Book Review: Cottage by the Sea

Author: Ciji Ware 

Title: Cottage by the Sea

Description: As the book opens, Blythe Barton Stowe is finalizing her divorce from her film director husband, who indicated his dissatisfaction with their marriage by getting her sister pregnant. She escapes the paparazzi by fleeing to Cornwall, where her family claims they originated. Stunned by the betrayal, she engrosses herself in planning a business with her new landlord, Lucas Teague. Meanwhile, she finds that Lucas has an ancestor who shares her name, and before she knows it, she is travelling back in time to share the experiences of the first Blythe Barton. Blythe’s time travelling experiences, her romance with Lucas, and her eventual confrontation with her ex-husband and her sister make up the plot of the novel.

Review source: this was a free book for kindle.

Plot: The most interesting part of the book for me was the business that Lucas and Blythe started. I’ll bet that wasn’t supposed to be the most interesting part. The time travel was interesting, since the reader really wasn’t sure what would happen—the modern-day Blythe only viewed events as if they were a movie; she didn’t participate in them.

Characters: The historical love triangle featured three really nasty characters who were difficult to care about, while Blythe and Lucas weren’t nasty, but they also weren’t really interesting.  Lucas’ relationship with his 10 year old son Richard provided some relief from boredom, as did the nasty Chloe, rival for Lucas’ affections.

Writing style: the author seemed to have an agenda promoting some weird DNA inheritance theory (i.e. Blythe’s troubles were partly caused by her ancestress’ flaws); too much print was wasted on this. Just call it bad karma and move along. Also, Blythe is from Wyoming, and the frequent “Wyomingisms” that she spouts are a bit much.

Audience: I had this book in the “fiction” folder on my kindle, but it was more of a romance.

Wrap-up: If you are a total sucker for time-travel romance, or romance of women who are betrayed by their own sisters, this book is for you. Otherwise, probably not. 2/5*

I'm claiming this book for three reading challenges: the new author challenge (1/15), the unread books challenge, and the Why Buy the Cow challenge.