Silent Night in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad

Oh my, remind me to never visit Dry Creek, I don't think I could stand it. What a terribly boring story. I just couldn't bring myself to like it at all.

Due to some stupid mistakes in her past, Jasmine is an ex-con. But she's out now, she's learned her lesson, and she's even found acceptance in the church. Not to mention she found her long lost father in Dry Creek and he's accepted her wholeheartedly. So when she hears from her ex-boyfriend, who got her into prison in the first place, she's very frightened. Which brings in lawman Wade who is recovering from an injury. The townspeople think he'd be the perfect person to guard Jasmine and keep her safe. But the personalities of the two tend to clash, and he's not real thrilled with being back in Dry Creek anyway.

These characters have way too much drama and strife and they tend to forget the drama as quick as they bring it up anyway. Jasmine does not seem like a 43 year old. Actually she kind of acts like an idiot, a very young idiot. Her character just wasn't very realistic. Then there's Wade, he's pretty much cardboard. Not a whole lot of substance going on there. And the townspeople are unconvincing as well.

First off, a plot to pay a healing lawman to follow a girl around is very shallow. Luckily they drop that idea pretty quick, although it is strange it doesn't get mentioned past the few first pages of the book really. Then we lead in to the fact that the rest of the plot is basically about a Christmas pageant. And by the sounds of it, not even a very good one. It simply wasn't interesting. The ex boyfriend being threatening is something, but in the end very anti-climactic. I also just didn't get the romance between the two main characters. There really isn't any chemistry there and they could have been brother and sister the way they acted around each other. Since this is a Love Inspired book, there is quite a bit of Christian aspects to the book, which, considering its about a Christmas pageant makes sense. And nothing goes beyond a few steamy kisses.

Not very good, but at least it was a quick read. I think I'll try to avoid other romances by this author.

Silent Night in Dry Creek
Copyright 2009
205 pages