Heather
Moonville is a wonderful, lovely setting, the kind of place I wish I could make a yearly trek to, with vibrant characters that stop just short of cartoonish to land perfectly in recognizable small-town oddities/quirk. The premise of three sisters in a family with just-left-of-center magic is a treat, and all of the scenes with family (niece Aisling in particular) or the family business shine.
The weaknesses for me are partly my personal preference, and partly elements that I feel could've been used more effectively. After reading the preview at the end of Book 1, I expected this to be a new favorite for me (or at least a 5-star read), but it wasn't. The chemistry between the main couple is there instantly, strong and fierce, and hardly wavers. But the obstacle between them rubs me personally the wrong way (in a big way), and I was immediately ready to write him off and move on. I do think it was resolved well towards the end, but it took me all the way until the end to accept it.
There were a couple of side plots that I expected to be important that ended up going nowhere, which made me wonder why they were included. Then conversations/reveals that I expected to be game-changing or a major deal were over in a blink. I thought one piece of information was a misdirect because it didn't seem to fit the arc of the story. And so on.
In short - Pieces of the story that were done well were done really well. There were things that missed for me personally, & other things that I felt weakened the story. But overall, Moonville is still a lovely place to visit, and I'm looking forward to Book 3.
Moonville is a wonderful, lovely setting, the kind of place I wish I could make a yearly trek to, with vibrant characters that stop just short of cartoonish to land perfectly in recognizable small-town oddities/quirk. The premise of three sisters in a family with just-left-of-center magic is a treat, and all of the scenes with family (niece Aisling in particular) or the family business shine.
The weaknesses for me are partly my personal preference, and partly elements that I feel could've been used more effectively. After reading the preview at the end of Book 1, I expected this to be a new favorite for me (or at least a 5-star read), but it wasn't. The chemistry between the main couple is there instantly, strong and fierce, and hardly wavers. But the obstacle between them rubs me personally the wrong way (in a big way), and I was immediately ready to write him off and move on. I do think it was resolved well towards the end, but it took me all the way until the end to accept it.
There were a couple of side plots that I expected to be important that ended up going nowhere, which made me wonder why they were included. Then conversations/reveals that I expected to be game-changing or a major deal were over in a blink. I thought one piece of information was a misdirect because it didn't seem to fit the arc of the story. And so on.
In short - Pieces of the story that were done well were done really well. There were things that missed for me personally, & other things that I felt weakened the story. But overall, Moonville is still a lovely place to visit, and I'm looking forward to Book 3.