The Sophisticated Urchin

The Sophisticated Urchin is a story about a 25-year-old shorthand-typist, Bridget, who has traveled home to her family farm for the holidays. She hasn't been back in three years. Growing up, she was a tomboy. Her neighbor and brother's best friend, John, makes fun of her by calling her "urchin" and so she dislikes him. Now when she meets him again, she finds herself feeling conflicted.

The writing and story here is okay; it's easy to read and interesting. The romance though, is pretty lame. Here you have the author describing in detail what Bridget has done, blah blah blah. (That part of the writing kind of reminds me of Betty Neels and other authors who wrote like that at the time.) There isn't too much development between the hero and show more heroine, IMO, before John surprises her with a kiss towards the middle of the book and BAM! she's in love. But then thanks to the local gossiper, they have a misunderstanding. For the rest of the book they avoid each other as much as possible, until near the end, they make up without any explanations to each other about their misunderstanding, and now they're engaged.

Uhhhh...yeah I totally buy in to that. =__=

Usually stories with the big misunderstanding plot annoys the heck out of me, but I just feel slightly irritated by this story. If I were to guess, it's because John and Bridget's romance isn't very deep, so I am laughing in my head at the romance fail of this romance novel.

Also, as there are many names that begins with the letter J in this story—John, Judy, Jenny, Jerry, Jimmy—I get slowed down in my reading trying to remember who is who. At one point, I think the author confused Judy for Jenny. The author must like J names. show less