Receive Snowbound In The Earls Castle Chronicled By Fiona Harper Disseminated As Script

quick, clean read. Liked it. This was a wonderful read, I loved the realistic characters and the amazing setting, With a bit of mystery it made this holiday romance a real page turner, I can't wait to read the next book in this series, I'd highly recommend this book, : Sigh. I always feel terrible giving booksstar, I know authors put everything they have into most books, and bad reviews are probably just as harsh as calling a child ugly.
But I'm going to be as respectful as possible while maintaining the honesty I feel all book reviews should have, I REALLY wanted to like Fiona Harper's "Snowbound in the Earl's Castle", It is the first of a series of"Holiday Miracles" books, and I fell in total love with Donna Alward's "Sleighride with the Rancher" thend book in the series.
That book was so realistic, full of heart, brimming with Holiday cheer, and just was so realseeming and fantastic, So of course books in the same series are hard NOT to compare, And "Snowbound in the Earl's Castle" pales in comparison,

Everything Donna Alward's book succeeds with is what Fiona Harper fails in, Donna's book feels so heartfelt, and the reader falls in love with the characters right along with them, I feel like Fiona's protagonists are both stale and their love blossom feels false and forced, However, I did enjoy Bertie the grandfather, a secondary character,

While Donna Alward's book was full of action and fun in every moment of the story, I feel like Fiona Harper's scenes were full of filler and draggedon moments.
Donna Alward's storyline was unique and provided nice angles like dealing with kids with special needs and whatnot, Fiona Harper relied too much on being a classic fairytale come true, which made the story seem cliche and not memorable by any means.


the only thing I feel like was truly amazing in this book was that I can tell Fiona Harper LOVES the setting.
Her description of the castle and the surroundings is breathtaking and you can tell she has such passion with this area of the UK.


But the rest of the story feels like Fiona Harper left her heart out of it, Maybe she was busy, or not invested, or had other projects she liked better, But this story lacked

sparkle, It was as if she was forced to write a book that she wasn't interested in, Donna Alward's joy pops off each page, while Fiona Harper's words drone on and lust, . . I don't know it just falls short.

The story is about Faith, the middle McKinnon sister, who goes to a fairy tale castle in the UK to research a stained glass window.
She is doing this as a favour to her grandother, because the Duke who owns the castle is an ex lover of her grandmother.
However, the Duke's hansome grandson is afraid of what family secrets Faith will unearth and wants her to leave, But when a sudden snowstorm forces Faith to live at the castle, a fairy tale story begins to blossom,

Ok so Fiona Harper and any reader who loved this I am so sorry about my feelings about this book, But this is truly my opinion, and no offence to anyone, I tried SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO hard to like it, I just hope therd book in the series is as good as Donna Alward's book! She had the oddest feeling that she recognised him, although she couldn't have explained just which of his features were familiar.
It was all of them, All of HIM. And him being in this place,

Which was crazy, because she'd never been here before in her life except maybe in her childish daydreams and she'd certainly remember meeting a man like this.
. . a man whose sudden appearance answered a question she wasn't aware she'd asked,

This is a sweet romance story about a woman named Faith who fixes expensive windows and an earl.
She comes to the castle of her grandma's exboyfriend in order to check out a stained glass window, The Duke thinks there's a message hidden in the window,

The Duke has a surly, arrogant, distrustful grandson named Marcus the earl, As soon as Marcus and Faith meet, they feel an attraction to each other, one they fight tooth and nail not to give in to.



Is this a Christian romance book

Harlequin is not filing this under a "Christian" heading.
However.

The book takes place during Christmas,

The main character's name is Faith,

The mystery of the glass window is solved by clues that are Bible verses,

For now we see through a glass, darkly but then face to face: now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known.

