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tonyriver's review
5.0
I really enjoy Aiken's style, her strong, intelligent women and well written interesting stories. If you don't know her, this authors many books are worth finding and enjoying. Highly recommended.
kathrynlikesbooks's review
3.0
I didn't realize that this was a new edition of a much older title, but once I did, the book made much more sense to me. It definitely has an old-fashioned tone to it. The first 80 pages were someone disjointed-the reader is introduced to several characters, and I had to keep rereading the blurb to see which one was the main character. After that the story did start coming together, but I still wasn't sure what the book was aiming for: it seemed like a mash up of a historical fiction and romance, but with hardly any romance in it. Still, I couldn't seem to put it down, and I'm tempted to look into the first two books in the trilogy to see if they are the same.
pinknantucket's review against another edition
2.0
Joan Aiken is one of my favourite children's authors. She also wrote some books for adults, which tend to have a kind of doomed, foreboding air to them - someone always dies, usually an innocent of some kind (child or lover). I've never found them as satisfying. Though I did enjoy the scenes in Paris - literary salons and all - this just came off as a second-rate period romance. With a bit of doom in it for good measure. If you are trying Aiken for the first time, try the Wolves of Willoughby Chase instead.
georgiewhoissarahdrew's review
2.0
Under my bed there is a box of broken paperbacks - tea-stained books that I've read, re-read, lent out, grabbed back, read again until (literally) they have been loved to bits. I can't throw them out. They're my childhood.
Amongst the battered remains, [b:The Wolves of Willoughby Chase|1955124|The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Chronicles, #1)|Joan Aiken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1311045117s/1955124.jpg|856203] & [b:Black Hearts in Battersea|6600535|Black Hearts in Battersea (The Wolves Chronicles, #2)|Joan Aiken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341826581s/6600535.jpg|1145979] (possibly the greatest book title EVAH). Joan Aiken once came to a book festival near us during term-time, and my mother (my upright, honest, presbyterian mother) lied to my headmistress, told her I was ill, and sneaked me off to shake JA's gifted hand.
So I am gutted that [b:The Girl from Paris|31748964|The Girl from Paris (Paget Family Saga #3)|Joan Aiken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472587856s/31748964.jpg|2555712] is pretty awful. Not awful in the can't-write-for-toffee sense, or a cringeworthy doesn't-know-how-to-address-the-son-of-a-marquis way. But because it's boring. Joan Aiken? Boring? Sadly - yes.
To be fair, this was written in 1983, and the expected style of HR writing has changed dramatically over the last 30 odd years. The (extremely) leisurely pace probably wasn't out of place in 1983 - now, it's feels a little ponderous. Although here and there are touches of humour, which lighten the tone a little. A matron "departed at a stately pace; in her massive crinoline, with parasol, gauze-and-ribbon-trimmed cap, shawl, lace gloves, and chatelaine, all in severe mourning hue, she resembled some baroque, smoke-blackened cathedral which had been set in motion and was gliding over the grass." For every ironic observation, though, there's a yokel - “Ah, I reckon as ’twas... Since owd Doc Bendigo died, he do spend a deal of time down thurr.”
Was I a very undemanding audience as a child? Did I simply accept then that a story that started off in one genre (say Jane-Eyre-lite) could morph into a suspense-drama for a bit, before dotting back into Eyreland and returning into something closer to a Victorian morality story? Or is it that Joan Aiken's natural milieu is children's story-telling, not adult fiction? There are two casualties of the muddled plot, unfortunately. One is a sense of pace: the multiple plot twists come with copious & deliberate exposition (Aiken always"tells" rather than "shows") soI grew impatient (perhaps I've read so much HR since that I could predict what was coming).
The other is any sort of meaningful relationship between the H &h. And I only give them those roles from convention, because they occupy page space. There's no sense of any real connection between them, far less any suggestion that either might develop during the book because of the plot, or each other. Is this just another thing that I've come to take for granted over the last few years? But then I think of [a:Edith Layton|74459|Edith Layton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1210161988p2/74459.jpg] and the nuanced stories she was writing at much the same time. So, no, JA just isn't cutting it in this genre for me.
I have her autograph, you know. I may go and read that again.
I received a free, advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.
Amongst the battered remains, [b:The Wolves of Willoughby Chase|1955124|The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (The Wolves Chronicles, #1)|Joan Aiken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1311045117s/1955124.jpg|856203] & [b:Black Hearts in Battersea|6600535|Black Hearts in Battersea (The Wolves Chronicles, #2)|Joan Aiken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1341826581s/6600535.jpg|1145979] (possibly the greatest book title EVAH). Joan Aiken once came to a book festival near us during term-time, and my mother (my upright, honest, presbyterian mother) lied to my headmistress, told her I was ill, and sneaked me off to shake JA's gifted hand.
So I am gutted that [b:The Girl from Paris|31748964|The Girl from Paris (Paget Family Saga #3)|Joan Aiken|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1472587856s/31748964.jpg|2555712] is pretty awful. Not awful in the can't-write-for-toffee sense, or a cringeworthy doesn't-know-how-to-address-the-son-of-a-marquis way. But because it's boring. Joan Aiken? Boring? Sadly - yes.
To be fair, this was written in 1983, and the expected style of HR writing has changed dramatically over the last 30 odd years. The (extremely) leisurely pace probably wasn't out of place in 1983 - now, it's feels a little ponderous. Although here and there are touches of humour, which lighten the tone a little. A matron "departed at a stately pace; in her massive crinoline, with parasol, gauze-and-ribbon-trimmed cap, shawl, lace gloves, and chatelaine, all in severe mourning hue, she resembled some baroque, smoke-blackened cathedral which had been set in motion and was gliding over the grass." For every ironic observation, though, there's a yokel - “Ah, I reckon as ’twas... Since owd Doc Bendigo died, he do spend a deal of time down thurr.”
Was I a very undemanding audience as a child? Did I simply accept then that a story that started off in one genre (say Jane-Eyre-lite) could morph into a suspense-drama for a bit, before dotting back into Eyreland and returning into something closer to a Victorian morality story? Or is it that Joan Aiken's natural milieu is children's story-telling, not adult fiction? There are two casualties of the muddled plot, unfortunately. One is a sense of pace: the multiple plot twists come with copious & deliberate exposition (Aiken always"tells" rather than "shows") soI grew impatient (perhaps I've read so much HR since that I could predict what was coming).
The other is any sort of meaningful relationship between the H &h. And I only give them those roles from convention, because they occupy page space. There's no sense of any real connection between them, far less any suggestion that either might develop during the book because of the plot, or each other. Is this just another thing that I've come to take for granted over the last few years? But then I think of [a:Edith Layton|74459|Edith Layton|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1210161988p2/74459.jpg] and the nuanced stories she was writing at much the same time. So, no, JA just isn't cutting it in this genre for me.
I have her autograph, you know. I may go and read that again.
I received a free, advance copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased review.
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