The Dangers of Doing Good

Arrangements, Book 4

By: Rebecca Connolly

Narrated by: Jessica Elisa Boyd

Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

The road to love is paved with good intentions.

Life had never been particularly kind to Annie Ramsey. She was poor, uneducated, and without any prospects except misery and pain at the hands of her brother, or whomever he decides she ought to marry. But when a handsome, kind stranger offers her another way, she must decide if she is brave enough to change her situation or if she dares to hope for more.

Duncan Bray could not resist the urge to help the young woman he found in the wintery chill of Yorkshire, feeling driven to save her from the dismal life she lived. Taking her to London and introducing her to a new life there would provide opportunities for her beyond what she ever could have imagined. But he never dreamed how this particular good deed would change everything for him as well.

©2016 Rebecca Connolly (P)2018 Rebecca Connolly

Unrealistic Plot; Love Story Dragged On & On

I wanted to like this book, I really did. (Duncan is such a caring man ... I was initially enchanted by his gentle love for sweet Annie.) But the plot line ended up being too unrealistic for me, and the love story dragged on and on and on and on. I almost didn't finish the book, and when I did, I was sorry I had.

Spoiler Alert: I just couldn't believe that a young woman from a small, poor town who had been mentally and emotionally abused for years (a decade?) and beaten almost daily by her brother could be transformed (a la "My Fair Lady") into a "Society Woman" in what I believe was less than 2 months time. I highly doubt that in this short time she could verbalize her thoughts and feelings articulately -- even be cognizant of them -- and sincerely love others in a healthy way. In reality, I suspect she would've needed years of intensive therapy to learn to recognize and then express her feelings and to be able to maintain stable and mutually-respectful relationships.

Another problem I had was that she had forgotten the basics of reading she learned as a child, but was able to re-learn them within a few weeks ... so much so that she could sit and enjoy reading books with others. And, in this short time, she ended up using words like "expeditious." How could she have achieved a vocabulary on this level in only a few months??

I also could hardly bear how often the two main characters could "hardly bear" their intense emotions toward each other. I started squirming every time "she looked into his eyes, which grew a shade darker, could feel her heart racing / butterflies swirling, and could hardly bear the love she felt for him" or something to that effect. It was hardly bearable.

And, lastly, the author must have thought that the final conversation between the newly married couple was some cute little banter when Duncan asked Annie if she "feared her husband." And, HE KEPT ASKING HER! So, to summarize ... he just saved her from a fresh and horrible kidnapping and beating by her brother and another evil man, after having saved her from a life of terror, only to marry her and now "playfully" ask her REPEATEDLY if she "feared" him?? This was NOT in the least bit appropriate, not to mention humorous or endearing. I found this to be ridiculous and a bit nauseating.

So, there you have it. I can't believe I listened to the whole thing ... sorry I did.

What Happened????

This book fell short of Connolly's other work I've read. The dialogue was repetitive (xx words used repeatedly in sentence groupings: *It was clearly time. He clearly knew that* Really?) And the plot? Where does one begin, or end for that matter? Anne/Annie/Annalise (yes she has three names which is less confusing than her character) - for some reason - suddenly decides to keep hidden the fact that she is receiving threatening messages from the villain (yep- there's a real bad guy too) when she has hitherto shared complete transparency with Duncan. Then, upon her - we knew it was coming - disappearance, or rather her volunteer kidnapping, Duncan sits around for a day and a half in self-pity before he considers that she might be in some kind of trouble which is only suggested by another character's insight as there are no lightbulbs going off in Duncan's head through the whole dreary tale. But both of these characters stupidity isn't the worst of the story. It was just bad-roll-your-eyes-writing all the way through - and I've read a lot of historical romance, i.e., a lot of cheesy stuff. This story and dialogue were just too awful to offer entertainment - even the light and mindless kind which might be why, an otherwise talented Jessica Elisa Boyd, read it so painfully bad.

something was off

The narrator's voice portrayed s sense of urgency that was not really there. I was annoyed the whole way because the characters totally ignored what annie wanted, bullied her into changing her self, forced her into pretending and then didn't take the danger to her too seriously

good stuff!

excellent character development very believable characters.. excellent narrator. One book in the series weaves well into another

Great book

She unfolds the characters beautifully. Have read all the books on this series. Can’t wait for the next one. Well worth the read.

Story to unrealisticfor me. Spoilers.

I like the characters and the series, but I agree with a previous review. The true romance of someone who has been so severely abused doesn't happen with a healthy relationship that quickly. It was fraught with some unrealistic details in the story line. I can't imagine any woman so severely beaten to be okay with marrying a man that night and being happy. It seemed like they wanted to finish up the story and just quickly put on an ending to get it over with. This story should've had the final scenes played out farther apart with more time for her to heal emotionally and at the very least physically before getting married. As well, I don't believe someone with Duncan's soft-hearted nature would've insisted on getting married that night. It was uncharacteristic of a man who truly loved a woman as he did. I still really enjoy the series. And I do like the characters. This story had just too many flaws for me to truly accept this as Annie and gentle Duncan's love story.

Fairy tale qualities

Parts of the narrative was good but several areas contained an unrealistic fairytale aspect. The protection and fight scenes involving Anna were especially pitiful.

Creepy narrator

The narrator has the masculine lead speaking in a whispery voice throughout the story. The feminine main character is shy and reticent. Boring read, creepy narration. I couldn’t stay awake to finish the book.

Love series, bummer ending

I love the characters in this whole series and this was no different. It was a precious and sweet story until literally the last chapter (spoiler). It was completely out of character for Duncan to suddenly take his hurt love to get married immediately and then their conversation at the end about fear just seemed heartless and made me sad. It was on of those way too soon moments. Will keep listening to future books because I adore the characters just super disappointed in last 2 chapters. It almost feels like someone else wrote them who hadn’t read the rest of the book.

Hated the character and story ,

Story so boring such a disappointment after previous in series. I fast forwarded to the last chapter just to finish it