Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
Since I've now caught up on Raybourn's Veronica Speedwell series, I figured I'd backtrack a bit to her debut in hopes I'd find the same magic.
Spoiler alert: I did not.
Granted, I didn't HATE this book. I just didn't love it as much as I hoped to, considering how much I love the Veronica Speedwell books. And honestly, my love for that series may have been part of the problem: I couldn't help comparing the story and characters, and this first Lady Julia Grey installment came up short.
I'll start with the good: I like the setting and Raybourn's writing, and I didn't mind the characters. I was iffy about Julia at first, but she grew on me throughout the book. She starts off a bit boring and gradually becomes a bit more...daring, I suppose. And I think she’ll become more compelling as the series goes on. I also liked some of the side characters (especially Julia's father), although I do think there were maybe too many side characters introduced here.
And that brings me to my main issue: this book is LONG (my Kindle version clocked in at 436 pages), and there's just SO MUCH going on. There are too many characters, too many plot points, and so many of the characters had their own secrets and whatnot. There's murder, affairs, betrayal, mysterious ailments, an openly lesbian sister, Gypsies, . And honestly, I probably missed something there. It's too much.
The mystery itself is interesting, but it took so long to get going. I figured out the identity of the murderer around...80%, I think (I really should start keeping notes of that sort), but I did not figure out the motive, so that was unexpected at least.
I was iffy about our hero/love interest, Nicholas Brisbane (he's another one with just too much going on), and I feel like his and Julia's burgeoning relationship was just...not developed very well.
I see a lot of reviews complaining about the modern sensibilities of many of the characters, particularly the Grey family. Honestly I just went along with it. Yes, they are probably portrayed as overly progressive and not true to the time period, but I didn't really care that much.
Overall I find myself a bit disappointed by this book. I can't help comparing this to the Veronica Speedwell books; maybe I would be more favorable toward this if I hadn't already read those, but maybe not. As it is, I'll probably try out the next book, but if that one's a dud I may just skip the rest of this series.
Spoiler alert: I did not.
Granted, I didn't HATE this book. I just didn't love it as much as I hoped to, considering how much I love the Veronica Speedwell books. And honestly, my love for that series may have been part of the problem: I couldn't help comparing the story and characters, and this first Lady Julia Grey installment came up short.
I'll start with the good: I like the setting and Raybourn's writing, and I didn't mind the characters. I was iffy about Julia at first, but she grew on me throughout the book. She starts off a bit boring and gradually becomes a bit more...daring, I suppose. And I think she’ll become more compelling as the series goes on. I also liked some of the side characters (especially Julia's father), although I do think there were maybe too many side characters introduced here.
And that brings me to my main issue: this book is LONG (my Kindle version clocked in at 436 pages), and there's just SO MUCH going on. There are too many characters, too many plot points, and so many of the characters had their own secrets and whatnot. There's murder, affairs, betrayal
Spoiler
(albeit from beyond the grave)Spoiler
psychics, and secret gay relationshipsThe mystery itself is interesting, but it took so long to get going. I figured out the identity of the murderer around...80%, I think (I really should start keeping notes of that sort), but I did not figure out the motive, so that was unexpected at least.
I was iffy about our hero/love interest, Nicholas Brisbane (he's another one with just too much going on), and I feel like his and Julia's burgeoning relationship was just...not developed very well.
I see a lot of reviews complaining about the modern sensibilities of many of the characters, particularly the Grey family. Honestly I just went along with it. Yes, they are probably portrayed as overly progressive and not true to the time period, but I didn't really care that much.
Overall I find myself a bit disappointed by this book. I can't help comparing this to the Veronica Speedwell books; maybe I would be more favorable toward this if I hadn't already read those, but maybe not. As it is, I'll probably try out the next book, but if that one's a dud I may just skip the rest of this series.
Winner of the RITA award in 2008 for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements, Silent in the Grave is a well-written Victorian mystery. This is exactly the kind of novel I was looking for when I realized I wanted a little romance mixed with my steady diet of mystery and fantasy stories. As I read through Earlene Fowler's excellent Benni Harper series, I knew it was the well-written relationship story between Gabe and Benni that kept me coming back for the next book. I cast about for more mysteries with strong romantic focus, but found so few I started picking up romantic suspense books instead. That was my first step down the path of ruin... a life as a romance addict. :::sigh::: If I'd found more books like Deanna Raybourn's excellent Silent in the Grave, my entire future might have been different.
