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Title: Beneath These Fields
Author: Ward Maia
Release Date: January 25, 2019
Category: Contemporary, World of Love
Pages: 144
Sometimes true worth is well hidden.
Ellis Campos is a successful divorce lawyer with little to no time for a personal life. His predictable routine is disrupted when he inherits a coffee farm from an estranged aunt. There’s no room in his life for all the complications that come with managing a farm in another state. But his plans to quickly sell it and go back to the big city fall apart when he’s manipulated into spending a week on the estate.
Adding to the unexpected surprises, he meets Rudá, a native Brazilian who works on the farm, and while teaching him about his aunt’s home and family, also tempts Ellis like no one ever has.
He doesn’t expect his life to change in such a short time, but as he finds value and comfort in the farm’s routine, Ellis quickly realizes that, like the land itself, Rudá has secrets that could send him running back to Rio.
World of Love: Stories of romance that span every corner of the globe.
3.5 stars
Beneath These Fields by Ward Maia explores Brazil and a coffee bean farm. This story was not what I expected it to be. I expected to learn about Brazil and coffee bean farms, but I didn’t feel like I did. But, that’s no fault of the book; it isn’t required to meet my preconceived notions! Because it’s DSP, I expected romance and a happily ever after. I didn’t feel like there was a romance, but there was a happy ever after.
I struggled with connecting to the characters of the story. Ellis is a divorce attorney who seems fairly smart. But, when he goes to Brazil to sell the coffee farm his aunt left him, everyone played games with him. Everyone he met was mysterious and secretive, which I didn’t really understand, even when the big mystery was shared. His aunt’s attorney was a liar, and manipulative. Instead of calling the lawyer out, Ellis went with it. I was confused why he would sit in the office of a lawyer, while he was poorly lied to. Why not call him out? Especially when he was an attorney and he knew what was being said was BS. It just didn’t make sense. I didn’t connect with Ruda, and just felt like I had a surface look at him, which was disappointing. He could have been a great character with his history with the farm, but I just didn’t get that pull from him.
I had hoped for more for both characters and the setting, or expected something different from the story, but I didn’t hate the story. It was a quick read that I was able to sit down and finish. There was nothing that made me drag out the reading, or prolong it because I wasn’t enjoying it. After reading it, I felt like there were good bones to the story but it didn’t cause strong emotions for me - I didn’t hate it or love it.
**Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie by DreamSpinner Press for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.**
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