OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "I Found My Heart In Prague" by Colleen Michaels.]

“My entire life used to be about making it to the pros and getting good grades,” I said. “While those things benefited me, I never really lived.”

In the contemporary romance I Found My Heart in Prague by Colleen Michaels, a rich, famous, and terminally ill young man, Christopher, decides to spend the rest of his life actually living. He leaves the United States and heads overseas, where he meets and is intrigued by a beautiful and adventurous young woman, Winter. Winter is up for embarking on a new friendship with Christopher and accompanies him across Europe. Yet, as Christopher falls for Winter and wants nothing more than to share the remainder of his limited time with her, he may have to risk losing her first.

Noteworthy from early on in the novel is the nature of the first-person narration. Christopher tells his story with flavor and dashes of humor—sometimes dry, sometimes not so dry—and he has no qualms about addressing the reader directly. The author carefully uses this conversational approach to shift the reader’s perspective of the story by degrees as it unfolds.

It may seem for a while that this is a romance in which Winter will call all of the shots and Christopher will comply, but there does turn out to be "give and take" on both sides of the relationship. Toward the last third or quarter of the novel, I thought the story might wind up wading too long in one emotional place with nowhere new to go. Nevertheless, the novel ultimately makes its way to a distinctive finish.

The different tones and moods in the story come through well in most of the scenes. However, I wasn’t able to get a clear sense of the tone during some of the novel’s events, perhaps the more abrupt ones. At times, the characters would have fairly sudden displays of intense or deep feelings, but I didn’t always feel drawn into that emotion without more of a lead-in or a gradual build-up.

There are some grammar and punctuation errors in the book: “then” used in the place of “than,” questions in the dialogue ending with commas instead of question marks, the word “fiancé” (a masculine term) used to refer to a woman instead of “fiancée” (the feminine term), and other issues. However, the technical errors weren’t so glaring or numerous as to ruin the flow of the story itself.

Overall, I give I Found My Heart in Prague a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. Even with its minor shortcomings, this is a touching and life-affirming romance, uniquely told. I’d recommend it to love story readers in the mood for something that isn’t necessarily steamy but is full of heart.

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I Found My Heart In Prague
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Very detailed and great review! You make it sound really easy to fall in love with this book.

erasmus wrote:Very detailed and great review! You make it sound really easy to fall in love with this book.

Thank you! Yes, it's VERY rare that I read a whole novel in one day, but once I started reading this one, it was a wrap. Had to finish the whole thing that day.

Great review! Isn't it wonderful when you love a book so much that you just can't put it down? I have to say that I giggled a little while reading your review due to the character's name, Winter. I used to work with a woman whose married name was Winter. Her first name was one of the months, and she also named her daughter another month.

Thanks! I must admit that my mind defaulted to the season a few times, even with the capital "W." The protagonist would be saying something about Winter, and weather and nature imagery would start forming in my imagination. Then I'd remind myself, "Oh, yeah, not the season. The person."

Great review. It was really well thought out. Was this book kind of like the romances by Debbie Macomber? From your description, it sounds like the emotional pacing wasn't quite there, but it does sound like an interesting story.

~Thimble

Thimble wrote:Great review. It was really well thought out. Was this book kind of like the romances by Debbie Macomber? From your description, it sounds like the emotional pacing wasn't quite there, but it does sound like an interesting story.

~Thimble

Thank you for reading!

Romance wise, this one's not as sweet/clean as a Debbie Macomber novel, and this one does have some language that Macomber certainly wouldn't use. I'm the type of reader who abandons a book if its language or sexual content is too much for my sensibilities and tolerance level though, and this novel wasn't too much for me along those lines. Pretty PG-13 rated.

Thank you for reading!

Romance wise, this one's not as sweet/clean as a Debbie Macomber novel, and this one does have some language that Macomber certainly wouldn't use. I'm the type of reader who abandons a book if its language or sexual content is too much for my sensibilities and tolerance level though, and this novel wasn't too much for me along those lines. Pretty PG-13 rated.[/quote]

Thank you for responding so quickly! If the story is well done then PG-13 might work. I might have to add this one to the stack of "to read".

Romance is not my preferred genre but you make this book sound so good!

Rachaelamb1 wrote:Romance is not my preferred genre but you make this book sound so good!

That's the trouble with reviews. They make a bookworm want to read everything when she already wants to read everything as it is.