Corinthians:

But the path of the just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Proverbs:

As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters,
Song of Songs:

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, and evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews:

There's no talk of God or Jesus, but all of this is pretty Christiany, The author signs her intro letter with "Blessings, " Harlequin books always have an intro letter from the author,


I liked Faith and Marcus's relationship, It grows very slowly. At first I couldn't even understand why she was attracted to him, He was so unpleasant. Rude, condescending, bossy, and pompous, But eventually they start bonding and growing closer, By the end I liked Marcus, ! Both have their little issues to work through, although I have to say Harper wasn't very good at building up suspense and tension.
In some romance novels, I feel like my heart is being pulled out through my chest, I worry intensely about the characters and the book makes my heart ache, NOT THIS BOOK. It's very quiet and not very emotionally impactful, I'd rather read something that was more emotionally gripping,

The book isn't very funny, although there is a stuffed badger named Basil that accompanies the two everywhere and becomes something of a running joke.


There was only so much time a woman and a badger could spend cooped up together in a tiny fake New England cottage without one of them going stark staring mad.
Faith suspected the badger might be doing a better job of staying sane and so, despite the driving wind that lifted her hair by its roots and made it dance, she ventured out into the cold winter morning.


I didn't really understand the issues the couple had trusting each other, I thought they were rather lame, And I was very confused when near the end Faith suddenly for some reason becomes convinced that she and Marcus can't be together.
It's very baffling and I thought that in general Harper was grasping at straws as far as conflict goes, here,

How's the sex, Carmen

There is no sex,

There is some kissing KISSING!!! but it is relatively undescribed,

His lips touched hers, so gently, so softly, it made her want to cry all over again, She'd expected fierceness, but if anything this tenderness was more devastating, She met him, moved her lips against his, but she didn't want to rush, didn't want to hurry, This was too sweet, too perfect, She wanted to suspend this moment in time and make it last forever,

That's their first kiss and also the most described kiss, That doesn't happen until! It's sweet,

There's no swearing, no sex, and most definitely no violence,

However, the book has some really sweet moments,

How, in all her life, had no one ever made Faith McKinnon feel special Couldn't they see what was right in front of their eyes

This time he kissed her slowly and tenderly.
She seemed to drink it in, as if she couldn't get enough of what he gave her, Marcus knew he'd gladly empty himself of everything he had and everything he was to see her smiling and happy,

This book won the Romantic Times Book Harlequin Romance Reader's Choice Award, I think it exemplifies Harlequin's Romance line, Sweet, goodhearted, clean. I found it easier to read than the books in Harlequin's American Romance line, at least the ones I've read so far.


The author uses British spelling and she lives in London,

I've read another book by Fiona Harper, it was sitelinkTaming Her Italian Boss and it was boring, Harper tends to write "heartwarming" stories "heartwarming" is Harlequin code for "bland, "


Tldr This book wasn't awful, but to me it was pretty bland, The characters issues and reasons for not being together were puzzling, There's no sex and no sexual tension, Even though this book is not labeled as Christian fiction, you could make a strong case that it is, That in itself doesn't bother me, but the book was just not gripping overall,

A sweet, goodhearted Christmas read if that's what you're looking for, But if you want an emotional roller coaster I do! or sexual excitement of some kind I do! or convincing character motivation I do! then this is not the book for you.


TWO REAL STARS, TWO ROMANCE STARS

P, S. Let's discuss the cover,

It looks like a picture from a J, Crew catalog. Who would sit on the snowy ground in jeans! Nice story, Heroine is a stained glass restorer come to look at hero earl's window, There's a bit of historical mystery amp some mild angst that it took rather too long to be understandableI spent a fair bit of time being confused which might have been more my fault than the author'sbut eventually things came clear and enjoyable.
Cute. Sweet. Mildly Christmasy. It's a Harlequin Romance. Before I write my review, I think I should disclose that I wrote the next book in the Holiday Miracles trilogy.
This is, however, the first time I read the story beginning to end as a finished product, : The truth is I can't NOT review this book because it is utterly gorgeous and gave me serious writer's envy,

It's a perfect fairytale, as beautiful and fragile as the stained glass window the heroine is sent to restore.
I sniffled through most of the lastchapters and laughed out loud at some parts, Fiona's style and how she turns a phrase is so lovely, I've read her work before but this time I not only fell in love with the book but with her writing, too.
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