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I didn't finish the book; I found it silly and simplistic, like it was written for children. Whenever I am bored with a book, I start looking for illogical things, wrong things, stupid things etc. and I would like to give a few examples, as Ms. Daniels was more than willing to provide them.

The heroine, Laura, has returned to her father's plantation after an absence of 12 years; she's 19 now. The first evening she goes for a stroll in the dark to the Lily Pond, where a hand reaches up out of the water, seizes her ankle, topples her into the water and someone attempts to murder her. She is saved by her neighbor, Peter. After thanking him for saving her life, she is more interested to learn how he happened to come there, what his mother's reaction had been to seeing her, and to discuss loneliness in general. Next they go to their respective houses to change into clean clothes and intend to meet again shortly thereafter.

Quote:Then I got out of my wet clothes, bathed the mud from my face and hands, rubbed my hair briskly with a towel and brushed it before tying it with a satin ribbon.

I suppose she didn't need to wash the mud out of her hair.

Quote:I picked up a lace-edged handkerchief and left my suite,

You'd think this handkerchief would be given an important use in the following pages, why else mention it. Nope.

Quote:All this I did, including the trip to the playhouse, through the darkness, without pausing once to remember that I had almost been killed a very short time before. All I wanted to do now was see Peter again.

Stupid girl.

Peter and Laura talk for a while about the past, the present and the future, until:

Quote:"Laura, I told you how wonderful it is to see you again and we have so much to talk about, but aren't we forgetting the most important thing of all?"
"I fear I don't understand."
"A little while ago, someone tried to kill you."
"I had forgotten it," I admitted. "But your mentioning it brings it all back and I'm frightened by what happened."

Amazingly stupid girl.

Ms. Daniels thrives on details, hence the handkerchief, but if you do this, you need to do it well.

Quote:I disrobed and took a bath in the hope that it would relax me.

Usually it takes a while to fill a bathtub, which she should have mentioned first; now I see a naked heroine waiting beside the filling tub. I wasn't sure about the time setting, but it would have interested me to learn if they already had indoor plumbing etc.

Quote:I turned the lamp down, raised the chimney and blew out the flame.

Really?

I fastforwarded through the rest of the story to see if there would be nice twists and surprises, but was disappointed again. I won't tell more so as not to spoil anything for other readers, but I can say that I will never ever read a book by Dorothy Daniels again. In another thread on this forum we discussed the amount of intelligence and knowledge an author might expect from her readers. In this case I feel offended as it appears the author expects her readers to not having a mind of their own at all.

"Someone tried to kill me an hour ago? Geez, I forgot about that...."

Definitely a TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) heroine!

Love your review of this book.

Wow...I just bought some old Gothics on eBay. I haven't read them for years but always loved them. I remember Ms. Daniels name as I recall she was very prolific. Seeing your examples, now I'm afraid to read them as I may find out how young and naive I was when I last read this genre.

Too stupid to live is an understatement. LOL I'd like to kill her just on principle.

(09-16-2011, 09:38 PM)Jace Wrote: [ -> ]Wow...I just bought some old Gothics on eBay. I haven't read them for years but always loved them. I remember Ms. Daniels name as I recall she was very prolific. Seeing your examples, now I'm afraid to read them as I may find out how young and naive I was when I last read this genre.

Too stupid to live is an understatement. LOL I'd like to kill her just on principle.

Hi,

just wanted to say its ok to read other people's opinions about things but read the book first to see if you agree with it being as stupid as she feels it to be because with a few choice words and/ or inferences people can change the whole meaning of the sentence. Best read for yourself to see how you see it. Try to forget what she said than after you finish see if you still agree with her review. All books are not for everyone, like the Imdalind series by Rebecca Ethington. I personally find it disgusting that the author has this teenage girl "falling in love" with a guy who's old enough to be her father a 1000 times over. But other people love it so like I said read for yourself to see if you like it, or whether the character's actions seems really stupid in the context of the book. I haven't read it yet, but I plan to to see for myself how the book is.

People's opinions led me astray with Ms. Ethington's series, not going to let that happen again. No offence intended to the original poster, just have such a bad taste in my mouth from the Imdalind series. If you prove to be right I will come back and most humbly apologize !

I have not read this book, but I have read another. My impression was that the author (I believe a male) intended the books to be for a more juvenile audience. I never read any of Daniels' books as an adolescent but from an adult perspective, I thought it was poor. However, I believe, as a child, I would have enjoyed it. Back then, I wouldn't have been too discerning and would not have noticed that the characterization was poor, the storyline was rushed (especially the romantic side) and the dialogue silly. To pass the time, I probably wouldn't mind reading one of these.