An Uncertain Choice (An Uncertain Choice; book 1) by Jody Hedlund

The Synopsis:

Due to her parents’ promise at her birth, Lady Rosemarie has been prepared to become a nun on the day she turns eighteen. Then, a month before her birthday, a friend of her father’s enters the kingdom and proclaims her parents’ will left a second choice. If Rosemarie can marry before the eve of her eighteenth year, she will be exempt from the ancient vow.

Before long, Rosemarie is presented with the three most handsome and brave knights in the land. But when the competition for her heart seemingly results in a knight playing foul, she begins to wonder if the cloister is the best place after all. If only one of the knights the one who appears the most guilty had not already captured her heart.

I received this book from the publisher via NetGalley for the purpose of this review. All comments and opinions are entirely my own.

Review:

Who doesn’t love a good fairytale filled with charming knights, competitions, and opportunities to fall in love around every corner?! An Uncertain Choice has every bit a fairytale feeling, down to “being free from a vow upon finding true love”.

In the first chapter, I had expected a very different story than what this book turned out to be. I would almost say that the first chapter is severely out of place when compared to rest of the book. It’s a wonderful hooking chapter, don’t get me wrong, but it’s brimmed with action, concern, and heroism that has very little to do with the overall book of knights competing in friendly tournaments for a lady’s hand in marriage. It isn’t completely disconnected from the book, of course, there are references to it throughout the story, but the feelings and concerns that I encountered in that very first chapter, gave me such a different expectation for the book than it actually was. If that even makes sense? It took a turn from, “this book is going to be intense!” to “nevermind, this is a love story and I already know who she’s going to pick”, by the second chapter.

I like fairytales. I really, really do. But this book is so full of cliches that I literally had almost the entire book figured out by chapter 3. And I wasn’t wrong. I just kept reading it more out of curiosity to see if I was right in my predictions, than I did out of actual enjoyment of the story. It did make me smile often though, so perhaps that’s the goal of this book.

It is a clean book and it has Christian content and plenty of mentions of the Bible. There’s no sexual content, only a few kisses, and there’s no language. So, if you’re looking for an easy read that leans more on the light-hearted side of things, with a little bit of wondering “which knight will she pick?!”, then you might enjoy this book more than I did. I was just hoping for An Uncertain Choice to be less cliche than it was and after reading the first chapter, my hopes were lifted, and then dropped. So that’s why I’m only giving it 3 out of 5 stars.