Beyond the Book: Review

 

Book Blurb:

Carrie had always lived a charmed life, but restlessness gnawed at her soul. She dreamed of a different future, but dramatic changes are taking place in the South. Her heart and mind would soon be tested by fire – sweeping away dreamed of freedom as chaos descends.

Carrie Cromwell comes of age as the storm clouds of the Civil War swallow America. Born with a fiery spirit and a strong mind, she finds herself struggling between the common wisdom of the South and the truth she has discovered. The activities of the Underground Railroad and her close friendships with the Cromwell Plantation slaves create difficult choices. But when her decisions put her at odds with her heritage and challenge her dreams, will she be able to give up all that is precious to her?

My Review:

Storm Clouds Rolling In is about the Civil War, and I like reading about the war so when I looked at the book reviews I brought the first book in the series.All total there are twenty books which are labeled The Bregdan Chronicles.The reviews are off the chart good, and even that first novel is still an Amazon bestseller. 

I read book one. I was not impressed. Okay, maybe having set the stage in book one, she’d really get down to the action in book 2. Nope. This is where I should have stopped reading, but there’s nothing wrong with the plot, and I did want to know how it came out so I bought books three, four, and five, which took us to the end of the war. I couldn’t bring myself to finish all those books. What was wrong with them? Here’s what I didn’t like:

1.The characters are not especially believable. I’m sure there was instances such as she described, but overall the characters she focused on did not act as I believe most people would. For example, do you really think a plantation owner whose family had held the land for generations would give it to an ex-slave because he now understood that slavery was wrong? I don’t think he would. 

2.Two characters would be talking to each other, and you’d turn two pages and two different characters would be having the same conversation. 

3.I could maybe forgive numbers one and two, but what made me finally stop reading was the pacing of the novels. It plodded. To me, it seemed as if she was drawing things out just to write more books. 

Evidently, judging from the reviews, lots of people disagree with me. You may read it and love it, but I’m done with it. I don’t suppose by chance any of you have read it and enjoyed it? If you have please tell me what you see that I don’t see.