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abbie92g's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
London, 1936. Lena Aldridge wonders if life has passed her by. The dazzling Theatre career she hoped for hasn't worked out. Instead, she's stuck singing in a sticky-floored basement club in Soho, and her married loved has just left her.
She's feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime; a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the Club, the timing couldn't be better and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England, but death follows her on board, when an obscenely wealthy family draws her into their fold, just as one of them is killed in a chillingly familiar way. As Lena navigates their increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realises that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life.
Miss Aldridge Regrets is marketed as Historical Fiction, but with an air of "Murder on the Orient Express" about it, it is more suited to the title of Murder Mystery. Louise Hare writes an intriguing tale, spanning several periods in Lena's life, and jumps between these with apparent ease, and without losing the story's momentum. Lena is a believable protagonist, and relationships are developed well within the story.
I gave this 4 stars, purely because I felt the ending was a little rushed. It would have been nice to see a little more of what Lena found of her father's family in New York, as a central theme to the story is her late father and his life as a musician.
I enjoyed this book and it was a gentle read, recommended to fans of Murder Mysteries with a little bit extra!
She's feeling utterly hopeless until a stranger offers her the chance of a lifetime; a starring role on Broadway and a first-class ticket on the Queen Mary bound for New York. After a murder at the Club, the timing couldn't be better and Lena jumps at the chance to escape England, but death follows her on board, when an obscenely wealthy family draws her into their fold, just as one of them is killed in a chillingly familiar way. As Lena navigates their increasingly bizarre family dynamic, she realises that her greatest performance won't be for an audience, but for her life.
Miss Aldridge Regrets is marketed as Historical Fiction, but with an air of "Murder on the Orient Express" about it, it is more suited to the title of Murder Mystery. Louise Hare writes an intriguing tale, spanning several periods in Lena's life, and jumps between these with apparent ease, and without losing the story's momentum. Lena is a believable protagonist, and relationships are developed well within the story.
I gave this 4 stars, purely because I felt the ending was a little rushed. It would have been nice to see a little more of what Lena found of her father's family in New York, as a central theme to the story is her late father and his life as a musician.
I enjoyed this book and it was a gentle read, recommended to fans of Murder Mysteries with a little bit extra!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Classism, Murder, Racism, Sexual assault, and Infidelity
Minor: Misogyny, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Violence, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, and Grief
megwilli's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism and Murder
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Addiction, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide
mar's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This book was kind of a mess. The premise and setting were so promising, but jeez, the execution's ROUGH.
Let's start with the good stuff: the way the race and class dynamics were handled was one of the few genuinely compelling parts of the book, and the romance was quite sweet and well-paced - a welcome respite from the frustrating wreck that was the main plot. As for everything else...
The supportive cast is flat and uninteresting, and the main character, Lena, feels like a passive participant in her own story - she seems to hardly make any decisions at all, the plot sort of just happens to her. Most of my issues, though, have to do with the murder mystery plot. So this is a murder mystery, right? It's marketed as a murder mystery. So, naturally, you'd expect the main character to maybe try to figure out the murder mystery at some point. Wrong! Lena at no point tries to solve the murder. She doesn't take initiative, doesn't do any sort of investigating, snooping, even thinking about it that hard. Despite being one of the main suspects. (The one time she does go sleuthing in someone else's cabin, literally nothing comes of it, and it ends up completely pointless.) Furthermore: there is a surprising lack of tension in the story, considering the murderer on the loose and all, and the book's slow pace certainly doesn't help with that. The weird interludes from the murderer's POV - essentially Villain Monologues™️ - feel unnecessary, taking away suspense instead of building it up. Seriously! There were multiple points in the book where i went "oh, that would've been an actually cool plot twist, if we WEREN'T LITERALLY TOLD ABOUT IT BY THE MURDERER IN ADVANCE. why?!" I'm honestly still SO baffled by this choice. It'd take some seriously good writing and editing to pull off intertwining the main narrative with long flashbacks and the antagonist POV interludes without making it disjointed, and this book just doesn't manage it. I hoped the reveal of the murderer would redeem the book a bit, but oof, nope. It's.... not great, either. I can't really get into it without spoilers, the antagonist motivations are flimsy, and it required more suspension of disbelief that I was willing to give. Overall, it leaves much to be desired, I think. 😔
(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)
Let's start with the good stuff: the way the race and class dynamics were handled was one of the few genuinely compelling parts of the book, and the romance was quite sweet and well-paced - a welcome respite from the frustrating wreck that was the main plot. As for everything else...
The supportive cast is flat and uninteresting, and the main character, Lena, feels like a passive participant in her own story - she seems to hardly make any decisions at all, the plot sort of just happens to her. Most of my issues, though, have to do with the murder mystery plot. So this is a murder mystery, right? It's marketed as a murder mystery. So, naturally, you'd expect the main character to maybe try to figure out the murder mystery at some point. Wrong! Lena at no point tries to solve the murder. She doesn't take initiative, doesn't do any sort of investigating, snooping, even thinking about it that hard. Despite being one of the main suspects. (The one time she does go sleuthing in someone else's cabin, literally nothing comes of it, and it ends up completely pointless.) Furthermore: there is a surprising lack of tension in the story, considering the murderer on the loose and all, and the book's slow pace certainly doesn't help with that. The weird interludes from the murderer's POV - essentially Villain Monologues™️ - feel unnecessary, taking away suspense instead of building it up. Seriously! There were multiple points in the book where i went "oh, that would've been an actually cool plot twist, if we WEREN'T LITERALLY TOLD ABOUT IT BY THE MURDERER IN ADVANCE. why?!" I'm honestly still SO baffled by this choice. It'd take some seriously good writing and editing to pull off intertwining the main narrative with long flashbacks and the antagonist POV interludes without making it disjointed, and this book just doesn't manage it. I hoped the reveal of the murderer would redeem the book a bit, but oof, nope. It's.... not great, either. I can't really get into it without spoilers, the antagonist motivations are flimsy, and it required more suspension of disbelief that I was willing to give. Overall, it leaves much to be desired, I think. 😔
(Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Infidelity, Racism, Death, Classism, and Alcohol
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
Minor: Antisemitism
jackbifrost's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Death, Alcohol, Classism, Grief, Murder, Trafficking, Death of parent, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Stalking
Moderate: Abandonment, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage
Minor: War, Antisemitism, and Forced institutionalization
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