The author spends perhaps a little too much time on details and quiet reflections that are meant more for establishing the setting and giving history than advancing the story. And the book is written in first person, which I find distracting at times. But these are minor nitpicks overall. The author succeeded in writing a mystery in which the heroine acted in a believable way throughout. Even her silly mistakes feel like the mistakes of a somewhat sheltered Victorian lady. The characters around her are realistic and fully developed, not cardboard character meant to fill space. The mystery was indeed well-crafted and I didn't solve it until the end. There is some set up for the next book, but very little and not at all distracting.
I'm delighted to discover this author and look forward to the next book in the Lady Julia Grey series.
The author spends perhaps a little too much time on details and quiet reflections that are meant more for establishing the setting and giving history than advancing the story. And the book is written in first person, which I find distracting at times. But these are minor nitpicks overall. The author succeeded in writing a mystery in which the heroine acted in a believable way throughout. Even her silly mistakes feel like the mistakes of a somewhat sheltered Victorian lady. The characters around her are realistic and fully developed, not cardboard character meant to fill space. The mystery was indeed well-crafted and I didn't solve it until the end. There is some set up for the next book, but very little and not at all distracting.
I'm delighted to discover this author and look forward to the next book in the Lady Julia Grey series.
A very entertaining mystery, with lots of romantic tension between the two leads.
This was such a great book. Why did it take me so long to get around to reading it? Great characters, beautiful writing, interesting mystery.
It seems I'm on a run I can't break away from: the last three series I've read have all featured first person POV, told from the perspective of a noble lady in Victorian England whose husband has just died suddenly and finds themselves embroiled in a murder investigation and falling for the mysterious detective involved in the case.
And I sure as hell am not complaining, because HO BOY that is a set of tropes too delish to resist. This particular series is rife with campy melodrama and over-the-top details (She adopts a Tower raven that talks! Her butler is a former Italian acrobat! There's homosexual scandal! Dangerous Romanies causing trouble! Heaving bodices galore!) but I just can't feel guilty for enjoying it as much as I do. A downright hysterically fun outing with colourful characters, a mystery full of intrigue, salacious details, and twisty turns, and the leads are properly volatile with one another. Just a damn good time.
And I sure as hell am not complaining, because HO BOY that is a set of tropes too delish to resist. This particular series is rife with campy melodrama and over-the-top details (She adopts a Tower raven that talks! Her butler is a former Italian acrobat! There's homosexual scandal! Dangerous Romanies causing trouble! Heaving bodices galore!) but I just can't feel guilty for enjoying it as much as I do. A downright hysterically fun outing with colourful characters, a mystery full of intrigue, salacious details, and twisty turns, and the leads are properly volatile with one another. Just a damn good time.
Compelling, but honestly not a book I want lying around my house. Disgusting themes that I feel are unnecessary.
Oh my. So, I just started following the Vaginal Fantasy stuff. I have no interest in the current pick. I only had marginal interest in the alternate, but it's not available via Kindle, so I'm not bothering. But my library had this past pick, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'd been meaning to give the series a try anyway.
This book was SO boring. It started out okay. I thought it was more of a romance, but it's not at all. The heroine is entirely flat. There was no chemistry between Julia and Brisbane. Julia is annoyed in the beginning when she thinks her brother thinks of himself as her better, but she constantly refers to herself as a better of MANY people. I realize that the mindset is part of the period, but in every OTHER way, she and her family don't conform to that thinking, so it was odd that she still did it in that respect. This book technically takes place in Victorian England, but you couldn't tell it from most of the book. The characters actions and opinions are almost entirely 21st century. Even all that might have been okay, except that through most of the book, almost NOTHING happens. There are pages and pages and pages of nothing. This book also can't decide what it's supposed to be. I'm all about mixed genres, but really? A historical mystery romance? Okay. A historical mystery SUPERNATURAL romance? Um, no.
Needless to say I won't be continuing this series.
