Alice Woods has gone through a weird and rough
breakup and just wants to go on the cruise she paid for.
Elliott Ainsley has had enough of the stress of
supporting his baronial estate and crazy family and just
wants some peace and quiet to write. When he takes the
tickets from Alice's ex, neither of them have any idea
what is in store for them. They have to either get along
or get off the boat. When both decide they can get over
it and stay, the hijinks ensue. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING
ALICE shows us that true love can be found even in the
oddest of places.
The exposition was fairly obvious. Throwing
everything into two chapters rarely works. In THE
IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALICE, I felt overwhelmed by
exposition within the first two chapters. I know all
about the breakup, the horrible family, the bad ex-
fiance, the trip to Europe. I know it all but it went by
too fast. I couldn't really appreciate it. When the meat
of the novel gets rolling I just feel so bothered because
there is no new information being revealed. It all comes
at you and then stops coming at you.
There is a term popular on the sites I use called
"Brit-picking". It is the person you go to to ensure that
your United Kingdom characters do not fall into cliches.
This book could have used a good Brit-picker. I feel that
the British lord and the Irish ex-fiance are so steeped
in cultural red flags that it takes something away from
the credibility of their characters. And Alice is quite
an Anglophile, but this aspect of her character seems
very immature and it is not justified by any of her other
behavior. Overall, she just seems very immature and
insecure. I get major secondhand embarrassment trying to
understand her motivation because she speaks like a
teenager instead of a woman who has been hurt. Alice is a
far cry from the heroine I wanted out of this book.
Elliot is no better. He is a jerk. I understand his
motivations better than I do Alice's; he has an
overbearing family and he needs space and time to work.
However, he's just rude to Alice and downright cruel to
his mother, foolish though she is. Baron or not, I don't
like him. I like neither of the main characters in the
novel, and they're stuck together on a river cruise.
I don't dislike romance novels as a genre. I only
dislike those which I expected to be good and then fall
flat. This book is very much the romance novel I did not
want to read. THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ALICE moves far too
quickly, the characterization is poor at best, and there
is no real meat to the story, no realism to be seen. The
disappointment I feel having finished this book is really
heavy. I certainly hope the next Ainsley Brothers Romance
is better for the audience, but I personally will not be
reading the next installment.
First in a new series!
From New York Times bestselling author Katie MacAlister
comes a series about finding your own wonderland—through
one
roadblock at a time....
Nothing about Alice Wood’s life is normal right now. Her
fiancé, Patrick, called off their wedding and
relationship
only days before their nonrefundable wedding trip. And
though a luxurious European river cruise for one is just
what she needs, it’s not what she gets....
Due to a horrible misunderstanding, Alice is now cramped
in
her “romantic” suite with one of Patrick’s friends.
Instead
of cruising along the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers
sipping
champagne with the love of her life, she’s navigating the
waters with a strange—yet mysteriously handsome—British
aristocrat.
A baron of dubious wealth—and not-so-dubious debt—Elliot
Ainslie is just looking forsome alone time to write the
books that keep his large family afloat. But his stodgy,
serious self is about to be sidetracked by a woman who
seems
to have jumped out of the pages of a fairy tale, one who
is
determined to shake up his life...and include him in her
own
happily ever after.
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