Review: This Day Is Ours by Gretchen Jeannette

Print Length: 591 pages

Publisher: Gretchen Jeannette (April 18, 2020)

From Goodreads.com:  The American Colonies, 1776. As the flames of revolution spread across a divided land, a shadowy figure prowls the streets of Philadelphia. Known only as Jack Flash, rebel highwayman, he preys on wealthy aristocrats loyal to the British Crown. The unpredictable outlaw always manages to stay one step ahead of his foes, until the night he targets a Loyalist lady whose fiery spirit could spell his doom.

Alexandra Pennington believes she has her future well planned when a chance encounter turns her world upside down. Betrothed to a dashing king's man suited to her in every way, the young widow becomes entangled with an unrefined rebel fiercely opposed to British rule. Against all reason, she finds common ground with an enemy of the Crown. The sensible course for her is clear, but her bond with the notorious rogue will test her loyalty not only to her king but also to the man she vowed to marry.

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My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Ugh. That is the first word that comes to mind when I think about think long-winded utter disappointment of a novel. I'm super irritated not only that I wasted so much time on this story, but also because of the promise that it held in the first place.

I was totally sucked into this story - at least for the first 1/3 of it. When Dalton was secretly masquerading around as Jack Flash. I enjoyed reading about his exploits, I enjoyed getting to know his friends. Heck, I even enjoyed Alexandra and her ill-tempered betrothed (although not going to lie I nearly quit reading the book altogether when he shot a horse for his own stupidity and mistreatment of the animal). Hands down one of my favorite characters quickly became Alexandra's former brother-in-law George. I loved his no-holds-barred attitude and the way he leapt to the defense of his loved ones.

However, as soon as Dalton went off to war? Gone was the story that had been told up until that point. Instead, the reader was treated to long-winded, graphic accounts of the battles he encountered. To the point that it was obvious this author spent a lot of time doing her research. And normally? I wouldn't have found this to be a problem, but in this instance, there was just so much information dumped on the reader that honestly? I lost interest. To the point that I found myself skipping over the mentions of the battles altogether, resuming  only when I saw Alexandra's name again. Not to mention the fact that I counted NUMEROUS instances of Dalton cursing the pending arrival of the "blue coats" in those early battles. Uhhh buddy, I would be more worried about the RED coats if I were you.

I think a lot of this novel could have been saved by a strong round of edits. Not only to clear up what I mentioned before, but also to deal with some other glaring problems (like the fact that in his letter to Twiggs, Dalton mentioned Twiggs should take extra care of Dalton's  horse Mercury specifically even though Dalton had taken that horse into battle with him). I also think it would have helped the author condense her battle scenes to a point where they were more interesting. I'm sorry but hearing "READY, AIM, FIRE" repeatedly gets old quickly. 

Sadly, although this is one of my favorite time periods, I couldn't bring myself to really become invested in this one mainly due to the long-windedness of the battle scenes. It's my opinion that this author could have made better use of her research by making this a series and focusing on different couples and different battles. I definitely would have kept Dalton and Alexandra as the first as there is a lot of good build-up to the war, but unfortunately this plot was spoiled by too many details. 

DISCLAIMER: I received a complimentary copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. This has not affected my review in any way. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are 100% my own.

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                             This Day is Ours is available from Amazon.com