On Movie Making: A Review of A Woman's Heart by JoAnn Ross

Today seems like a good day to visit Ireland. Here we meet Nora Fitzpatrick, a widow who runs a farm and a large family. She somewhat reluctantly rents a room in her own out to Quinn, a writer who has come to help work on a film that's being made in the town. Quinn is a loner, and normally resistant to all things hearth and home, but he finds himself drawn into involvement with the lives of the family, and very attracted to Nora herself.

The town and the characters are charming enough. I really liked Nora's family, although some of the children stray into plot moppet territory a time or two. I thought Quinn was very sweet with them. So sweet, in fact, that I had trouble buying the idea that he's a loner who has never experienced or wanted love.

Nora and Quinn work well as a couple, though I found nothing particularly remarkable or memorable about there dialogue, sexual chemistry, or the story of how they end up together. The book is held back by a bland safeness and predictability. It's a comfortable romance, but not one that's likely to stick with me

One thing I did really enjoy was the casual acceptance of the possibility of magic and fantastical creatures. Not so much as to make this a PNR, but enough to lend the setting a mysterious kind of quality. I'd be willing to read more of the trilogy because of the setting alone.

Overall, I wasn't overly impressed by this novel, but I also wasn't terribly annoyed or disappointed in it. If you like quiet contemporary romance in an Irish setting, you could do worse. 3 stars.