The Water Nymph by Michelle Jaffe

I’d like to start this with the fact that I am not a professional book reviewer and I never will be. Let this be known, and I shall carry on.

It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a book and sat down long enough to read it, but night shift work now allows me to do this. The book I decided to bury my nose in was “The Water Nymph” by Michelle Jaffe. I found it in a thrift store, as I often do for most of my collection. I never know if I pick up popular books or not, and don’t do much research until I start reading. I’m one of those people who pick up a book that looks interesting, read the book summary or open it and pick a random paragraph. If it peaks my interest it comes home with me to sit on my shelf until I get around to reading it, but enough about me, onto the book. Beware of possible spoilers.

It’s a historical fiction. It takes place during the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I. It’s filled with mystery, romance, deceit, and humor. The timespan within the book I believe is only about two weeks.

She writes well, but can be a bit hasty at times, and dare I say a bit cheesy. I’m a slow burn kind of romance reader so the sudden emergence of emotions was a bit off putting to me, but I followed through to the end nonetheless.

She had a way of painting vivid scenes and interesting characters. I could see it like a movie playing in my head. The most interesting parts were to do with the action and mystery for me. The romance, as I said before, came quickly and…extremely detailed, but hey, a lot of people like this so don’t let my preferences dissuade you.

I found the situations the characters got themselves into highly entertaining, but the main female’s personality to be contradicting. She would be described one way, but throughout the book her choices and dialogue would suggest otherwise, but I looked past it.

If you like wit, heavy romance, and the renaissance era you’d probably love this book. Were the sexual scenes not so graphic I’d say this could have been written and more geared toward a teen audience. Anyways, overall I was satisfied and found myself entertained.

On to the next!