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donnaslair's review
4.0
I read this book about a year ago. I'm a fan of Peters' Amelia Peabody series, and this (along with Vicky Bliss) is a somewhat less well-known series.
I enjoyed the lampooning of the Historical Romance community. As an avid HR reader, I think it helps to have a sense of humor, as its all just too silly to be taken seriously. I also like the Jacqueline Kirby character, though she can come across as harsh sometimes. The mystery was well formed, and it wasn't until the last 15% or so that I had an idea whodunnit.
Really my only knock against it was that Kirby's relationship status was muddy throughout, and left me wondering what the heck was going on. But as it wasn't really central to the story, it was easy to overlook.
I enjoyed the lampooning of the Historical Romance community. As an avid HR reader, I think it helps to have a sense of humor, as its all just too silly to be taken seriously. I also like the Jacqueline Kirby character, though she can come across as harsh sometimes. The mystery was well formed, and it wasn't until the last 15% or so that I had an idea whodunnit.
Really my only knock against it was that Kirby's relationship status was muddy throughout, and left me wondering what the heck was going on. But as it wasn't really central to the story, it was easy to overlook.
missmarketpaperback's review
3.0
So I still feel very torn about this book. It has a lot of the old fashioned tropes of the other Kirby books that I don’t like (fat=evil, etc). It’s set at a Historical Romance Conference, which was at times hilarious and at other times annoying. This book was published in the hey day of Old School Romance, so there’s a lot of talk about romance being not feminist and full of rape, which was true at the time. There’s a lot of poking fun at romance as well as enthusiasm for romance, so it was hard to tell the author’s true feelings (cynical bemusement? Self-aware glee?). The mystery aspect and tension were not as strong as the previous Jacqueline Kirbys, but it was fun to finally have a book from her POV.
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