Starfinder

Potter's newest reads as slowly as a bottle of thick molasses turned on its side--and is also among the most depressing romances this year. After being branded a traitor by the English and indentured to the colonies, Ian Sutherland is bought by the dying John Marsh, who is looking for someone to save his wife, Fancy, his children and his land from the clutches of his dastardly brother Robert. (Potter is to be commended for the somewhat unusual device of a loving first husband who brings a new man to care for his family.) John dies, and though Ian is desperate to return to Scotland, he is drawn into the Marsh clan by their goodness and their love. He and Fancy marry to protect her good name and John's legacy, but their feelings for one another make the marriage real. Although Potter (Starcatcher, Diablo) injects some humor into the story with a menagerie of oddly named animals (Unsatisfactory the cat and Trouble the crow), the bleakness of the narrative and its slow pace render this book a very difficult read. (Nov.)