Reviews

Felicity Carrol is not your normal Victorian England young woman. Disinterested in finding a mate or being high society, she dedicates herself to learning and experiments in her lab. After her college professor and friend William Kent is murdered, Felicity takes it upon herself to find out what happened. Alternately helping and annoying the police, Felicity sets off an adventure with the assistance of her friend Helen, much to her stern father's dismay. Super fun read with a not overly obvious plot and fun characters. I hope there'll be more.

kittykornerlibrarian's review against another edition

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1.0

The world-building was so unsuccessful for me that I couldn't enjoy anything about this story. I simply could not believe this story was taking place when and where it was supposed to. The characters, supposedly in Victorian England, are first-naming each other all over the place and not introducing themselves properly and don't even get me started on the way they speak and behave and it just feels like a flimsy stage set with contemporary American actors who don't know anything about Victorian England dressed up in costumes. I just couldn't take it any more.

foxon's review against another edition

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1.0

Look, I so rarely give a book this bad of a review, but honestly it was THAT unforgivable. I really can't figure out why the author even wrote this? They didn't do it for love of the era, judging from the mind blowing amount of historical inaccuracies ranging from the mildly annoying to the utterly ridiculous. They didn't write it for the love of mystery, because there isn't one. They certainly didn't write it as a character piece, for Felicity's only redeeming quality was her mind, and yet she can't seem to figure out the glaringly obvious killer and motive. I can only guess an agent or editor told the author historical mysteries where "in" now or something. And thus a book was born which fluctuates between boring and infuriating.

There are so so so many trailblazing, maverick women of the victorian era to pull inspiration from; so many women who pushed the envelope to the benefit of women today. To create these Mary Sue Look at Me Im so Different characters with a dislike for all other women and no grounding in the real world of Victorian England shows a lack of imagination. Which is pretty important for, you know, a writer.

jenmurray's review

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mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

ironskin's review against another edition

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2.0

This book wasn’t sure what it wanted to be; it wasn’t a whodunnit (we knew when the character was introduced) it wasn’t a “how to become a detective” because she learns her skills off page…
I really wanted to like this but it was just ok

thesubwayreader's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

It was fine. Felicity Carrol is a plucky young lady who's an heiress, highly intelligent and doesn't conform to society's expectations. She gets involved in a murder investigation when her mentor and friend is found murdered. There were a lot of things that bothered me about this book. It felt like certain details were ignored or omitted or not researched enough. For example, the wrong use of titles and no observance of a mourning period (Lady! Your father just died and you went to a ball and you danced?!!). Also, it was very convenient that Felicity has a photographic memory and just happened to read a treatise on X when she's in the middle of her investigation. I did learn some interesting facts, but sometimes it felt like a very dry lecture. I did enjoy Inspector Jackson Davies and I hope his character gets fleshed out in later books, but there's a high probability that I won't find out how he turns out.

blacksentai's review against another edition

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2.0

Ok. The book is probably fine. But. I'm in a mood and it hit a lot of things that might not bother me in other contexts but kind of ended up grating on me. And some of this is my fault. But some things clicked into place for me while reading this book, so it's not totally the books fault. There's a whole trend of these victorian mystery novels and romances where the main character is extremely modern. And like. It's fine. But. It is bizarre how these women don't match up with upper class feminist of the times but with sort of modern conceptions of gender-based injustice. But still they're only concerned with being able to exhort class based power. These books always try to address this via the commoner cop who is very good at working with nobles. But the actual pointed criticisms of the main character won't amount to much because this main character has to always be right in their worldview.
These books often want to poke very lightly at societal injustices and then run away from them before anything grody can happen. Sexism and classism are usually just backdrops the author can use to say "hey look how smart and enlightened we are now" or to give the main character the leg up since seemingly she has all the knowledge of a modern reader. But, her progressivism can only go so far since she's stuck in 18whatever and isn't actually desiring to change the social order. Just make a place for herself in the status quo.
Also, the book seems completely unaware of colonialism and is like "yo the royal family in the 1800s was really something to look up to and you should definitely want to be just like them, especially the head there." So yeah it's so weird that it wants to be a fluffy politically neutral book but because the book has to fit a vaguely modern sensibility it comes across as a socially unaware book.

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