Review - The Sherbrooke Twins

Title: The Sherbrooke Twins
Author: Catherine Coulter
Publishing Date: March 2004
Genre: Historical
Rating: B
Sensuality: Warm

The Sherbrooke Twins is the eighth book of Catherine Coulter’s Sherbrooke Bride series. James and Jason Sherbrooke are the twin sons of Douglas and Alex Sherbrooke whose story was the first of this series, The Sherbrooke Bride. James and Jason are nothing alike. James is sure and steadfast and enjoys astronomy and land management. Jason doesn’t like to be tied down and is much more impulsive. Their neighbor, Corrie Tybourne-Barrett, has been following James around since she was three years old, worshiping the ground he walks on. Now she is all grown up and James has started to notice her in a different light.

This book really took me by surprise. First of all, this is the eighth book of this series and after reading the last book, I felt the series was getting a little stale. So with great reservations I picked up this book and to my delight I got more than I had bargained for. What started out as a light-hearted romping good time, ended on a much unexpected somber note. It was by no means a perfect book, as there were a few issues I had with it.

First off there is a lot taking place in this book. We have the romance between Corrie and James, which was very sweet. Not a lot of passion, but it was fun to read their interaction with each other. They were cute and funny together. Then there is a mystery when Douglas is shot at in the park. Now the family is coming together to try and stop this threat to their father. Jason meets up with a woman who catches his attention and he can’t seem to put her out of his mind.

At first, I felt like the threat to Douglas didn’t make much sense in context of the rest of the plot. It seemed unimportant and more like fodder to help move the romance along, or allow for silly conversations in drawing rooms and such. But over the last half of the story the mood took on a more serious note and the mystery started to become more important. The conclusion took me by complete surprise. The villain was unexpected and yet his motivation didn’t quite sit well with me. It’s hard for me to express because, on the one hand it made the book original, yet the villain had that whole eeeviill vibe going on. We all know how silly that can seem. I really liked that the author was able to make this book stand out in the series instead of it coming across formulaic with new characters. Plus, she has managed to peak my interest for the next book in the series.