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Big Sky Country (2012)

by Linda Lael Miller(Favorite Author)

3.99 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

0373776438 (ISBN13: 9780373776436)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

HQN Books

series

Parable, Montana

review 1: The beginning of this book almost had me putting it down. It took me forever to be able to tell the two half-brothers, Slade and Hutch, apart. It wasn't until I started seeing their families around them that their names really started to stick for me - which made some things a tad confusing at first. Now once I got that little piece of information down, the story was quite good. It was told in a slow, easy pace that seemed to reflect the life in Parable, Montana - a small town where everyone seems to know everyone and things take a long time to change. What I learned of the town was amazing, makes me want to visit to get away from the city and find a little peace and fresh air - and stare at all the cowboys.The romance between Slade and Joslyn was very slow to build up... more. But that is what real life is like - it takes time to get to know someone all over again and make the decision to open your heart. Joslyn took a huge risk returning to Parable after her step-father did a lot of damage to a lot of people. She wants to fix what he did - but things aren't always as easy as they seem and she knows that.Slade is dealing with his own family drama - the kind this small town will be talking about for ages. But he doesn't really seem to care about what the town thinks or talks about. He's going to sit and thing about things before making any decisions. That's just the type of guy he is. So when he sees Joslyn for the first time in years, he's taken aback. Especially by his body's reaction to her.Theirs was a sweet and slow romance that you really just fell into to. It was a lazy afternoon of lounging in the sun just to enjoy it. I look forward to visiting Parable again to see what everyone is up to and find out who is next to fall in love.
review 2: My first LLMiller book and I appreciate that Goodreads opens reviews to all viewers--I needed to keep seeing that Miller has a huge fan base and is worth trying again.My main comment on this book is that it was very sloppy. We all have our pet peeves, and careful writing is one of mine. The most jarring, continually throughout, was Miller's time sequences. Slade and Joslyn walk into a restaurant (first date), get seated and almost get served before they ordered (not really, of course, but food arrived in the next sentence). Another time Slade never even takes a bite before he's lashing out at Hutch and he "pushes away the rest of his uneaten cheeseburger." The rest? Oh, you mean all of it since he CLEARLY never took a bite. Then, the night of Kendra's party, the dance floor is laid (at no small effort), Joslyn has one dance, and next sentence/paragraph the band is finished, packing up. Things like this happened all over the book.This almost reminds me of a mad lib--I think those are still around. The pieces just don't quite fit together--you need an [emotion] and you get an [action]. Hero and heroine have date, hero gets upset by snotty half brother, date ends. It's done in about as many sentences and with about as much finesse.Maybe Miller has ADD. She goes into SUCH detail on things and then skims right over the next. It's rather disconcerting.**PARTIAL SPOILER**In 2 pages of one chapter a portion of a day is revealed, in the next sentence 3 months pass and we are suddenly at the big race day. Say what? Not only is the timing of this handled very oddly (what author writes off months in a single sentence in the middle of a chapter --with no pause, no leading the reader from and to the before and after?), but, as well, there is NO explanation as to why Slade and Joslyn never have sex for all those months after having just had it for the first time. This makes totally NO sense. My judgement of Miller was that she was too lazy to fill in the gap b/c she just wanted to get the book done.And then, SUCH a minor detail, but it's like listening to a senile person rant about the trivial--cat Lucy-Mae (was it? I forget) is repetitively mentioned as pregnant, almost ad nauseam (were this a thriller you'd think there was HUGE significance to this fact) and then in that 1-sentence leap of 3 months to race time the cat is never mentioned again. Ever. She had to have had the kittens during the 3 months (obviously), but she and her offspring are deleted from the story. The texting use of WTF seems to fit here. Why bother to introduce the fact the cat is pregnant? She could have just been a cat.Another testament to sloppy is that in the beginning of the book Joslyn rarely eats and is never hungry. She is CONTINUALLY starting to eat then gets upset and pushes her food away. It's like a skip on the cd where the same segment keeps repeating. Not only is this boring, lazy writing, it also upsets me because it glamorizes not eating, it stereotypes "upset woman who doesn't eat," but most of all it is unrealistic--she goes on like this for days, maybe weeks (the time segments--as I've been saying here--are often sketchy). Unless Miller wants to turn Joslyn anorexic, the girl would be hungry!Not much else to say than this. Daughter Shae and mother Callie are wonderful additions to the story and there are many passages with all characters throughout the book that are enjoyable. It's just too disjointed to be considered a good read. It's just like having a nicely designed house built by shoddy builders. The overall concept is good, but the execution is sloppy and poorly put together.It's interesting, I went ahead and read the reviews for the next book in the series and no surprise--those who gave it low stars are saying Miller get caught in minutia and doesn't present a realistic/cohesive story. Not sure why disjointedness is such a problem with this series.I'm going to try another LLMiller and see if I can find why so many love her. less

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