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| Cover retrieved from Goodreads page |
The Innocent is a western YA romance novel.
My Goodreads review can be found here.
As per usual, anything that does not directly relate to the topic at hand will be written in this color.
*Please excuse the weird formatting. Google does google things when I format this one and this one only; no matter how many times I delete and do a new post it still won't format correctly*
I love westerns. I'm not sure if it's due to all of the westerns my paternal grandfather used to watch or due to how it can be a blank canvas for many subgenres, but I love them. If you want some show recs for cute and (mostly) family-friendly westerns shows, hit me up. However, I do find them easier to watch than I do to read. If I read a western, the story has to be heavily western or just a western backdrop with a focus on the subgenres to keep me engaged.
This was able to keep my attention and yet be in the middle; the story was western but wasn't heavy and yet was more western than it was not. I appreciated that Ms. Whisper was able to balance this difficult task of keeping the western genre but not allowing it to become too technical.
One of the strongest points of this story is the pacing. I know how tempting it can be to add all of the scenes with your favorite characters, but, for the sake of the reader and the review they will leave, one needs to edit down any unnecessary scenes. Ms. Whisper has used text breaks to not only edit down some of the unnecessary scenes, but also give the pacing a sense of urgency when needed. Though I have more thoughts on this technique later, it is something I haven't seen too often and felt was done pretty well.
That urgency is a big part of what makes this story work. The reader knows the MC is under a deadline, which means there should be some urgency to his actions. If there wasn't any urgency, then it would be a slow read. One can understand what the MC is feeling when one sees how fast that deadline is approaching.
The characters are interesting in that they not only have a nice balance to each other, but also are characters to themselves. Harvey is innocent in his interactions with others, trying to believe the best in others, and Abigail is intense, keeping her guard up so that she isn't taken advantage of.
Towards the end of the book, they are working together to reach a common goal (#NoSpoilers). This solidification of how they balance and work well with each other is a nice touch to counteract the extremes they were at the beginning of the book.
They are also not joined at the hip, which is a nice change; some westerns have the characters unable to be separate entities with separate likes and dislikes. While the reader doesn't get to see much of Abigail's likes, one does get to see Harvey with friends and basically mentoring a young boy. Those scenes are absolutely adorable and help make Harvey more relatable.
Yes, I do know Abigail is considered a MC, but I personally felt that there was more focus on Harvey, which makes her a secondary MC.
As mentioned above, western stories are a nice canvas to mix subgenres. However, adding tropes to the mix of subgenres is a great way to add depth to said canvas. Enemies to lovers (or in this case, enemies to cautious acquaintances to dating) is an interesting choice for a western, but I believe this fits well. Due to the hardship of the time, the principle of enemies to lovers works in western stories and Ms. Whisper has done the g-rated version well; I normally hate E2L but because of how it was adjusted, I wanted to continue reading and know what happened next.
Finally, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate something that Ms. Whisper did. I have noticed in Christian/Clean Indie community that there is a fear about having characters be attracted to one another and an even bigger fear for the characters to acknowledge it. Ms. Whisper has done a great job of having both of these things happen while still keeping it appropriate. This is a good study if one is looking for ways to keep a balance of being clean yet understanding that attraction is a necessary part of a relationship that is both realistic and long-lasting.
Though I loved this, I do find a few things to be ???. For one, the subject matter that is dealt with is on the darker side, but the way it is dealt with tends to be more lighthearted. One one hand, that is nice so it's not overwhelming, but on the other, I do think if one is going to market darker subject matter there should be an emphasis on said subject, even for just a little bit.
While the text breaks allow for a nice pacing and keeps some of the unnecessary scenes away, I did find that once you hit the second half of the story, there are almost no text breaks and therefore some of the scenes are slower or feel less important. I felt that the second half had a slight tendency to drag. This may be a consequence of relying too heavily on the text breaks for the first half. I still enjoy the technique but feel that it was slightly out of balance from the first half to the second.
My last point is that the prayers, while emotionally appropriate for characters and situations, are somewhat clunky. I know it's extremely difficult to write prayers in fiction that sound natural, but these could have used some extra TLC.
I did enjoy reading this and I look forward to continuing the series. If you want to start reading westerns that aren't too stereotypical but still has the feeling, this is a great book to start with.
****
For the final week of Indie April, I'll be reviewing Befriending the Beast by Amanda Tero and Fanny's Hope Chest by Sarah Holman. Come join me!
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