Sometimes I get tired of reading about regency rakes, medieval knights, and present-day business tycoons. When it’s done right, Americana Romance can serve as a welcome respite from these more glamorous stories. Usually, Stephanie Mittman writes a great Americana. Unfortunately, her latest release, A Kiss To Dream On, is not as good as the others she has written. While I enjoyed the setting and virtually all the secondary characters, the childish behavior of the hero and heroine really left me cold. It is really hard to enjoy a book when you can’t stand the main characters.

Arliss Mallard has been in love with Slick Waynick ever since she can remember. But when he gets her pregnant and leaves her at the alter, she turns to her childhood companion Gideon Forbes. They marry in front of a church full of wedding guests who were expecting to see Arliss marry Slick. Gideon has loved Arliss for as long as Arliss has loved Slick. He knows she doesn’t love him yet, but he hopes that in time she will forget Slick and embrace him as her husband. Because he doesn’t have a house of his own, he takes Arliss home to live with his family. While his brother and father love Arliss right away – she is an excellent cook, after all – his sister Berris is harder to convince. She is jealous of Arliss and sure she is taking advantage of her brother. She tries to sabotage their relationship at every turn.

The problem with a plot like this is that you can pretty much tell where it is going to go. You know that by the end of the book Arliss will be in love with Gideon, and that Slick will return for Arliss and be given a proper set-down, and that Arliss and Gideon will declare their undying love. Predictability is not inherently bad; after all, many of us appreciate romance for the dependable happy ending. The problem here is that I knew where this book was going to go, and I hated how it got there. Every time Arliss and Gideon would make any kind of progress toward a happy relationship, some stupid misunderstanding would pop up. They never trusted each other, and they always assumed the worst. They rarely thought of saying how they really felt, and when they did, they are misunderstood. For example, the first time Arliss and Gideon made love, she started crying and said, “It was never like that with Slick.” What she meant was that it was never that good with Slick, but Gideon assumed the opposite. This scenario is repeated again and again.

The result of all these stupid misunderstandings was that both characters became unlikeable. I had a problem with Arliss from the start, because I couldn’t see why she would be dumb enough to fall for Slick. Arliss’s finer points are revealed later in the novel, but by then I already disliked her. I thought at first I would like Gideon more. But Gideon is alternately wimpy and self-righteous, while Arliss is ungrateful and suspicious. By the end of the book I was tired of both of them.

There were some other problems as well, including Mittman’s handling of Arliss’ pregnancy. To go into detail would give too much away, but I am always shocked when an author of high caliber stoops to such contrivances. Another problem is that the author sometimes calls the heroine Arliss, and sometimes calls her Lissie. Often the switches take place mid-paragraph, which was very distracting. There wasn’t a pattern to it either; all of the characters call her both names. A final niggle is that the language is too flowery at first. There are wacky similes on every page. “The cold air had been avoiding Montana like a prairie dog avoids a coyote.” and “He dove for her (breast) like a fish hooks onto a lure” are just two examples. Thankfully, the second half of the book has fewer of these.

What I did like about A Kiss To Dream On was the setting and the secondary characters. The book is set in a Montana mining town, and Gideon is a deputy sheriff who helps solve some problems going on with the town’s mine. I found this plot more interesting than the love story. The secondary characters are much more interesting than the main ones. I particularly liked Gideon’s sister Berris, who is supposed to be somewhat of a villain. Berris gets most of the laughs in this book, and I often found myself wishing the story were about her.

Stephanie Mittman has a lot of talent, but it just isn’t showcased here. Her other books are much better. I recommend trying The Courtship, The Marriage Bed, and my favorite, A Taste of Honey.