Books Read in 2016: ‘Out of the Storm’ by Jody Hedlund (3 stars)

My Review:
From the wonderful things I’ve heard about Jody Hedlund’s writing, I have to think that this might not have been the best example of it.

While I thought the setting and premise were well conceived, I unfortunately did not much like any of the three characters who appear in the book. Isabelle is a perfect Pollyanna with little depth; Henry was a poorly drawn character who was supposed to be a redeemable rake but came across as more of an immature, party boy frat-bro; and Isabelle’s father was a caricature—supposed to be a loving, over-protective father but acting more like a cartoonishly evil bad guy.

While many of the scenes between Henry and Isabella were fun to read, and their banter was enjoyable, too much time in this short novella was given over to Henry’s bad boy antics—and in his trying to draw Isabelle into his attitude of fun before work—for me to believe his turnaround into someone who would work hard and rise up to the level of morals and ethics that Isabelle supposedly had. (Though with as naive and sheltered as she was, these were things that were learned habits and not necessarily something that came from deep within since she’d never actually experienced or done anything that would make her have to make choices based on an internal moral compass.) It was unfortunate that the time in which Henry was actually experiencing character growth was just glossed over briefly in the narrative. It’s hard to believe a change is real when I, as the reader, don’t actually get to see it happening on the page and am just told that it’s happening by the author.