LOVE IN THE LIBRARY, book five in The Brides of Bath series by Cheryl Bolen, is a sweet and easy to read romantic mystery, but lacks the depth and dimension to be enjoyable as such. I give it three stars for being too obvious.
In the novel, widowed Catherine Bexley is frantic to locate her late husband's only treasure, an extremely rare manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Having been left nothing but the book by her spendthrift late husband, Catherine hopes to sell the manuscript and live frugally off the proceeds for the rest of her life. The only problem is that the manuscript has been stolen.
Meanwhile, the bank has given her a two-week notice of foreclosure and eviction, and she is being pursued by the dreadfully dull and socially inept Mr. Longford, who has been in love with her since before her marriage. Having no idea how to go about finding the stolen manuscript, Catherine offers fifteen percent of the manuscript's sale price to Mr. Melvin Steffington, the younger twin to Sir Elvin Steffington and holder of a doctorate in classical literature from Oxford, to help her find it.
I have been looking forward to LOVE IN THE LIBRARY since I finished the last book in The Brides of Bath series. I love this series, but I was so annoyed by Catherine Bexley's giggling that I had a difficult time getting through this installment. Catherine is twenty-seven years old, but acts like she is thirteen. I understand the concept of a "location joke" for which you have to be at a particular location at a particular time to understand the humor, but there was not enough description of the setting and situation to transport the reader to the location. Hence, much of what Catherine felt was funny did not seem even remotely humorous to me.
I also correctly identified the thief in the first few chapters. It is always disappointing to guess "who dunnit" so early because it means that for the rest of the novel, I am bothered by the characters' failure to consider the motives of all the people in Catherine's world and figure it out. My early revelation also caused the pace to feel slow, and even though the overall plot is interesting, I felt like the character development was lacking.
Overall, this fifth installation in The Brides of Bath series feels like it is more appropriate for the young adult market. While the writing isn't bad, it just feels too simple to be written for an adult audience.
** Review originally written for The Romance Reviews.com at http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooks.php?bookid=12542.
