Books*Reviews*Etc: NEVER DONE

NEVER DONE
by
Ginger Dehlinger

Number: B06X9LZQ4Z
Release: April 21, 2017
Author: Ginger Dehlinger
Availability: E-Book
Genre: Romance
Tags: * Rom: Historical
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.

Clara, ?14, and Geneva, ?16, are close friends until Geneva secretly marries Clara’s widowed father. Feeling betrayed by her pa and a girl she idolizes, Clara wants nothing to do with her new young stepmother. Geneva retaliates, beginning a clash of wills that lasts from 1884 to the flu epidemic of 1918. Years go by without them speaking to one another. Geneva, bolder of the two, lives a life of ease in elegant homes with piped water and domestic help. She shops for the latest in women’s fashions and plays pinochle with lady friends. For spite, Clara marries a handsome cowboy Geneva fancies, but ends up living in a freezing cold cabin and a house infested with bugs. She takes in ironing and feeds miners to make ends meet, discovering love and purpose in the process. It takes a tragedy to bring her and her family together again. Can she and Geneva see this as an opportunity to put aside the past? Can they salvage a relationship that was once the center of their world? (from Night Owl Reviews)

MY THOUGHTS

What happens to a friendship when your father marries your friend? How does Clara, 14, feel when her father marries her friend, Geneva who is only 16. Clara is hurt, she feels turned on. Now her once friend is her stepmother and Clara wants her gone. Hates her. This puts Geneva on the defense. They are constantly against each other and this lasts a long time. From 1884 to 1918. They haven't spoken to each other in years. Their lives are totally different. Geneva lives an easy life with all the modern conveniences of the time, even indoor piped water. She has people who do all the work around the house. She wears the most modern clothes and has a busy social life, while things turn out different for Clara. She marries a hunk of a cowboy, that Geneva has an eye for. But the best laid out plans don't always end up that way. Clara ends up in a cold, cold cabin that is full of bugs. In order to survive, she takes in ironing and cooks for the miners. She find out some things about herself through these troubled times. It ends up taking a tragedy to put the past aside and become family again. BUT can Clara and Geneva do this, or do they even want to try? Is what was once a close friendship heal and become that way again? OR is it gone forever?
The author gives you characters you can hate one minute and through the pages you learn to love them. Clara being the main character is well developed and you can't help but admire her qualities. She is a hard worker, has a strong will and lots of strength. You want so badly for her to be happy. I wasn't as intrigued by Geneva. She was seen more by what the people around her saw of her. I wish there had been more of Geneva, the real Geneva brought out by the events that took place in her life. Geneva is the one I started out disliking but as time went on, I felt she fell into the easy life and was living it to the fullest. She was young and maybe she wasn't mature enough to handle it properly. On top of that the marriage was an arranged marriage, not out of love but convenience. The book is about friends, family, the betrayals, loss and choices that were made. I would have liked to see the good points of Geneva. She could have been written as an interesting character through her own eyes. I wonder if Clara knew the marriage was arranged? If she did, could she have handles the situation a little better? The author gave good, developed characters, the story was well plotted. Descriptions of the characters and the scenes were good. You got to visualize the mining towns, you could almost picture the cold cabin that Clara lived in and her washing and ironing the miner's clothes, but my whole problem was with Geneva. I wanted more about her, not what others thought, but how she felt about everything. Maybe there will be another book that details Geneva more, making her the center of the book. We'll see.

I received a copy of this book from the author and Night Owl Reviews and voluntarily decided to review it.

I would give this book 4.5 STARS.