Dogwood Hill (Chesapeake Shores)

by Sherryl Woods

[Berls]

This review appeared first at Fantasy is More Fun.

I really enjoyed Dogwood Hill and, even though its book #12 in the series, it worked well as a standalone. I loved the small town charm and the characters were really enjoyable.

So why 3 stars? The plot. It's a straightforward enough romance and that, in of itself, is fine. But the whole plot revolves around the keeping of secrets and the consequences - and I'm never a fan of unnecessary secret keeping just for a plot device. Now, I won't say that these were entirely unnecessary - but they did drag on beyond necessary limits and had reactions that just felt too over done to me.

But that wasn't enough to take away my enjoyment - I just did some eye rolling and muttering under my breath. Mostly I just enjoyed being inserted into this small, close knit town. I enjoyed the family interactions and the inevitable well-intentioned busy bodies.

The audio was also pretty good - Christina Traister has a pretty good range of voices and even some accents. My one complaint was that Aiden (the male MC) often sounded very monotone. Which, I suppose could be a personality trait - but how boring! And I didn't think it fit. It was weird, since she had really good inflection for pretty much everyone else (and it wasn't all the time).

If you're looking for a quick, sweet small-town romance, I think you'd enjoy this, as long as you have tolerance for weaker plot devices.