The worlds of Canadian Rodeos and Surrey Village pubs combine in a transatlantic rom-com.
The worlds of Canadian Rodeos and Surrey Village pubs combine in a transatlantic rom-com. Ana and Crystal are cowgirl forces to be reckoned with. Hugh is a rakish British posh boy and Greg a veteran and now a publican and pyrotechnician. Ana requires Greg’s expertise for an event, causing them to meet at a glitzy event in London. Crystal and Hugh, looking for something new, cross paths in Kenya, volunteering at an orphanage. Lassoed by Fate has the potential to be an interesting transatlantic romance storyline joining together two unlikely communities. I’ve become used to romance series that focus on one couple at a time so it did take me a moment to get my head around the multiple characters and storylines that were unfolding. A part of this was that I found the writing didn’t have the most natural flow to it. I felt that there was a lot of “telling”, about the characters backstory, feelings and trajectory, and very little showing. Although much of this is crafted into conversations with other characters, it felt strange when considering that the characters would realistically be expected to know a lot of the information. There was a moment of sharing between Crystal and Hugh, where they share their past traumas with no acknowledgement of the other characters speech. It felt more like a battle and left me quite tense as opposed to seeing the start of a relationship develop and connecting to each of the characters. I did, however, like some of the turns of phrase used in the book, I thought “Canadian accent thick enough to be poured over pancakes” was a compelling metaphor. With Ana and Crystal’s laundry list of achievements, roles and jobs they became quite busy characters in a way that didn’t really feel believable and left me struggling to connect to them. I felt that perhaps too many different threads of storyline were moving at once, and perhaps separate storylines that followed a new thread of the character's personality may have been more effective for me as a reader. The same also goes for the events within the plot. I had expected more time to see Crystal and Hugh’s relationship develop in Kenya, but there’s a jump forward in time and then we’re introduced to a new storyline that the ranch is under threat. I felt like I couldn’t really settle into the story because I didn’t know whether the storyline would be built upon, or a new one was going to take the lead. I think the story of Lassoed by Fate is an interesting and entertaining idea, but unfortunately didn’t quite suit my personal reading tastes.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading Ambassador