Review: From this Moment by Elizabeth Camden

Excellent Writing, as Usual

From this Moment begins ten years after the conclusion of the free prequel novella, Summer of Dreams. I thought the novella was excellent, but I’m glad I read it before the book because they really do need to be read in order (also, if you read the free novella, either plan on reading this straight after or don’t read the sample chapters at the end of the novella. You have been warned).

From this Moment is the story of Romulus White, editor and co-owner of the prestigious Scientific World magazine. He has been trying without success to recruit famed lithographer Stella West for three years when he finds she is living in his home town of Boston.
Stella Westergaard aka Stella West is in Boston to investigate her sister’s death: she can’t believe the official verdict of accidental death by drowning. She agrees to take an assignment with Scientific World in return for Romulus’s assistance in her quest, but soon finds the conspiracy runs deeper than she had first thought . . . and finding answers isn’t going to be easy, even with Romulus’s help.

I liked Romulus from Summer of Dreams, and liked him even more in From this Moment. He has been determined to remain single since the disastrous end to his love live in Summer of Dreams, but finds himself attracted to Stella—both her beauty and her intelligence (and he’s obviously been in love with her art for years).

Stella is equally attracted to Romulus, but tries to hide it—he’s not backwards in telling people about his lack of desire for a romantic relationship. This leads to some excellent see-sawing scenes: both are intelligent and passionate and don’t necessarily pay attention to the needs of others.

Clyde and Evelyn also feature. Clyde is working on the electrification of the new Boston subway system, and Evelyn is Romulus’s partner and co-owner of Scientific World. Their plot line was unexpected, but certainly added to the novel.

There was one major plot point in the middle which made sense by the end of the story, but totally bugged me as I was reading it—it simply didn’t make sense to me, and I couldn’t see why people as intelligent as Evelyn, Romulus and Stella couldn’t see the problem I saw. I still don’t see why they didn’t, which is the reason From this Moment isn’t a five-star read for me—certain aspects of the plot simply didn’t ring true.

Having said that, the characters and writing were an excellent as I expect from an Elizabeth Camden novel, and it was lovely to read about Boston, a city I’ve actually visited (albeit briefly). Okay, I would have liked it if the Christian aspects had been a little more front-and-centre, but we can’t have everything.

Thanks to Bethany House and NetGalley for providing a free ebook for review.