Betty Zane (Ohio River #1) ★☆☆☆½

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Title: Betty Zane
Series: Ohio River #1
Author: Zane Grey
Rating: 1.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Western?
Pages: 263
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

Betty Zane has come to the frontier to live with her brother and his family. Pretty, head strong and used to getting her way, Betty lives life her way.

A young man comes to the settlement and because he doesn't immediately bow to Betty's beauty she “hates” him. Of course, they fall in love with each other but between both of them being young, full of pride and just generally stupid, things don't go easy.

Then Indians and some damn British Red Coats attack the fort. The brave men and women and children hold them off and win a great victory.

Betty Zane and her fella done get hitched and produce a heap 'o chillens.

My Thoughts:

Well, after I was done with the Sacketts, I figured Zane Grey was next. This is NOT an auspicious start, that is for sure.

This isn't what I'd think of as a Western, but more of Frontier Fiction. There are no cowboys, no West, it's all East of the Mississippi river and it is sappy as a Janette Oke book. I was NOT expecting that.

I also wasn't expecting deeply insightful characters either but almost everyone portrayed came across as a cardboard cutout slapped with a coat of brightly colored paint. I felt like I was watching clowns at a circus.

The story telling itself was tedious. First Zane would do a chapter of “history” where he just spells everything out. Then we'd jump into the story where he would then tell that exact same history but using the characters and making a story of it. He bleeding spoils his own thing and pretty much just puffs up his word count. Needless to say, I was not impressed.

I have an omnibus edition of Grey's works and I'll be skipping the next Ohio River book. Of course, without an actual index I'll have to flip through 200'ish pages to do that. This is why you shouldn't buy $2 omnibus books on Amazon.

★☆☆☆½