Nicole Foster’s latest novel, Cimarron Rose is a novel that simply offers words on paper. If you aren’t looking for interesting characters, originality, good writing, or believable plotlines, this is the book for you.

Katlyn McLain is the daughter of the famous chanteuse, Penelope Rose, known as the St. Louis Songbird. When her mother falls ill, Katlyn finds herself reluctantly agreeing to take on the identity of the Songbird, in order to help her mother save face. Since her mother has recently moved to the town of Cimarron in the New Mexico territories, and hasn’t sung there yet, they figure this shouldn’t be a problem. But wait, you ask, wouldn’t it sort of be a really big tip-off when a woman 20 years younger than the famous St. Louis Songbird shows up for work? I would think so. You would think so. But apparently not a single character in the entire book is bright enough to think so.

Case Durham owns the St. Martin saloon. He’s just moved to Cimarron with his daughter Emily, to help her start a decent life away from the evil, dishonest mother who abandoned her. He wants to run a saloon, but doesn’t want any rough customers. He doesn’t see a basic problem with this, and neither do any of the other characters – but then we’ve already discussed the utter lack of common sense in the characters of this book, including the hero and heroine. Case has hired one of the most famous singers on the continent, but apparently he doesn’t know anything about her other than the fact that she has red hair, so he’s perfectly willing to accept Katlyn posing as her mother. He’s determined not to fall for any lying woman again. Can we all see where this is going?

The characters of this book are as flat as they come. None of them is the least bit interesting, particularly the hero and heroine, who could be replaced by cardboard cutouts without anyone being any the wiser. Katlyn’s mother Penelope, who is as self-centered as they come (not that good, sweet, pure Katlyn notices), only appears to guilt Katlyn into keeping her secret. The other characters only pop in every so often to be “heartwarming.”

The plot is almost laughable. It’s incredibly contrived, and the author (actually authors, since Nicole Foster is in fact two people) expects the reader to accept explanations with more holes than Swiss cheese. Katlyn can’t be with Case because her mother doesn’t want her identity known. Oh, Case figured it out? Well, Katlyn still can’t be with him. Why not? Well, her mother’s sick. Yep, that’s the whole explanation. This is the sort of writing that makes you look back fondly on such romance conventions as The Big Mis, which at least generally has a bit of credibility to it.

The writing in Cimarron Rose is as contrived as it comes, and there are more clichés than a book this short should be allowed to harbor. It’s choppy, boring, and goes nowhere fast. So why the grade of D rather than F? The book just wasn’t worth that level of passion.