Lynn Spencer - All About Romance

I read this book for the 2012 TBR Challenge, and I'd give it 4.5 stars if I could. I read across a wide variety of genres, so choosing a non-romance book for this month’s TBR Challenge proved rather tricky. In the end, I went with a mystery, because I really wanted to get back into Karin Fossum’s Inspector Sejer series. Set in rural Norway, this series follows Inspector Sejer on his investigations and stands apart from many other mystery series in that it focuses much more on the psychology and the human side of the various crimes presented. The Indian Bride comes 4th in the portion of the series that is available in English, but it works well as a standalone. Though it starts off slowly, this book still holds the attention and as it progresses, it becomes almost compulsively readable. It’s not the most exquisitely perfect mystery I’ve ever read, but I’d give it a very solid B+.The book centers around Gunder Jomann, a shy, simple salesman from a small Norwegian village. The middle-aged bachelor Gunder is spellbound by the beauty of the Indian women he sees in books and finally one day he decides to travel to India and hopefully meet a woman to marry. He lives simply, so he has enough money saved up for the trip and he even purchases a beautiful silver filigree brooch to give his future bride. This part of the story moves slowly, but it’s beautifully written and there is a poignant quality about Gunder’s search for love. Even though he’s obviously not the sharpest knife in the drawer, the author shows him to be such a goodhearted man that it’s almost impossible not to like him or at least have sympathy for him.This is a partial review. You can find the full text on the All About Romance blog: http://www.likesbooks.com/blog/?p=8862