Danni Roan, $3.99, ISBN 978-1393691181
Historical Romance, 2020
Phineas Fortuna isn’t living up to his last name, as he’s a widower of four daughters but he’s apparently too bookish and impractical to make ends meet and keep a roof over their heads. Oh daddies, they are so amusing, aren’t they?
The eldest daughter Adele is of course quite understanding when her father announces that he’s shipping off his daughters to the highest bidders in Needful, Texas. Clearly, this is all done for his daughters’ well-being, but Adele decides that, should she snag a wealthy husband in that town, then her sisters would have the luxury of taking the time to find and marry the men of their choice in that town.
Isn’t it so cute how romance heroines would hate their mother for pointing out that they are dressed in a color that makes them look drab, but they would forgive their darling daddy despite the worthless old coot failing them in every way that matters?
Now, Adele can’t just waltz into town and automatically nab herself a husband… oh, wait, of course she can. She uses her super powers in bookkeeping and cooking to get herself a wife gig with the saloon owner Mr Beauregard Alder.
Phineas is all “How could you marry him? He has a terrible reputation!” as if this POS had any right left to quibble about her daughters’ choice of husbands. Adele has made up her mind, however. Even if Phineas may not see her as a desirable wife, she knows she is smart and thus she has a good feeling that the marriage would work out well to their mutual benefits.
Adele could have been a great romance story. The heroine is a tall glass of water because she makes no apologies about being smart and outspoken while at the same time not being too grating and obnoxious about it. The hero is a nice guy in spite of his reputation as a shady saloon owner, although considering how nobody seems to have any issues patronizing his place, I can only wonder where the shady reputation comes from.
However, because this story is a late entry in Danni Roan’s Brides of Needful Texas series, the parade of characters from past and future entries starts to become very intrusive. The first third of this story is basically various people interacting with one another. It’s not very interesting because these characters don’t really say or do anything interesting. Also, they all display a rather unnerving hivemind-like mentality.
Even after Adele and Beau agree to get married, the author frustratingly continues to focus on Adele’s interactions with the hivemind. I really want to see her and Beau know one another better, fall in love perhaps, and it’s so ugh that there is always some character that will hone in and come between any potential interaction between the hero and the heroine.
It’s a shame, really. The author has created a potentially intriguing romantic couple, but proceeds to treat this story more like Adele’s daily diary entries in Needful instead of a romantic tale. Worse, it’s a pretty dry sequence of diary entries because the heroine never faces any challenges from the townsfolk or external circumstances to bring on the drama and suspense.
It is only in the last few chapters that these two get some breathing space to be a romantic couple, and by then, the whole thing has been a readable but dull story that fails to do anything interesting with the promising main characters.
The whole thing is a pretty disappointing case of too little, too late.