This book was SO boring. It started out okay. I thought it was more of a romance, but it's not at all. The heroine is entirely flat. There was no chemistry between Julia and Brisbane. Julia is annoyed in the beginning when she thinks her brother thinks of himself as her better, but she constantly refers to herself as a better of MANY people. I realize that the mindset is part of the period, but in every OTHER way, she and her family don't conform to that thinking, so it was odd that she still did it in that respect. This book technically takes place in Victorian England, but you couldn't tell it from most of the book. The characters actions and opinions are almost entirely 21st century. Even all that might have been okay, except that through most of the book, almost NOTHING happens. There are pages and pages and pages of nothing. This book also can't decide what it's supposed to be. I'm all about mixed genres, but really? A historical mystery romance? Okay. A historical mystery SUPERNATURAL romance? Um, no.
Needless to say I won't be continuing this series.
I adored this book! i loved the characters.... i could not have predicted the ending and i loved the world that was created and can't wait to read more of this series in the future!
At a dinner party Sir Edward Grey collapses and is soon dead. Everyone believes it was from his family's curse of heart problems, but dinner guest Nicholas Brisbane has the audacity to suggest foul play to Edward's wife Julia. It is some time later that Lady Julia finds a threatening note in Edward's study and realizes that Brisbane was right. She hires him to investigate the murder, but insists on being partners in the investigation.
I enjoyed everything about this book: the writing, the characters, the murder mystery. (Even though I figured it out fairly early, it didn't spoil the story.) I also loved the tension between Brisbane and Julia. Very entertaining, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
I enjoyed everything about this book: the writing, the characters, the murder mystery. (Even though I figured it out fairly early, it didn't spoil the story.) I also loved the tension between Brisbane and Julia. Very entertaining, and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.
This series was recommended ever so thoroughly to me, as it seems to be absolutely my thing (England, lady mystery-solver, historical setting), and I think it simultaneously a) was oversold to me and 2) has elements I just don't like. It's terribly competent in doing its thing; I just don't like the thing.
I was expecting, I don't know, something more serious. I was not expecting to be introduced to a forcibly whimsical cast of characters. I was not expecting a romance-novel-style asshole hero. I was not expecting the heroine to make quite so many boneheaded moves.
I think it's that this is written like a certain kind of romance novel that does not work for me (some do, and I enjoy them thoroughly, but my tastes are very specific), except there's not a romantic resolution at the end of the first book, plus there's some dead people and some mystery solvin'. This again should be right up my alley, but the execution fell down for me.
Mostly I just cannot make myself be allured by a hero who says, "If you do X, I will not be responsible for my actions." No, jackass. You're always responsible. To place the blame for your actions - presumably harmful ones - on the heroine, in order to control her? Yeah. I'm checked out and could care less whether your emotionally stunted wooing over corpses is successful. This is a certain brand of romance hero who has little more personality than "hot" and "brooding" by which I remain utterly unentranced. Also, I will admit my bias for a clever heroine, and so far Lady Julia isn't cutting it.
All that, and I still give it three stars. It was competent, yes, and I will read at least a couple of sequels. It almost scratches the itch, and it remains to be seen if the other books magnify the problems or resolve them.
I was expecting, I don't know, something more serious. I was not expecting to be introduced to a forcibly whimsical cast of characters. I was not expecting a romance-novel-style asshole hero. I was not expecting the heroine to make quite so many boneheaded moves.
I think it's that this is written like a certain kind of romance novel that does not work for me (some do, and I enjoy them thoroughly, but my tastes are very specific), except there's not a romantic resolution at the end of the first book, plus there's some dead people and some mystery solvin'. This again should be right up my alley, but the execution fell down for me.
Mostly I just cannot make myself be allured by a hero who says, "If you do X, I will not be responsible for my actions." No, jackass. You're always responsible. To place the blame for your actions - presumably harmful ones - on the heroine, in order to control her? Yeah. I'm checked out and could care less whether your emotionally stunted wooing over corpses is successful. This is a certain brand of romance hero who has little more personality than "hot" and "brooding" by which I remain utterly unentranced. Also, I will admit my bias for a clever heroine, and so far Lady Julia isn't cutting it.
All that, and I still give it three stars. It was competent, yes, and I will read at least a couple of sequels. It almost scratches the itch, and it remains to be seen if the other books magnify the problems or resolve them.