The Admiral's Penniless Bride: A Review

The Admiral's Penniless Bride by Carla Kelly
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This book left almost a sawdust taste in my mouth. Not so repugnant that I want to vomit, but it wasn't pleasant to say the least! The beginning had an interesting hook.

Sally Paul is sipping on her last penny when Admiral Sir Charles Bright notices her and hatches a plan. He needs a wife and his first choice has stood him up so when he notices that she is without means he proposes a marriage of convenience. At first she says no, but then realizes it's marriage to the one handed man (the other hand has a hook) or the workhouse.

It starts out sweet, but then kind of turns stale towards the middle. I was a little bit thrown by the book burning scene since I am an avid fan of books no matter how horrible they may seem, but I tried to take it into context. My main beef with this book is the love scenes. I know some authors struggle to write romantic love scenes, but she almost avoided them entirely. I have no problem with a shy writer, but I almost wanted to scream, "Man up! And write a decent love scene!"

The author struggled with the telling of the story. It almost felt as if she was trying to write it as a movie would show. I've read fanfiction writers who can pull this off better than she did! You have to write so the reader knows what the hell is going on. The story didn't start to get good until the last thirty pages. It felt rushed and poorly told at the end. Excellent beginning, but a stale middle and rushed end made it sit uneasy with me and so I gave it a 2 star rating.

It's a quick read so if you want to check it out, go ahead... it's an easy read. And there were some enjoyable bits to it. I think I would have enjoyed it more had the secondary characters been better developed, the story told better with smoother transitions, and not so rushed at the end.

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