Wednesday, May 16, 2018

My Bookshelf: A Most Noble Heir by Susan Anne Mason

Will gaining the world cost him everything he holds most dear?
When stable hand Nolan Price learns from his dying mother that he is actually the son of the Earl of Stainsby, his plans for a future with kitchen maid Hannah Burnham are shattered. Once he is officially acknowledged as the earl’s heir, Nolan will be forbidden to marry beneath his station.
Unwilling to give up the girl he loves, he devises a plan to elope—believing once their marriage is sanctioned by God that Lord Stainsby will be forced to accept their union. However, as Nolan struggles to learn the ways of the aristocracy, he finds himself caught between his dreams for tomorrow and his father’s demanding expectations.
Forces work to keep the couple apart at every turn, and a solution to remain together seems farther and farther away. With Nolan’s new life pulling him irrevocably away from Hannah, it seems only a miracle will bring them back together.

 
A Most Noble Heir is a stand-alone novel, and is actually the second one of Susan Anne Mason’s books that I have ever read. I borrowed Irish Meadows from the library awhile back, and really enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to reading this story, especially once I learned I would get to be a part of its promotion. However, I was a little disappointed with what I found in this novel. While I thought it had a cute storyline, and was looking forward to seeing how everything would end, I unfortunately found the plot to be a little less developed than I would like. It was somewhat predictable, with seemingly underdeveloped characters and slightly stilted conversation. Although I absolutely hate having to say anything critical about something someone else has written, especially when I had such high hopes for it, I can’t be anything less than honest about my opinion.
While the beginning of this story went by pretty quickly—there were so many events that happened throughout the first set of chapters—the rest of the plot seemed to be a little bit slow going. And, since the synopsis on the back already spilled the beans about the hasty marriage, I felt like I was robbed the chance to experience that aspect of the story as an unexpected twist, which would have been a better way to experience it, in my opinion. I would’ve enjoyed being able to find more unexpected twists and turns rather than the predictableness that this novel started to turn into.
Enough of the negativity. Suffice it to say, this novel was not my favorite. However, it did have some amiable qualities; while it was somewhat predictable once I got into it, this story was different from any other I have ever read. Besides that, the climactic ending was a little bit surprising, while also slightly unbelievable, and I did enjoy getting to know all of the characters. All in all, I would give this novel 3 ½ out of five bookshelves, though since I typically don’t do halves (because what good is half of a bookshelf?) I would say I can somewhat comfortably round it up to four out of five, because I still do like to be positive.
Happy reading!




I received a copy of this novel through the Litfuse Publicity Group in exchange for only my honest review.

To see where I’m linking up, check out my Where I Party page.

All credit for the italicized synopsis goes to Susan Anne Mason and Bethany House Publishers.

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