The Fairest Beauty by Melanie Dickerson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in this series and I will start book #4 tonight, but this one fell flat for me. Part of the problem was the ebook formatting. The font sizes changed from paragraph to paragraph and scene breaks were missing, making the head-hopping hard to follow. It’s hard to enjoy a book that’s frustrating to read.
But more than that, the storyline was shallow. While it was set up for excellent tension with the wicked stepmother ordering Sophie’s death and sending troops to ferret her out, it wallowed in a pit of sexual tension mixed with a lack of self-confidence with both the hero and the heroine for far too long. It needed more/better editing, in my opinion.
Not a bad book, but I would definitely recommend the print version for this one. Pretty sure I would have enjoyed it more that way.
Published by Pegg Thomas
Pegg Thomas lives in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with Michael, her husband of *mumble* years. She creates American stories with real history and fictional characters inspired by her ancestors who immigrated here in the mid-1600s.
Pegg won the 2019 FHL Readers’ Choice Award for novellas, was a double-finalist for the 2019 ACFW Carol Award for novellas, and a finalist for the 2019 ACFW Editor of the Year. She was a finalist in the 2021 FHL Readers’ Choice Award for novellas. Pegg won the 2022 Selah Award for historical romance and placed 2nd with her second entry. She was also a finalist for the 2023 Selah Award and placed 2nd for the 2024 Selah Award. Pegg spent 3 ½ years as the managing editor of Smitten Historical Romance.
When not writing or editing, Pegg can be found in her garden, her kitchen, or sitting at one of her spinning wheels creating yarn to turn into her signature wool shawls.
View more posts
Pegg Thomas 