a couple dozen times before. And seriously, does it really take five pages for the boyfriend to decide whether or not to give the bouquet of daisies to his girlfriend? I got the impression that the author had a page quota. If you are interested in this book, you can find it at GoodWill, where I will be donating it. No more of this genre of book for me!