Review: Starry Night by Debbie Macomber
Believe it or not, Starry Night is the first Debbie Macomber book I have read. I enjoy light romances, often interspersing them between my historicals, mysteries, and thrillers. Add to that the advent of the Christmas season, when I get in the mood to read lighter stories that center around Christmas, and the opportunity to participate in the blog tour for this book seemed like a natural.
Starry Night is the story of Carrie Slayton, a society reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, who longs to be able to report on more serious stories. Her boss challenges her to find and interview reclusive author Finn Dalton, with the promise of being able to write any stories she wants if she can get the coveted interview. As a result, Carrie heads out for the wilds of Alaska in search of Finn. What she finds, changes her life and perspectives dramatically.
Starry Night is your typical romance book, complete with a smart, self sufficient female protagonist and the reluctant male love interest. As you can probably guess, when Carrie and Finn meet, sparks fly, and not always the good kind. The fact that this book is a typical romance has both good and bad sides to it. The story of Carrie and Finn was thoroughly enjoyable and a nice break from the mystery/thrillers that I have been reading, Here is a story where the characters are who they are supposed to be. There is no subterfuge, and you can trust them. Their actions are what they appear to be, and their motives follow the expected path. I have heard good things about Debbie Macomber's books, and I can see why. She has a smooth, easy writing style, her characters are easy to become invested in, and her settings are interesting. Alternately, though, it is so typical, that if you are looking for something a bit different in the genre you will not find it here. Luckily for me, I was looking for the typical.
Aside from the fact that this book is typical in every respect, my biggest caveat about the book is that Christmas was really insignificant to the story. The fact that part of the story takes place over the holidays is the only thing that allows this story to be classed as a Chrismas story at all. The good news here is that Christmas plays such a small part that you could read the story anytime of the year and not be slapped in the face with a lot of Christmas talk. The only other caveat I had about the story was that I wished that more of the story took place in Alaska. I love the less ordinary settings, and would loved to have had more of that part of the book.
The bottom line here, though, is that I enjoyed this book enough for it to entice me to read more by Debbie Macomber. I know a lot of her other books are a series, and I look forward to fitting them in between my other reading. Many thanks to my friend Melissa for including me in this blog tour and introducing me to Debbie Macomber.
Starry Night is the story of Carrie Slayton, a society reporter for the Chicago Sun Times, who longs to be able to report on more serious stories. Her boss challenges her to find and interview reclusive author Finn Dalton, with the promise of being able to write any stories she wants if she can get the coveted interview. As a result, Carrie heads out for the wilds of Alaska in search of Finn. What she finds, changes her life and perspectives dramatically.
Starry Night is your typical romance book, complete with a smart, self sufficient female protagonist and the reluctant male love interest. As you can probably guess, when Carrie and Finn meet, sparks fly, and not always the good kind. The fact that this book is a typical romance has both good and bad sides to it. The story of Carrie and Finn was thoroughly enjoyable and a nice break from the mystery/thrillers that I have been reading, Here is a story where the characters are who they are supposed to be. There is no subterfuge, and you can trust them. Their actions are what they appear to be, and their motives follow the expected path. I have heard good things about Debbie Macomber's books, and I can see why. She has a smooth, easy writing style, her characters are easy to become invested in, and her settings are interesting. Alternately, though, it is so typical, that if you are looking for something a bit different in the genre you will not find it here. Luckily for me, I was looking for the typical.
Aside from the fact that this book is typical in every respect, my biggest caveat about the book is that Christmas was really insignificant to the story. The fact that part of the story takes place over the holidays is the only thing that allows this story to be classed as a Chrismas story at all. The good news here is that Christmas plays such a small part that you could read the story anytime of the year and not be slapped in the face with a lot of Christmas talk. The only other caveat I had about the story was that I wished that more of the story took place in Alaska. I love the less ordinary settings, and would loved to have had more of that part of the book.
The bottom line here, though, is that I enjoyed this book enough for it to entice me to read more by Debbie Macomber. I know a lot of her other books are a series, and I look forward to fitting them in between my other reading. Many thanks to my friend Melissa for including me in this blog tour and introducing me to Debbie Macomber.
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