Donna Smith

Ehh...I liked the characters, but this was a draft that needed more editing for continuity issues (had they met only once before, or...twice because they went to that restaurant with her uncle?!?) and to make the "marriage of convenience" trope believable. But, the turtle research was interesting, and I like other stuff this author has written.

A bit in the mode of At home in Mitford. Hopeful and positive, but realistic. Large cast with at least ten important character arcs.

I don’t know why I wasn’t emotionally engaged in their journey, but once I realized that I was skimming whole pages, DNF.

I should have liked this book because it contains a teacher who does actual teacher things, and children who act like children… yet I found myself skimming paragraph after paragraph, especially the descriptions about how each main character found the other hot. I get it: apparently they’re hot. <shrug> Come to think of it, it’s probably because I’m fried at the end of a school term and have the attention span of a cricket. Time for a comfort reread probably. Maybe I should reread Olivia Dade’s teacher characters in her Maryville books…