Series: Once Upon a Time #5
Published by Loveswept on December 13th 2016
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 244
Goodreads
FINAL DECISION: Classic Hatfield/McCoy, Romeo and Juliet tale about two people who were born to hate one another and yet fell in love. The story also has a romantic suspense element as the two need to discover who wants to make sure that hate prevails.
THE STORY: A modern day Romeo and Juliet. The Logans and the Stuarts have been enemies for five centuries. In every generation there is an opportunity for the families to avoid the feud or make it personal and more bitter. Michele Logan and Ian Stuart unexpectedly meet on a tropical island away from the feuding families and while there is no personal enmity between them. there is a wariness caused by the feud. There is also a deep attraction. The question is whether they can overcome the feud or be completely subsumed by it.
OPINION: I’m a sucker for the family feud stories. This one is particularly well done as Michele especially feels the programming done by her family to hate the Stuarts — including Ian. There is the real chance that love is not enough to overcome five hundred years of hate. The story also has a little romantic suspense element as the question arises what is actually happening between these families in the present day.
Angst, drama, suspense, two people destined to be apart but drawn inexorably together. Just my kind of catnip. I read this book when it was originally published and I had forgotten how much I liked it then. It expanded my idea of what a good romance could be when it was written. The romantic suspense with just a bit of magic became the direction that Kay Hooper went when she stopped writing pure romance. This book shows the beginning of her journey in that direction.
This book was written as an “extra-long” category series book and thus doesn’t have the full complexity one might expect from a full length novel, but I seriously liked the drama between the characters, their intense desire to hold on to the love that it developing between them and the little bit of good fortune that comes their way.
WORTH MENTIONING: This book was previously published in the early 1990s.
CONNECTED BOOKS: STAR-CROSSED LOVERS is book 5 in the Once Upon a Time series (although it was published 6th). The series is only loosely connected by the matchmaker who briefly appears in each book so each book can be read as a standalone.
STAR RATING: I give this book 4.5 stars.