Whitney K-E is back
again, doing what she does very well – the Irish/Aussie romance. From Co. Kerry in Ireland to Melbourne,
Australia and back, this tale of love and romance set in the equestrian world
had me smiling. I enjoyed Cara and
Will’s story. But frankly, I don’t know
how Cara didn’t murder William stone dead at times. He was one of the worst ‘slaggers’ I’ve ever
come across.
You don’t know what a
‘slagger’ is? Let me enlighten you. In Ireland, we have a special custom known as
‘slagging’. Well, we did when I lived
there. It involves finding the
vulnerable spots in a person. Then
teasing them mercilessly about it. And
William was practically slagging Cara from page one. When they first met, he told her his name was
Patrick. Then she later found out his
name was something else. I mean, how do
you trust a man like that? If he could
deceive you when he didn’t know you were his future sister-in-law’s cousin,
what does that say about his integrity?
Personally speaking, I
think young Cara was way too forgiving.
And there’s something else as well.
She leapt into the leaba (that
means ‘bed’ in Irish) with the fellow far too soon if you ask me. Not that anyone’s asking. I wouldn’t let a joker like that lay a
finger on me until he’d put a ring on one of mine first. I was dying for Cara
to give him a kick in his arse. These
hot-blooded Irish men have to be handled correctly, you know? Otherwise, they’d blight your life with all
their smart alec answers and their ready wit.
It’s a good question all right. Can a holiday romance really work out? I mean, you meet on vacation and there’s all
this rapt emotion. But you have a life
back home, right? Gone are the days when
you just dropped everything and followed your man halfway around the world. Well, I wish I’d known that before I followed
my true love wherever.
Take two likeable,
totally realistic characters, a few kilos of attraction, a few litres of
emotion and a few grains of anger and annoyance and what have you got? Will and Cara’s story, actually. All too real.
All too human. All too
believable. And all too annoying. Will, I mean, not Cara.
I’m one of those
people who finds love scenes a bit TMI.
It’s quite enough for me to know the main characters are getting it
together. It’s not that I have anything against sex. Far from it. I’m one of those (probably
weird) individuals who would rather do it than read about it. Whitney K-E might be a young one, but she
writes with a skill beyond her years.
The writing was so realistic that at one stage, when Will and Cara were
having a particularly lengthy ‘session’, I thought I should let them get on
with it and go read a book until they were finished. Then I realized I was reading a book.
So kudos to Whitney
K-E for this romantic Irish tale. It
brought a smile to my face, a tear to my eye and occasionally, a frown to my
forehead (that was William’s fault!). So
go ahead, buy it, read and enjoy. And
yes, it was authentic.
Any complaints? Well, I did find it slightly overdone when
the writing veered into an Irish accent, when William or any of the Irish
characters were speaking. Then it
occurred to me that as an Irish person myself, I could already hear their
accents. An Australian or US reader wouldn’t necessarily. So it’s okay.
Good one, Whitney K-E.
I received an advance review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
