Kimani, $6.99, ISBN 978-0-373-83052-7
Contemporary Romance, 2008
Long Time Coming has the heroine Tessa Whitfield meeting the hero Micah Sanborn when our wedding planner heroine’s client has to bail out on an appointment because she has to sit in a jury. Because this meeting is important as Bridget will need to iron out some final details with Tessa, she sends her brother Micah in her place. As they are making eyes at each other and, oh yes, discuss wedding plans or two, Micah and Tessa find themselves in a blackout. Since they are already at Tessa’s place, she offers to make dinner for the two of them. The rest would be a blissful happily ever after if Micah can get over his commitment issues.
Tess and Micah are recognizable characters from Ms Alers. They are both from very rich families, although Micah has a sad childhood and he was fortunate enough to be adopted by the Sanborns before more damage was done to the poor thing. They are both physically flawless. They are also surrounded by a vast network of family members and friends, although with this book being the first in a series, there are mercifully less than usual “Can you figure out which book this fellow first showed up in?” guessing games to be played here. The story is pretty familiar too in a way – the pacing is pretty slow, often bogged down by details of the characters’ clothes, environment, or physical traits, and internal conflicts are kept to a minimal, often shoved to the background for descriptions of day-to-day minutia. When there is a conflict, which happens late in the story, the characters behave more like silly kids unable to talk with each other, but I suppose with all the money they have, divorce will probably be a painless process for all involved, heh.
To put it simply, I find Long Time Coming very easy to put down due to a combination of the rather wooden characters, a tendency of the author to focus too much on day-to-day minutia stuff to the point that the story starts to drag very slowly, and a lack of compelling conflict. There are many times while reading this story that I wonder whether the story is going anywhere. The end does indeed feel Long Time Coming in this one.
