The Colonel's Lady (edition 2011)

This book gets off to a really strong start but soon slows to a crawl and then falls off the deep end. Roxanne initially is a proactive character and a dynamic one, but like the plot, that dynanicism seems to just slow and eventually stop. Her love interest, Colonel Cassius to me wasn't that interesting of a character. Granted he does play the part of a romantic blue coat gentleman very well, his struggle to tell Roxanne about the fate of her father is very realistic, especially when his tongue gets halted by his feelings. As somebody who is not from the United States, I didn't feel alienated or like I had to do some background research when it came to the setting of the book, in fact, the author's descriptions were some of the book's strongest points. Unfortunately, the slowness made me fall off, and I ultimately did not end up finishing the book. Give it a chance if you like historical romances, but overall this novel is very 'meh'. ( )

Read my full review here. I started off really liking this book. The imagery was great, the characters vivid...but it was so slow. And on top of that, Roxanne started off smart, but gradually she became dumber. She kept contradicting herself, as well, and was kind of hypocritical. Although admitting she loves him despite whatever wrongs he may or may not have committed, she just refuses to believe that Cass loves her, although I’m not sure why. She comes up with reasons why he would do things for her when it’s so glaringly obvious that he loves her. It’s not until she realizes that she could actually lose him that she has her aha moment, which was honestly too late for me. The battle at the end, along with the “big reveals” seemed way too easy for me with a lot of deus ex machina at play. Things just fell into place way too easily. Despite all that, this is a good book. I don’t want my distaste for Roxanna’s character or the way things were tidied up at the end to discolor my overall opinion of the book. There was one scene in particular when Cass thought Roxie might die that I had to reread about three times because it was so sweet. Honestly, most of the times people were upset with Cass, I totally agreed with him. He was definitely the best, most fully formed character in this novel. ( )

As one review said so well, when you read this book, "you will disappear into another place and time". I found myself in "Kentucke Territory" in the year 1779. Roxanna Rowan has finally arrived at the fort her father is stationed at, only to later discover that while out on a mission, he was killed. Now she finds herself stuck at a fort far from everything, with the enemy and the Indians all around waiting to do more damage.

Colonel Cassius McLinn if the commander of this fort and finds himself returning from a campaign, having to tell Roxanna about her father's death. But he can't seem to tell her how it happened. When what really happened was her father was killed by friendly fire. Roxanna stays and helps the colonel with writing letters and such and their feelings for each other continues to grow. But what will happend when Roxannna finds out how her father died?

I have to say that the author did a good job of making you feel you were there, but at times I just wanted to shake Roxanna and tell her to get over herself and love the man! She had a lot to deal with I know, but at times I grew to not like her very well. She came through at the end and I cheered them both on when difficult situations took over and the danger was very real. A good book that looked at the frontier life in 1779 and the courageous and strong men and women who endured during difficult times ( )

This novel has the rich description and settings I've come to love in a Laura Frantz novel. Sets you right into the heat of conflict as fledgling America tries out her wings.

I loved the characters. Their goals and motivations were cloudy for me, so the I couldn't quite make sense of some of their actions, especially Roxanna's. But even so I did enjoy this novel. The colonel was such an enigma, yet believable for the most part, and Ms. Frantz's prose is always beautiful. I have three more of her novels waiting on my e-reader and am excited to dive into them soon.

( )

I was able to finish this book in about four hours. It's a clean read (which should satisfy the Christian community). You won't find any premarital or extramarital sex in this novel. No cussing. Nothing that most Christians would find shameful. But you will find some drinking in here, but from a historical perspective, it actually fits in with the custom of the times.

However, I felt that the writing was on the dry side because I wasn't really falling in love with the story. I didn't feel like I Was personally watching everything unfold. It was just...there.

Since this is my first attept to read Laura Frantz' work, I'm not sure if I'll attempt to read another of her novels. I love clean reads, but I need to feel drawn into the story. If I'm not hooked, there's no point in going on. ( )