Romancing the Stacks: Strawberry Hill

Welcome to Romancing the Stacks. This is a series of reviews featuring one of my favorite genres: Romance Novels! Nothing is better than curling up with a good romance. This review will explore Strawberry Hill by Catherine Anderson

Catherine Anderson was my first author that I devoured all her novel when I was a teen. I own around six of her novels as I kept rereading them. I loved her romances and used to keep up whenever she released a new book. That is until the awful book Perfect Timing. It did not fit into the series due to the time travel element. I love time travel, but this was a book where they had to teach the character about everything. It was annoying and unnecessary. If she wanted to do a love story across time and fit it into her series, reincarnation would have work better. That book put me off her books for a good while, but when I saw this book, it gave me memories of her past good books. I have read a few of her more recent book and they were okay. So I decided to give this one a shoot even though I was not a big fan of the summary

Summary:

As a camp cook, Vickie Brown loves feeding any size crowd in the great outdoors–with one notable exception. She never would have predicted she’d join the crew led by gruff cowboy Slade Wilder, the man who broke her heart just days before their wedding.

Life has gone on since Vickie left him, but Slade can admit his attraction to the one woman he’s ever loved remains stronger than ever. If he wasn’t in such desperate need of an experienced cook for his paying guests, he would send Vickie packing. He knows better than to seek out the company of the woman who broke off their engagement so many years ago.

Except there’s no escaping each other in the confines of the wilderness area, especially once their anger begins to soften in the shared close quarters. But after Vickie finds the courage to confront Slade, it will take a leap of faith for them to put their past behind him, even if it’s the only way to recapture their once-in-a-lifetime love

Book Review:

This book is not as bad as Perfect Timing, but it is still a bad romance. I despise this book. I hate how the summary is a complete lie. Vickie willingly choose to work for Slade. She made the choice unlike what the summary suggest. I wished I had stopped reading after the first 50 pages. The beginning was so bad. It was all about a bunch of guys freeing and raising a bear cub. I hate this. I love books that include animals, but it is not right to raise a bear cub even after its mother died! They didn’t try to contact a bear rescue, a zoo, or people who could actually take a cub in. No, they raise it like a baby! Anderson could have brought attention to real organization that help relocate bears, track bears, or anything. Instead of Vickie being a cook, have her be a part of the bear rescue. After all they mention how Vickie saved a cub in the past. It is irresponsible how the bear was handled. Raising the bear did no good to the bear or the people as due to the attachment when the cub got older, it wrecked havoc on the ranch. I don’t know why the summary also didn’t mention how Slade and Vickie are in their sixties. I don’t mind people finding romance later in life, but I mind how stupid their forty year separation. They separated in their twenties because a stupid jealous girl said she slept with Slade and described his birthmark located in a private area. Vickie was pregnant and sent letters that jealous girl made sure Slade never got. This is such a stupid misunderstanding. What makes it worse is that Slade forces the girl to confess so Vickie believes he never cheated and Vickie gets into a bar brawl with her saying she ruined her life. Vickie got married and had two other children. She is basically saying that she wished her other children were never born. Plus Vickie plays favorites with Slade’s son. I hate how Vickie was in her sixties but never got over her first love. If she never got over it why wait until her son is in his forties with his own children to try and meet him. It would have been better if she had love her husband and was ready to love again. The plot just makes Slade and Vickie look stupid and childish. To make matters worst, there was a secondary love plot featuring a female deputy and deaf rancher that I got invested in, but it goes no where. I kept reading for the secondary plot. It was cute except for the part where the female deputy wants to quit since she can’t handle being one or because it makes her sacrifice her femininity. That was ridiculous. I will be off Anderson’s book for a while as I can’t trust that the next one won’t be as bad.

Mystic Creek Series:

  1. Silver Thaw
  2. New Leaf
  3. Mullberry Moon
  4. Spring Foreward
  5. Strawberry Hill

Rating:

Out Of

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