A review by lsneal
The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb

2.0

There were aspects of this book that I found very enjoyable...the way the city of York was brought to life as almost another character in the book, for example. Also, this is one of those mysteries where you know immediately WHO did it, but the hero does not, and must work at discovering both who and why. Those types of mysteries are often tricky, because there is a danger the reader will grow bored waiting for the detective to catch on. I wasn't terribly bored with this one, but I found the hero to be a little dense and clumsy in his efforts...most of the interest came from the other characters involved, frankly. I also didn't care for the romance element to the story. It was a classic "hero and heroine fight constantly but secretly love each other" kind of thing. The fighting was constant and not particularly balanced by anything else, though, so I was left wondering what in the world these people saw in each other aside from their respective hotness. Hotness is fine, of course, but it's hardly going to serve as a basis for me to become emotionally invested in those two crazy kids working things out and getting together.