Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I know the Bregdan series is very popular, but I don't understand why. I just finished the first one (Storm Clouds Rolling In) and will not read the second. I expected to like it (I love historical fiction), but did NOT. I kept reading it when I should have given up, but I kept hoping to find whatever it is that so many readers seem to like. But the writing is ridiculously simplistic (my 5-year-old granddaughter has a larger vocabulary than the author), and the characters are shallow and poorly developed. If you want to read yet another trite and unimaginative civil war historical romance - with wicked and brutal overseers, brave and smart slaves, selfish plantation owners, and of course a plucky heroine who is so smart she thinks and speaks with 20th-century language and foresight - by all means, read this. But be warned: the plot has no tension or mystery - the reader knows what's coming after the first chapter. Our heroine's so-called agonizing struggle over whether or not to support the institution of slavery is tedious in the extreme - we know where her feelings lie from page one. Do yourself a favor and read "Cold Mountain" again instead of this waste of time.