I bought this book assuming that it was set in 19th century Britain, and in fact it was set in post-WWII Annapolis. Apparently when I see the words 'naval romance' I jump to conclusions. However, there was a lot I enjoyed about this romance between Frances, the Admiral's daughter, and Joe, a midshipman who flies planes and may be the only man in Maryland who isn't chasing Frances to curry favor with her father.
I don't usually like stories about men who fall in love from a distance and then do everything they can to pursue a woman, even when she says she isn't interested, because she's saying no for the 'wrong' reasons. But this one is written with a very light touch, and Joe is both so likeable and clearly a good match for Frances in a lot of ways, so it grew on me. Unfortunately, the one major problem is that Frances is quite clear from the beginning that she doesn't want to be a Navy wife - she saw what her mother went through living that life, and after her mother died, she ended up performing many of the same duties for her father. Given that Joe is committed to being a naval man, that's a fundamental incompatibility between them in terms of what they want from their lives and what they're willing to sacrifice, and while the book convinced me of their love for each other, it didn't really convince me that Frances didn't end up sacrificing her own desires to accommodate her desire to marry Joe. It felt like the kind of romance novel conflict that just ends up being magically resolved, which is the same thing as saying it wasn't resolved at all, and so either it wasn't truly the dealbreaker the character said it was, or a happily ever after is much harder to believe. I still liked the story, and I want Frances and Joe to have a wonderful marriage, etc., but it felt a bit too pat for me.
Grade: B
I don't usually like stories about men who fall in love from a distance and then do everything they can to pursue a woman, even when she says she isn't interested, because she's saying no for the 'wrong' reasons. But this one is written with a very light touch, and Joe is both so likeable and clearly a good match for Frances in a lot of ways, so it grew on me. Unfortunately, the one major problem is that Frances is quite clear from the beginning that she doesn't want to be a Navy wife - she saw what her mother went through living that life, and after her mother died, she ended up performing many of the same duties for her father. Given that Joe is committed to being a naval man, that's a fundamental incompatibility between them in terms of what they want from their lives and what they're willing to sacrifice, and while the book convinced me of their love for each other, it didn't really convince me that Frances didn't end up sacrificing her own desires to accommodate her desire to marry Joe. It felt like the kind of romance novel conflict that just ends up being magically resolved, which is the same thing as saying it wasn't resolved at all, and so either it wasn't truly the dealbreaker the character said it was, or a happily ever after is much harder to believe. I still liked the story, and I want Frances and Joe to have a wonderful marriage, etc., but it felt a bit too pat for me.
Grade: B
No comments:
Post a Comment