Love on a Dime Book Review

Title: Love on a Dime.

Author: Cara Lynn James.

Genre: Christian, Romance, Historical Setting, Rhode Island.

Plot: Lilly Westbrook is a lady of society, keeping up with the latest fashions and attending numerous parties hosted by the elite of society in bustling Newport, Rhode Island in 1899. But secretly, Lilly earns her own income by shutting herself away in her bedroom and furiously typing out dime novels under the name of Fannie Cole. Little did she know when she first set pen to paper that her stories would soar to the top of the popularity charts, though of course, no respectable member of society would darn get caught reading such “trash,” let alone writing it.

But when Lilly’s world is flipped upside down by the sudden and unexpected arrival of her former sweetheart, Jackson Grail, who vanished the same night he secretly proposed to her six years ago, Lilly fears her secret will come to light. And what with a blackmailer sniffing around, her flirtatious sister-in-law threatening social damage and her current beau about to propose, Lilly begins to wonder if she’s in over her head.

Likes/Dislikes: So I admittedly wanted to read this book mainly because it was set in Rhode Island, and partly because the main character is a writer. And while the first quarter of the book was very interesting and set the plot up pretty well, the rest of the book really lagged and left me bored, disappointed and mildly frustrated. There was a sad lack of historical detail about Rhode Island – the characters never discussed current historical events or even left their pretty little mansions for long. It was all gossip and repeated bland information. Oh my gosh, the repetitiveness of everything! Lilly whined so much about her stupid reputation and how her family would react to finding out she was a writer that I wanted to slap her. Jack was a really interesting character except for the fact that he whined a little too much about Lilly being, well Lilly, and that she wouldn’t let him help her – which was stupid. She should’ve accepted his help a long time ago and trusted that he would take care of her. The ending seemed very slap-dash, though I was skimming by then, and I seriously doubt everyone would be all happy-happy and have everything mostly resolved the way it was portrayed in the story. This was just a big disappointment for me. It was fun to read some of the more flowery passages to my husband and watch him roll his eyes though.

Rating: PG-14 and up, it’s a very clean though bland story.

Date Review Written: July 6, 2015.