Ilona's Reviews > Sunrise On Cedar Key

Meh. The characters are thin and flat, the story predictable, the surroundings lifeless, the homespun wisdom pretty trite.

The dialogue was poor. Stilted, a little too formal, it generally sounded far more like people reading cue cards than people actually chatting together.

Apart from that, there were two things that annoyed me. First was the main character (Grace's) tendency to make instantaneous negative decisions about people, and, without any attempt to even discuss it with the person who'd offended her, cut them out of her life for weeks, months, even years. The flip annoyance was the repeated, near-instantaneous healing of lifelong wounds and heartache.

Example: Grace's estranged sister, Chloe, shows up. They've never gotten along, always been resentment between them. But that's okay! After 15 or 20 years of bad blood, it's a matter of one 20-minute conversation to clear the air and everything's fine. They love each other. They are glad to be sisters!

Completely unrealistic.

And then, having healed the rift with her sister, having experienced increasing love, affection, and respect for her, after several months of sisterly affection, Grace discovers a hurtful thing Chloe did ten years prior. And that's that! Instant hostility. Instant withdrawal of all affection and contact. Without a conversation, without trying to find out why, without giving her the benefit of the doubt, and certainly without even considering forgiving the sister she has grown to love and admire, she cuts Chloe out of her life. This did not warm me to Grace so very much.

So much for all that love and affection they'd discovered. So much for the joys of having a sister, huh?

Eventually all the loose ends are tied up, everyone gets their happy ending, but I can't say I enjoyed the book. I won't be reading any more from this series.