While the narrator was unrelentingly self-pitying and mostly unsympathetic, I was still drawn into her dark little office world. The romance aspect in particular was done well, playing out without overwhelming the rest of the story. I may have shed a tear or two.
14.07.26
I liked this book more than the Trinidad Tourist Office probably does, and more than I should when the author had to justify some of her narrative choices in an endnote. It did a good job of juxtaposing Trinidad's violence and poverty with its aspiration and luxury, and managed to stay engaging despite having so few sympathetic characters.
58%
12.07.26This was slightly messier than the previous book in the series and could have done with a slightly more thorough edit at times but was still good violent fun with some deeper messages in amongst the craziness.
08.03.26
This was charming and well characterised, although Austen did most of the hard work. As it's basically fan fiction, it suffers where it departs from Austen's example - being bogged down in endless exposition (so much telling, not much showing) and the occasional distracting head hopping away from the protagonist's point of view. And as for the completely contrived misunderstandings near the end... if even the characters admit they should have just spoken to each other, then the plot simply isn't strong enough.
02.12.24
The trouble with this novel was the uneasy mix of paying homage to Austen/Gaskell and the 21st-century turns of phrase and sensibilities of the characters. It worked best when it interrogated class assumptions, using a light yet skewering humour, and not always taking the easy way out. But the main character was unlikable (and not in the 'Emma' sense) and many conversations and actions were just unconvincing.
58%
21.10.24
Fair play to Stevenson for tackling that difficult 'second in the series' with so much meta energy. His decision to continue with the trademark self-referential elements livened up the old 'murder on a train' cliche, but the characters and plot were still too confusing and I don't think I'll remember much about it.
58%
This obeyed the creative writing rules of conflict, pacing, engaging all senses and heaping misfortune on the protagonist, and was therefore an absorbing read. It was rather heavy handed on how bad life was for everyone - rich and poor - in 18th-century Paris, and, of course, especially for women. The characters were also a little vaguely drawn, being defined by one or two significant USPs, but it was an unusual take on an interesting period.
I normally avoid Heyer knock-offs, but this author had written an academic thesis on her so I decided she'd know how to approach it. The clincher was some reviewers' horror at the (actually rather sweet) lesbian subplot - what fun, I thought, and it was. It was no Heyer, of course - the characters lacked her vividness, and the immersion was spoilt by too much 'telling', too much modern-tinged dialogue, and several glaring errors that should have been picked up by an editor. But, yes, it was fun - and, yes, I have rated it higher than a few of Heyer's novels.
58%
This was well meaning and well researched and pretty well written. But I didn't connect emotionally to the story or characters - it seemed rather box ticky - eccentric ahead-of-her-time aunt, eccentric distant-but-loving father, eccentric allegorical-and-rather-dull hero, and queer elements that felt a bit shoehorned in.
12.10.22
I'm a big fan of Bauer's thrillers but this wasn't her best. Why? Perhaps it was a bit too weird, without the oddly humorous, very British, small-town authenticity of Snap or Exit. And there was the big problem of the serial killer's eight or nine (I lost track) victims not being as important as preventing the deaths of the protagonist and her father. But it was still better than most novels in this genre.
58%
20.09.22The simplistic cover designs do this book no favours by implying it's a chick-lit beach read - but it soon becomes clear that beaches can be dangerous places. Its serious message is somewhat undermined by the pantomime villain of a husband, who any real wife would have left years ago, and by the weird 1950s vibe of what was supposed to be a contemporary story. The alleged twist was also so telegraphed from the beginning that I was surprised to learn from reviews that it was a twist at all. But it was interesting enough, in a 'rich people's drama' kind of way.
12.05.22
This was fun as a psychopath primer, should The Psychopath Test not be enough. How they interacted - or not quite interacted - with each other was particularly intriguing. But the plot was badly paced and made no sense, with an irrelevant background of political protests that had no bearing on anything, and there were enough typos to break the story world on several occasions.
21.02.22
The first two-thirds of this was an entertaining and perceptive skewering of middle-class middle-Britain, inventively told through emails and text messages. But once the crime finally happened, it seemed that the author (or her publisher) lost confidence in the narrative style and instead felt the need to tell, not show, readers what to think. The context for the sudden change didn't even make sense and undermined everything that had gone before. I demand an appeal!
28.02.22
The words were as rich and vivid and slightly overdone as the cover. The story was standard adventure fare with added magic, a fresh dash of Chinese legends and a heroine-on-a-mission. The result was... fine.
