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A review by adventurepanda
The Bargain by Mary Jo Putney
2.0
I got bored so I just looked up historical romance and this wasn’t on loan, and so I borrowed it. It wasn’t amazing but it wasn’t terrible either, tbh I just wanted to read a historical romance and this fit the bill.
As a whole, I did like the premise, it’s pretty unusual and original. In a genre where the books tend to be similar enough for me to confuse different book plots, that is definitely a plus. I also came to like Jocelyn and Sarah (although I don’t know if this was just because the latter character kept reminding me of Jenny from ‘Outlander’ who is a great character). My favourite character was probably the sort of dying main guy just because he seemed nice but considering I can’t remember his name he’s not as memorable as I thought.
This might turn into a 2 star read gah. The shifting perspectives got confusing, you’d have a few paragraphs following Jocelyn and main dude, and then it would suddenly change over to Sarah and Ian in the most inorganic way. I don’t mind a secondary romance but this felt forced in, I would have much preferred if it’s foundations had been built into this book and furthered in a sequel or something. The primary romance was also overshadowed by the uneven pacing. I have read books where the romance has only lasted a couple of months but, by the end, it feels like a lifetime and you believe that it will work out long term. This one had a longer time frame of about 6 months but it felt like they’d only been together for a month or so. At the time of reading, I did believe in the two of them, but reflecting on it in this review, they’re totally screwed. I don’t think they don’t know each other well enough because I don’t know them, even after the 300 or so pages I’ve spent with them.
Oh well, it was a pretty fun book. But while I was initially surprised by the relatively low reviews this has gotten, now that I’ve dug a little deeper into my experience of it, I get it. I might pick up this author again because from what I can see, people seem to think this is one of her weaker novels, but I won’t be reading from this series again.
As a whole, I did like the premise, it’s pretty unusual and original. In a genre where the books tend to be similar enough for me to confuse different book plots, that is definitely a plus. I also came to like Jocelyn and Sarah (although I don’t know if this was just because the latter character kept reminding me of Jenny from ‘Outlander’ who is a great character). My favourite character was probably the sort of dying main guy just because he seemed nice but considering I can’t remember his name he’s not as memorable as I thought.
This might turn into a 2 star read gah. The shifting perspectives got confusing, you’d have a few paragraphs following Jocelyn and main dude, and then it would suddenly change over to Sarah and Ian in the most inorganic way. I don’t mind a secondary romance but this felt forced in, I would have much preferred if it’s foundations had been built into this book and furthered in a sequel or something. The primary romance was also overshadowed by the uneven pacing. I have read books where the romance has only lasted a couple of months but, by the end, it feels like a lifetime and you believe that it will work out long term. This one had a longer time frame of about 6 months but it felt like they’d only been together for a month or so. At the time of reading, I did believe in the two of them, but reflecting on it in this review, they’re totally screwed. I don’t think they don’t know each other well enough because I don’t know them, even after the 300 or so pages I’ve spent with them.
Oh well, it was a pretty fun book. But while I was initially surprised by the relatively low reviews this has gotten, now that I’ve dug a little deeper into my experience of it, I get it. I might pick up this author again because from what I can see, people seem to think this is one of her weaker novels, but I won’t be reading from this series again.