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jmc_bksThis book was an impulse pick-up; I liked the back-blurb. I read another Thayne book a couple of years ago, The Quiet Something, about a woman with a hearing impairment. The conflict of that book was trumped up -- it could have been resolved by a single 5 minute conversation without any angst or problems -- but I liked that Thayne's heroine wasn't physically perfect, and her physical imperfection, while able to be worked around, wasn't one that could be fixed like magic.
Jake, on the other hand, has chosen his life in Pine Gulch. He's the GP, that disappearing species of doctor that seems to remain only in small towns out west someplace. He likes his community and his life, although he'd like to get more sleep and a relationship. He had an unrequited crush on Maggie as a teenager, which blossoms into love on her return.
Stuff I liked:
1. That Maggie was a reserve nurse wounded in Afghanistan. It seemed timely, given how many American reservists are in the Middle East right now.
2. Maggie's still recovering and adjusting to the use of a prosthetic, and she's touchy and angry about the physical loss and the resulting loss of her life as it was, including a physically demanding job as an ER nurse practitioner and the loss of the fiance who was repulsed by her stump. She also feels guilty about surviving when her friends did not.
3. The hero, Jake. It was nice to see a hero who was more settled and domesticated than the heroine. Jake is a beta hero, taking caring of Maggie, taking care of his community, being the cool/kind uncle to his nieces and nephews.
4. That Maggie's issues (her leg and her continuing recovery) didn't disappear after they said the Magic Words.
Stuff that I didn't like so much:
1. The side story about Maggie's mother and uncle. Unnecessary and distracting. What was the point? It felt like filler.
2. The family "feud" -- really, it only existed in Maggie's mind. She holds a terrible grudge and seems kind of pouty and childish, especially since even her mother is friendly with the Daltons.
3. The book felt like it opened in the middle of something, and with a younger Dalton brother, I'm assuming there will be another book. [ETA: Yup, there will be, scheduled to be released next month.]
4. While I don't mind leaving the future up in the air (in fact, that kind of ending for more books would please me), Dancing in the Moonlight ended pretty abruptly, and the tacked on epilogue didn't change that.
Grade-wise, I'm teetering between a B- and a C+. On the whole, the book wasn't bad, it just didn't live up to its potential, I thought.
Lieutenant Magdalena Cruz had come home . . .The book opens with Jake on his way home from an emergency call, running in to Maggie. She's changing a tire, and is very defensive about her ability to do so, now that she has lost her foot and part of her leg. Maggie's on her way home to El Rancho de la Luna, the family farm, having packed up her life in Phoenix after being released from Walter Reed. She's more or less on the run from her life, trying to figure out how to rebuild her life and resigning herself to celibacy.
But it wasn't the way she'd envisioned her return. And though all she wanted was to be alone, infuriatingly handsome Dr. Jake Dalton -- of the enemy Daltons -- wouldn't cooperate. And she needed him to, because the walls around her heart were dangerously close to crumbling every time he came near . . . .
Jake had spent most of his life trying to get closer to Maggie, with little to show for it. But she was the woman he'd always wanted, and no injury in the world could change that. Now if only he could convince her that the woman who stood before him was beautiful, desirable, whole . . . and meant to be his . . . .
Jake, on the other hand, has chosen his life in Pine Gulch. He's the GP, that disappearing species of doctor that seems to remain only in small towns out west someplace. He likes his community and his life, although he'd like to get more sleep and a relationship. He had an unrequited crush on Maggie as a teenager, which blossoms into love on her return.
Stuff I liked:
1. That Maggie was a reserve nurse wounded in Afghanistan. It seemed timely, given how many American reservists are in the Middle East right now.
2. Maggie's still recovering and adjusting to the use of a prosthetic, and she's touchy and angry about the physical loss and the resulting loss of her life as it was, including a physically demanding job as an ER nurse practitioner and the loss of the fiance who was repulsed by her stump. She also feels guilty about surviving when her friends did not.
3. The hero, Jake. It was nice to see a hero who was more settled and domesticated than the heroine. Jake is a beta hero, taking caring of Maggie, taking care of his community, being the cool/kind uncle to his nieces and nephews.
4. That Maggie's issues (her leg and her continuing recovery) didn't disappear after they said the Magic Words.
Stuff that I didn't like so much:
1. The side story about Maggie's mother and uncle. Unnecessary and distracting. What was the point? It felt like filler.
2. The family "feud" -- really, it only existed in Maggie's mind. She holds a terrible grudge and seems kind of pouty and childish, especially since even her mother is friendly with the Daltons.
3. The book felt like it opened in the middle of something, and with a younger Dalton brother, I'm assuming there will be another book. [ETA: Yup, there will be, scheduled to be released next month.]
4. While I don't mind leaving the future up in the air (in fact, that kind of ending for more books would please me), Dancing in the Moonlight ended pretty abruptly, and the tacked on epilogue didn't change that.
Grade-wise, I'm teetering between a B- and a C+. On the whole, the book wasn't bad, it just didn't live up to its potential, I thought.
