In the Land of the Big Red Apple by Roger Lea MacBride | Goodreads

I’ve been saving my reviews of the non-Laura Ingalls stories until the end of each series. I just can’t seem to hold back with this book, though.

The first two books in the Rose Wilder series was very promising. In fact, I liked the second better than the first one. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case with this book.

Truthfully, and I will be completely honest, this one was absolute torture for me to read. I actually considered stopping it when I got to the halfway point. I disliked it that much. Yet, I was determined to make it through it. I have owned this series for years and I never got around to reading them until now. And I want to read the entire series. I want to accomplish this “little” goal in life. But when something is as dull, and annoying, as this book was, I don’t know if I will be able to accomplish it because the goal suddenly seems much larger to achieve.

It was dull because the “stories” are just NOT that interesting. At least they aren’t that interesting to me. Personally, I don’t even see how a younger girl would be interested in any of it.

It is annoying because of the way that it is written. I don’t know what the real Almanzo and Laura were like. So, I guess I don’t know if there is any truth to these characters at all. Based on Laura’s stories, I highly doubt the “characters” that she created in her books would turn out to be the ones in this book. I will be completely honest again and say that if THAT is how Laura REALLY was, I absolutely HATE her! I am so tired of her being this stereotypical farm wife with stories to tell and having a bunch of morals to throw at her kid to show that she knows best (to lecture Rose that money doesn’t grow on trees when she used the money that was given to her on whatever she wanted for a special day like Independence Day – was that really anything other than a little mean?).

Why is “jiminy” the universal word there? Not only does Almanzo say it, but, amazingly, so do all of the people down there in Missouri. And he was saying it before he made it down there. I am not saying people didn’t use the word. It just sounds “forced” for a person to say it. Even in a book.

How many times do I have to read about the way their eyes react to a situation, the “crinkles” (or what it “wrinkles”? – I don’t know – it is the same difference) by Almanzo’s eyes when he smiled, and the “twirling” of his mustache? Why? Why do these things HAVE to be written OVER and OVER again??

And what is up with Laura blushing EVERY time Almanzo embraces her in some sort of way? By this time she had been married for quite a few years and had given birth to two children. I HIGHLY doubt that woman would be blushing when her husband gave her a kiss, in the privacy of their home, under the mistletoe – and wherever else it happened! GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!

Now, I will read the rest of the series. Of course I will. Money was spent on them. They have been sitting here for years. I will read them. All I can HOPE is that they will get better, that they will be more like the first two books. If they aren’t, I don’t know what state I will be in when I get finished with them. I have read so many books that I have not liked lately that I don’t know how many more I can take.

January 2nd and I am already hating the first book that I read. That is such a shame. But onto the next! I will make it through these! I just have to keep telling myself that and, hopefully, I will do it.