The Bequest by B.E. Baker Review

 Good Morning Sweet Friends :)

I pray today finds you all doing well, and I'm so thankful you've taken the time to drop on by The Preppy Book Princess today for another book review.

Unfortunately, today's post is a bit of a hard one for me to share with you all. There's many things I love about being a book blogger, and hey maybe it's a good idea for a future post to share what some of those things are. However, book blogging also comes with its negatives, and one of those is having to give a book a bad review.

I want to be honest when I write my reviews, and sometimes I stumble across a book that I just can't say many positive things about. And unfortunately that's going to be the case for today's choice from a new to me author.

Keep reading down below to find out why this one didn't end up working for me personally.

The Bequest by B.E. Baker:

Source: Free Offer for Kindle on Amazon

Publisher: Purple Puppy Publishing

Publication Date: November 30th, 2021

Genre: Clean Romance/Contemporary/Cowboy Romance

Series: The Birch Creek Ranch

Synopsis:

Two widows, six kiddos, and a will that leaves them a massive cattle ranch, but only if they work it for a year.

Abigail and Amanda may have married brothers, but they have almost nothing else in common (and really, they never did get along very well). After their husbands both pass away within a year of one another, they have no reason to interact. Their connection drops to an awkward phone call on birthdays and an exchange of holiday cards.

Until an eccentric uncle of their husbands' leaves a massive cattle ranch to the women's minor children. . . if they work the ranch themselves. A ranch that's located near a small town on the Wasatch front that isn’t too keen on outsiders.

They're both going to turn the bequest down, clearly. It’s not like either of them could properly raise their kids or find love again in a backwater province like Birch Creek. But when things at home change dramatically—for both moms—they decide to give it a try. . . just for the summer.

What could possibly go wrong in a mere three months? (Or more importantly... what might go right?)

(synopsis from goodreads)

My Review:

I was honestly looking forward to reading this one. I'd heard several other Christian book bloggers highly recommending it, and I thought the synopsis sounded both intriguing and adorable. When I saw it listed for free on one of the Kindle promo's, I was actually tempted to just go ahead and purchase books two and three along with it. Now I'm extremely thankful I didn't do so, as this book was definitely not for me, and is honestly one of the most insufferable stories I've picked up in a long time.

I was expecting a sweet, heartwarming tale about family coming together amidst a strange bequest from a distant relative, but that was really not what I got at all. If I'm being completely honest, it was hard to want to like anything about this book when both Abigail and Amanda were completely insufferable as main characters. Both are rich snobs who look down on anything and everything that isn't exactly what they expect it to be, and I didn't really see much change or character growth in either throughout the story. It's the end of the world that the WIFI company won't drop everything to get to them immediately. It's ridiculous that they are actually expected to help with things around the ranch. Abigail makes a humdinger of a statement that basically she's enjoying how much closer their family seems when they're all crowded in a SIX BEDROOM ranch house, instead of the giant house they're used to at home. Several plot occurrences also rely around her basically having a panic attack at the thought of her precious son having to resort to going to community college. There's also numerous points of judging other characters unfairly without knowing anything actually about them, and both of them seem content to try and push their worldly, materialistic lifestyle on their children as well, even when it's not what they want for themselves.

Both romances are insta lovey and pretty much just insta lusty if I'm being honest, and I wasn't a fan of either of them. I failed to see what either of the love interests could possibly have seen in either Abigail or Amanda, and that made it even more unbelievable. The ending went in pretty much the direction I expected, and I have no urge to continue on with the rest of the series.

The only reason I bumped this up to two stars instead of one is that I did enjoy the author's writing style and enjoyed that it kept me engaged even though I wasn't enjoying the story itself, and I adored Nate and how calm and down to earth he is despite the upbringing he's received.

While there's many more things I could comment on as why this book didn't work for me, I'm going to stop here before this review is as long as a book itself. Needless to say I did not enjoy this one, and found it to be nothing like what I was either expecting or hoping for. 

All in all, I don't personally recommend this one and am quite disappointed with how this one ended up going, considering the premise set it up to be amazing. If you're not bothered by stories that focus entirely around materialism and making money basically an idol then this might be for you. Otherwise, I'd personally recommend passing on this one.

Final Rating: 2/5.

Thanks so much for reading guys! Have a great rest of your day :)

This is not a sponsored post. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The photo does not belong to me, and all rights to the respective owners.