Called Home by Gloria Schumann

From gloriaschumann.yolasite.com

SYNOPSIS
Emma Benson's view of life was crafted as a child by the death of her brother, the abandonment by her father and later, the man she trusted she would marry. A teacher by training, she forgoes her chosen path to save the Wisconsin farm she calls home from financial ruin.
A tornado threatens damage, but David Schlosser—back in town after years in New York writing best-selling novels—could ruin her neatly tended life. He's looking for the charms of the small town he once rejected and finds more than he bargained for. He risks everything to get what he wants.
The storms of life throw Emma and David together and into the world of a criminal determined to ruin their plans by any means necessary. Robbery and near death connect Emma and David to their nemesis and during the throes of securing life and limb they make every effort to resist falling for one another.

*Some mild spoilers included! Don't read on if you want to read this book!*

I'm sorry, folks - I'm gonna hafta say it - I really did not enjoy this book. =( I had a hard time with the writing itself. There was about 1 sentence on every page that I had to go back and read again to catch the meaning of it. That doesn't mean that it wasn't written correctly or that it was bad, it just didn't click in my mind, and that made it very frustrating to get through the story. I felt like the whole book was very disjointed. For instance, after the threats start coming David decides he's going to move in with the Benson's to protect them. It's portrayed in the book that he just thinks of this as he's picking her up from work to drive her home, but once he's there he's magically got pajamas and a toothbrush. Not a big thing, but I kept trying to figure out where it all came from. Then with the land sale, I hated the whole deal. We know from the beginning that David is looking for land so he can move back to town. And after he finally finds the right piece of land and tells Emma it's the land she just barely put up for sale, I wanted to scream "what land?" Emma never decides in the book to sell land and I felt like I missed half the story. And the same thing happens over and over where it just feels like we only get half the story, and it left me very frustrated.

I felt there was little character development. By the time I was in to the book 200 pages, I still had no idea who Emma was or why she was really back in town, or how old she even is. All I know is she speaks using big words (that sound totally fake - not that they aren't the right words, just not ones people use in every day conversation) and she's living at home with her mom. David was developed a little bit better and I got to "know" him a little better, but not much. Overall, I would have liked to have seen a lot more detail about some of the little things (like packing a bag to live with someone or a description of the spot on the river she wants to take him to) and not so much of the "I don't want to like you and I can't trust you so I'm going to deny all feelings I have for you until out of the blue I feel like flirting because I just can't deny that I have feelings for you" stuff, which happens on just about every page. It got very tedious. Very.

I am going to be kind and give this a 2 star rating. The mystery was at least good. Not very well written at times, and the climax was totally rushed, but the mystery was good. That's what gives it 2 stars. But if I rated it on the story overall, it would only get 1. I did read some reviews on Goodreads.com and there were some favorable ones. A lot of people liked this book, and you may, too. I just am very definitely not one of them.