It takes a lot for me to give a novel one or zero stars. There has to be pretty much nothing redeemable about a book in my eyes. Usually I can find something good to say whether it be the writing or plot points, but I have to say that this novel for me was just a total non-starter. I took me the better part of two weeks to struggle to the finish line with this novel. I fell asleep several times, got bored a few times and decided to just do something else (yes one time cleaning my oven was preferable to finishing this novel) and finally just bit the bullet,sat, and forced myself to finish it.

My brain is still mad at me by the way for this and I had to soothe it by re-watching Sherlock series 3 and appeasing it with images of Benedict Cumberbatch.

Now on to the novel. I decided to include this on my list of to be read for 2014 since the plot sounded interesting and I love books in a series. However, knowing what I know now I would never have stared this thing since this may be a quartet but none of the books has anything to with the prior book in the series (confusing I know) and so you don't even get to follow up with previous characters from what I can tell.

Book one of the Four Seasons Quartet, That Summer in Cornwall focuses on Meredith Champlin. Meredith finds herself the new legal guardian of her cousin's child Janet. Janet is spoiled and the offspring of a famous Hollywood director and actress. Meredith goes to Cornwall for the summer to stay with her cousin and Janet's aunt, Blythe Barton-Teague. Meredith needs help with Janet since the pre-teen is acting out about her father abandoning her to Meredith for the summer. Meredith also needs a break from her work as a nurse in a children's cancer ward in Wyoming. While there Meredith meets and falls for Sebastian Pryce. Sebastian is part of the Cornwall Search and Rescue Team and finds himself drawn to Meredith.

That plot sounds interesting right? You think you would get a lot of plot points with Meredith trying her best to be a mother to Janet, getting closer to her cousin Blythe. You get none of that. The entire novel as a whole is a shallow read from beginning to end. I have no idea what to make of Janet since you only have her acting out in horrible ways with no one really sitting down to talk to her about her mother or why her father just handed her off to a cousin she never met until the very end. The problem is that Ms. Ware does not get back to Janet until towards the end of the novel and I think by then most readers will not care about her. Speaking of Janet none of the other secondary characters like Blythe or her husband or step-son Richard have any depth to them at all. I felt like they were just around to say innocuous things to Meredith and keep on encouraging her in her endeavors.

Most important for me in a romance novel though is that the two leads have no chemistry together at all. Most of the novel dealing with Meredith being angry that Sebastian doesn't open up to her about everything and gets mad when he does not.

From the novel: "He's British, and besides he doesn't know you that very well...yet," Richard replied with a twinkle. Sebastian Pryce knows me better than you think Richard."

Seriously Meredith and Sebastian had only kissed Sebastian at this point in the novel. It made no sense for Meredith to be bringing the drama at that point. The entire novel just goes on like this with Meredith being mad that Sebastian won't open up to her, tell her about his ex girlfriend Claire. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Speaking of Sebastian's ex. There is also a horrible secret that deals with Sebastian and Claire who through the dumbest plot point ever comes to work for the Bartons. Clarie by the way was written as a nasty character at first and then somehow became sweet and loving. It made no sense. When you find out what drove her and Sebastian apart I don't know how much readers are going to sympathize with her. I know I sure as heck did not.

When we do have any love scenes between these two the chemistry is non-existent. I saw better chemistry between my cat and my living room coffee table. I was hoping that Ms. Ware would take pity on us all and have these two break up.

Also there was a side plot about Meredith and Sebastian running an obedience school and the Bartons starting a farm fresh dinner on the grounds of Barton Hall. There was very little detail provided about any of these things besides the Bartons needing the money. This would have been a wonderful opportunity to provide some interesting details about the visitors to Barton hall or show actual dog training activities, something. Instead we kept just focusing on Meredith begging Sebastian to open up to her or being mad at him for not opening up to her. ( )

It was a welcome return to Cornwall and the Barton-Teague family in this sequel to Ware's A Cottage by the Sea, though this one has no time traveling or supernatural hopping around from century to century. Meredith Champlin flies to Cornwall, England with her bratty niece who has just lost her mother (sister to Ware's heroine from the last book, Blythe) in a plane crash. Her father, a film director is too busy to take care of her. While in Cornwall for the summer, Meredith finds love in a hunky search and rescue veterinarian who is also an Afghan War vet. Lots of different plots going on and overall I liked it, but Meredith's pushiness when it came to having Sebastian (the vet) reveal all his past irked me. She knew she needed to lay off - but did she? No! and it sent him scurrying. But, eventually they find their way back to each before she leaves for Wyoming at the end of the summer. I liked this a lot, and it really makes me want to go to Cornwall myself and see this area of the world. ( )