The story follows Darina O'Malley, eldest daughter of the late Laird of the O'Malley Clan and Patrick MacCahan, the eldest son of the Laird of the MacCahan Clan. The O'Malley clan had been plagued for years by a curse invoked by Odette Burke, a woman scorned by Laird O'Malley, which states that no male child shall be born to the O'Malleys. And for the last 20 years, the curse has held true. Darina and Patrick are brought together as the result of an arranged marriage which was set into motion at the passing of Laird O'Malley. Most of the story is of Darina dithering about her impending nuptials and Patrick trudging across the countryside to get to the O'Malley territory, along with his charge Braedan, a young boy who has been living with the MacCahan clan since an infant.I think the story had potential, but it was choppy and all over the place. The chapters alternated between the points of view of Darina, Patrick, Kyra (Darina's cousin), Odette and Father MacAtrey (a Catholic priest living in the O'Malley compound). There is a paranormal bent to the story as well with demon worship, witchcraft and telepathy, none of which are fully explained. Patrick and Darina have some sort of telepathic connection, despite having never met each other before and neither of them really questions why the other is in their head.There were a few inconsistencies in the story. At the beginning, we are told that Darina is 17 summers old. Near the end, it is indicated that she is at least 19, past the age of marriage for most girls. As a wedding gift, Patrick gives her a hunting dog who was described as an experienced falconry hound, giving the impression he's full grown - several pages later we are told he was a puppy. There were also some inconsistencies with Patrick. I don't quite understand why a man who is supposed to one day be the head of his clan is being trained as a blacksmith instead of learning how to deal with day-to-day runnings of his clan.Story lines were introduced and then abandoned. It was as though the author had ideas she just jotted down so she wouldn't lose them. And then the story just stops with no resolution, forcing the reader to read the next book in the series. I'll likely read the next book since it was a free Kindle read, as was this one to see if there's any improvement, but I'm not holding my breath. I, sadly, had a lot of problems with this one, provided by netgalley, which completely outweighed its redeeming features. I really didn't enjoy reading it at all (which always pains me, because I appreciate the work that goes into a book, even if it's not a genre I'm particularly into, and especially if it's by a relatively new author), and honestly couldn't wait to finish it so I could move on to something better.So, what did I like?- I liked the Irish setting. You did get something of a feeling of the isolation of Ireland and it's place as a unique culture. It felt undeniably Irish.- I quite liked the hero. He was the most rounded, interesting character, but none of his issues were dealt with at all, and, as a result, he felt disappointingly one-dimensional.So, what didn't I like so much?- Too. Much. Detail. Way, way too much pointless detail. It starts off with an extensive data dump of daily life in a small Irish town/village, which bored me stiff. Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE history, really love it, and, particularly, those intriguing snapshots of the daily routines of life, which make the past so different from the present, but this wasn't even a data dump of accurate historic details. It was a data dump of the lay out of the castle, the life story of every minor character, no matter how irrelevant their existence to the core of the story, and it ended up making the entire book feel completely transactional. Just a long list of what they wore, what their bath smelt like, and what jobs everyone did. Detail and description is required for a good historical, but it has to be woven into the fabric of the story, not offloaded into long paragraphs.- I had the most bizarre feeling I was lost in an episode of The Prisoner. You know, that bizarre late 1960s spy/science fiction series in which Patrick McGoohan gets to run around Portmeirion, the incredibly picturesque and rather creepily perfect life-size model village in Wales, and get his life threatened by large white balloons (I dormed at college with a posse who used to watch it under the influence, which I assume is the only way to appreciate it). Everything in this book was so absolutely perfect, from the ideal feminist society (in late medieval Ireland, are you kidding me?), to how the stablewoman is a dab hand at designing carriages, to how the setting is representative of a highly successful, advanced trading society. Even the heroine is supposed to be absolutely frikkin' perfect, and her sisters include one, who at the age of 15 seems to be a famous dressmaker, and another who is a medieval version of a celebrity chef. It was so perfect I disliked it.- There were some highly visible errors and spelling and grammatical mistakes. Not all over the place, but just enough to irritate me. I do give ARCs the benefit of the doubt, since, well, they're not the final version, and mistakes are hopefully corrected prior to publication, but some of the errors didn't seem like the usual little mistakes. Two examples which really stuck with me were the use of the phrase "stay out of my head", which not only didn't sound anything like an Irishman or woman would say in the 15th century, but was so jarring that I still remember it, and the existence of fuschias (when I know after a 5 second search of wikipedia were only discovered after 1700). It left me with the unnerving feeling that this book hasn't been edited either for the story nor for basic spelling and grammar. I do hope this gets fixed.- The most heinous issues I had with this book was the lack of flow, the uneven use of genres and the way it ended. There was a lot of jumping around (each chapter laid out where it was set, which was incredibly useful), but scenes almost drifted in and out, ending rather abruptly. The sexy bits came out of nowhere, and the heroine got pissed at the hero for absolutely no reason I could find, for example, and it made the whole story rather difficult to follow. Likewise, there was a lot of genre-jumping. It starts out as a historical set in Ireland (yeah!), but then switches to a paranormal with (I kid you not) telepathy, but the telepathy is not examined or explained, so we are left to deal with it. But, most seriously of all, this story, just, well, ends in the middle of nowhere, and without even the climax. We never get to hear if the hero and heroine will get it on, or anything else either. One minute we're with the heroine, and the next the story is finished. I do appreciate that for a series to work there has to be something left for the sequel to "chew on", but a romance does need to be a self-contained work also, or readers just feel let down.So, very disappointing, even though it has some features which could be interesting. 1 star. I didn't like it.
What do You think about Celtic Storms (2012)?
Awesome!!!!!!! This book is so rich in detail and the story has me breathless.
—21231
This could have been a 4 star book, but it ends in a huge cliffhanger.
—BrennanLong
Another wonderful book to the start of a new series for me.
—ronitlit
