Mirror Lake Press, $3.99, ISBN 978-0463483336
Historical Romance, 2018

Two men, one woman… hey, hold that thought. Donna Hatch doesn’t write that kind of story. Sure, it may be possible that she can be writing those stories under another name, as it’s hard to tell these days with authors having multiple pen names or changing their pen names every other month, but we ain’t getting that from the author known as Donna Hatch.

Instead, Sabrina Radcliffe—bookish, secretly sexy, more effervescent younger sister, her genteel family being not too well off, et cetera—is torn between well-traveled war hero Richard Beauchamp, who just came to London all the way from Brighton, and… wait a minute. The plot synopsis makes it seem as if the heroine would have conflicted feelings between a bloke that offers stability and a less reliable but more exciting bloke that offers her adventures, but the actual story makes it pretty clear that Beauchamp has no competition whatsoever for Sabrina’s affections. The other bloke is more of a plot device to generate some minor drama in the developing relationship between the two leads. Oh well, I guess that makes sense. This one is called Sabrina’s Hero, after all, not Sabrina’s Heroes.

It took me awhile to even sit down and read this one, because for a long time, I’m convinced from looking at the cover that I’ve already read it. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen that cover art, or maybe a close variation of it, in one of the stories I’ve read before, hence my mistaken assumption. It is only when I did cursory check of the titles by Donna Hatch that I’ve read that I realize my mistake.

Well, now that I’ve read it, I am not entirely mistaken, as in a way, I have read this story before—many times, in fact. Seriously, this one could easy be used as a reference for writing classes for kids wanting to write the perfect generic English-set 19th-century historical romance of country balls and such, which I’m sure is even more the rage now that everyone wants to be the next Julia Quinn and have a show made out of their books of this nature. Okay, many authors wanted to be Ms Quinn for almost two decades now, but that want must surely be intensified further these days.

Speaking of which, and I’ve had already a few requests for it, I don’t feel like watching and reviewing that show. Call me odd, but when it comes to shows, especially on streaming services, I prefer the things I do watch to be on the fantastical or horrific side. Who has time for a show with pretty people acting like modern day folks but wearing period costumes, when I could be watching people getting disemboweled by monsters?

Wait, what? Sabrina’s Hero? Oh yes, I’m supposed to be talking about that thing. Right.

Hmm.

Ahem.

Right. I don’t really have much to say about it, other than it’s a pretty well put-together story. Only, I can’t muster much enthusiasm for it because it contains plot elements and characters that are so, so familiar.

The heroine ticks off all the items on the list—claims to be interested in politics and reads a lot of Minerva Press stuff because she’s not like other girls, et cetera—but she doesn’t come to life for me because nearly all of her attributes are informed. For example, her interest in politics—it came up once, and is then forgotten as Sabrina spends the story more interested in mooning over Beauchamp and getting all dramatic about her feelings for that man. I’m told she loves to read, but Sabrina’s bookworm nature never feels real because she really doesn’t read anything here. Oh, she holds a book, maybe she browses through one, but she’d throw the book aside the moment she has to go shopping in town or meet the Beauchamps. Sabrina is just like every other girl, basically, despite her claims to not be such.

It’s the same with the hero. He ticks off many items off the list, but most of his attributes are informed. He doesn’t seem like or act like he was in a military before, and all in all, he can be any rich gentry bloke in town.

One good thing is that both characters aren’t annoying to me, so I can digest this story pretty easily without suffering from ill-effects. You know what they say, though: easy in, easy out. While I have no issues with this story other than how played-out and English historical romance 101 it is, I seriously doubt I will remember much about it oh, ten minutes after I’m done with this review.