By Love or By Sea by Rachel Rager

This week I’m happy to share my review of By Love of By Sea by Rachel Rager.

In case you can’t tell, it’s another one of those sweet romances. Note to self: review a mystery or comedy soon, before I go into sweetness overload. ;)

I was off to a slow start with By Love or By Sea. I liked the introduction well enough; the premise was sound and intriguing in its way. But I can’t say that I got the whole “can’t speak his/her name” thing. It felt rather forced to me, or maybe I’m just dense and clueless to the superstitions of the time. Despite that little hiccup, once all introductions were formally made to the reader I found it much easier to become involved in the characters. By Love or By Sea proved to be an easy, clean, and enjoyable escape for me.

The basic plot line is just what you’d expect: good girl with the wrong guy, enter the right guy. Personal and emotional struggles ensue; you worry and pine with the characters, but know there will always be a happy ending. Rachel Rager definitely lives up to her promise of sweet kisses. I loved the chemistry she managed to portray without being graphic or vulgar. Great job, Rachel!

I also had complete admiration for her heroine, Alice. Despite her tendency to get herself into mortal peril (as every good romantic heroine should), she was spunky, happy, and had a loving, pure heart that let her see good where most would never think to look.

Now for the totally nit-picky whines. Don’t judge the book too harshly for them though because they were totally out of the author’s control and had nothing to do with the meat of the book.

First: I loved the cover, you can't tell so much from the picture, but I thought it was beautiful. Didn’t care for the title.

Second: Every time I came across a new chapter heading I was sure my son’s pet spider had escaped and gotten himself squashed between the pages. The headings were over-the-top loopy and flamboyant. To me, they were distracting. But then again, not every one let’s their kids keep pet spiders in danger of escaping at any moment. . .

See, I told you they were nit-picky. Overall, I found By Love or By Sea to be a very satisfying first book for Rachel. She has a flare for good clean romance that can only get better with future projects. Keep going Rachel, your readers will thank you for it!

Here’s a note from Rachel about her By Love or By Sea blog tour:

“Let your readers know that if they leave a comment on your review, or become a follower of my blog, they will be entered in a drawing for an autographed copy of the book. They can comment on more than one review and become a follower and be entered multiple times.”

If you’ve read it, stop by Rachel’s blog or website to offer your own hurrahs! I know she’ll appreciate it. Oh, and don’t forget to leave a comment here, as well, to be entered in the drawing for your own copy!