| Title: A Creed in Stone Creek Author(s): Linda Lael Miller Rating: D- |
I have two things to say before I explain why I thought this book was bad. First, I like series–I like to get to know my characters before they have their own book, I like that I get to see what happens to my characters after their book and one of the strong things about Linda Lael Miller is that she uses a lot of the same characters due to her McKettrick series. I also love Linda Lael Miller in particular, mostly because I like westerns and I can always count on her to write them.
What went wrong with this book is what usually goes wrong with series. A good romance series is connected but books should stand alone and this didn’t happen. Melissa O’Ballivan didn’t work as a character because I feel like I was obligated to read her siblings’ books to understand her. I also have a very big problem with her occupation — Miller writes Melissa as Maricopa County prosecutor, who has very little to do at all the entire day. That doesn’t work for me and Miller should know better. It’s her misfortune that I was watching an episode of Cold Case Files the day after reading this book and saw Maricopa County’s District Attorney’s office interviewed and saw that were many people involved in the office and that Scottsdale and Phoenix are part of the county. It’s population is over 3 million. It’s office wouldn’t be in Stone Creek, AZ and Melissa would have more to do. If it’s just a satellite office and she’s one of many attorneys, fine. But that’s now Miller’s Melissa O’Ballivan is written.
So the heroine is weakly written and kind of just walks through the book. The hero is even worse. There’s too much about his cute adopted son, his cute adopted dog, and his complicated family. He doesn’t like strong female lawyers because of a past relationship. And what’s all I know about Steven Creed. Oh, and he’s sexy.
I never saw relationship that was more than physical in nature. I never saw why Melissa would decide to marry Steven over a past relationship. I didn’t understand why Miller wrote a conflict between the two with Melissa as prosecutor and Steven as a defense attorney, and rather than have them work it out, Melissa decides she’ll change her job after her term is over. That’s not much of a strong female character.
The ending is rushed, as if Miller realized she had about two chapters to get these two together and instead of fixing the conflict, she just eliminates it. I didn’t really get that Melissa was all that disatisfied with her job, so her decision to change it based on a guy she doesn’t know that well isn’t satisfying.
I love Linda Lael Miller, but the only thing this book did was set up books for Steven’s family and tie up the last unmarried O’Ballivan. The only aspect I enjoyed was the subplot of Byron Cahill’s redemption, but even that was relegated to the background and not well dealt with.
It’s such a disappointment to me and I know Miller can be better than this.
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