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3.16 AVERAGE
3.16 AVERAGE
the author basically wrote a rom com movie. This is going to be a good move but it’s not great as a book. Also - the main characters don’t spend enough time together to make the romance believable, the author spends way more time on hijinks and shenanigans (too much IMO, it got old after a while) than building up the love story. Like I said, this reads very much as an ensamble cast rom com, which will be good on screen but is bad on paper
This book FLEW by. The style is very simple; despite the regency setting it was not very ornate. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It was easy to follow. I didn't necessarily feel like any of the characters had huge depth though. There were some parts I really liked (fountain scene) and some I didn't (Henry x Julia didn't make sense to me). I do want to want the movie though!
3.5 stars. Fun and easy to read, but it loses out on more stars for not being terribly original.
I decided to read this book after watching the film adaptation, which wasn't perfect but charming enough to get me curious. I really enjoyed the premise, and l wanted to see how the plot would play out in novel form. Unfortunately, the book didn't quite meet my expectations, primarily because the writing made it seem like this book was written for a middle grade audience. While the story itself was charming, the simplistic prose, reliance on telling, and fairly flat characters meant that I struggled to connect with anything. So for that reason, this book only gets 2.5 stars from me.
Writing: Upon starting this book, I was immediately struck by the overreliance on telling instead of showing and the amount of filtering that Allain uses to tell the story. Allain would bluntly tell us that characters were annoyed or jealous or upset, all while using phrases such as "she felt" or "she thought" and the like. All this meant that I didn't feel trusted to interpret the story for myself, and the tone overall felt very middle grade (which I know it wasn't intended to be because there were some references to lust).
Plot: The plot of this book follows Selina Dalton, a vicar's daughter who is brought to London to help her friend Julia seek revenge on the most eligible bachelor of the season: Jeremy Malcolm. After Malcolm escorts Julia to the opera and declines to call on her again, Julia is feeling rather hurt - even more so after she learns Malcolm has a list of qualifications for his future wife, and Julia has failed to meet them. Julia enlists Selina to help humiliate him by introducing her as the perfect woman who will ultimately reject him. However, the plan gets complicated when Selina and Malcolm find themselves genuinely falling for one another.
The core of this plot is actually rather fun and feels very in line with other plots in the romance genre. I'm a fan of narratives in which characters have one impression of each other, but over time, they learn to see their partner (or themselves) as they really are and work through their prejudices.
That being said, the writing style made this plot hard to get excited about. Because everything was told to us point blank, there wasn't a feeling of suspense. Scenes moved so fast that there was no time to explore the character's feelings or psyche, and some of them felt rather childish, which enhanced the feeling of this book being middle grade.
Characters: Selina, our heroine, doesn't have much of a personality unless she is contrasted with the other female characters in this book. We're told that Selina is kind, intelligent, witty, and talented, but there wasn't much on the page that made me think of her as exceptional. Selina only appears to be these things because she is surrounded by selfish, shallow characters such as Julia and Gertie, and I wish there had been a little more to make her feel more fully fleshed out.
Malcolm, our hero, is likewise a little flat. He's a bit gruff at times, but that seems to be swept aside rather quickly in favor of him being perfectly pleasant (though kind of dull). I did like, however, that he had to work through his own judgmental attitude, so I do think Allain deserves credit for that. On the whole, though, I don't think he was a very interesting love interest, and he didn't have many qualities that made me understand why Selina liked him.
Julia, Selina's friend, is fairly selfish and shallow, and her attitude came across much differently than in the film. In the film, her selfishness was somewhat endearing because she was both self-centered yet seemed to genuinely care about Selina. In the book, I had to wonder why Selina put up with her at all, especially since she says multiple times how glad she is to get away from her friend.
Henry, Julia's love interest, is fine except for the fact that he falls in love with Julia for no reason. Cassie, Julia's cousin, is fine as the bumbling-man-who-is-dragged-along-for-the-ride, and he has some admirable moments when he stands up to Malcolm, but later in the book, when he tries his hand at plotting on his own, he just comes across as profoundly incompetent. Other characters likewise fulfill their function but have little to offer for plot or character development.
Romance: While the premise of Malcolm and Selina's romance may fit well in the genre, the way it played out was actually rather dull. Aside from their initial interaction, which felt honest and philosophical, there wasn't much there to convince me that Malcolm and Selina were genuinely falling for one another. I guess one could say that Malcolm starts falling for Selina because she meets the requirements on his list, but then falls for her for real when she stands up for herself, but that's giving Allain a little more credit than I think is due. There isn't a whole lot on the page aside from us being told point blank that the two were falling for one another.
I also think a lot of this relationship was deprived of drama because Allain writes her characters as incredibly self-aware and quick to admit fault. There are a few times when Selina or even Malcolm's mother would explain to Malcolm why he seems to have a list or how the list betrays the inner workings of his psyche. Malcolm likewise is quick to ask for forgiveness and doesn't do much work to make me think he legitimately had a change of heart (in romance-speak, there isn't a period of groveling). It made me feel like all our characters were perfectly fluent in therapy-speech, and while this might make a story "non problematic," it also robbed the romance of dramatic action.
TL;DR: Mr. Malcolm's List has a charming presence but is undercut by the author's writing style. Because Allain relies on telling more than showing while also fumbling the dramatic action and character development, this book felt more aimed at a middle grade audience.
Writing: Upon starting this book, I was immediately struck by the overreliance on telling instead of showing and the amount of filtering that Allain uses to tell the story. Allain would bluntly tell us that characters were annoyed or jealous or upset, all while using phrases such as "she felt" or "she thought" and the like. All this meant that I didn't feel trusted to interpret the story for myself, and the tone overall felt very middle grade (which I know it wasn't intended to be because there were some references to lust).
Plot: The plot of this book follows Selina Dalton, a vicar's daughter who is brought to London to help her friend Julia seek revenge on the most eligible bachelor of the season: Jeremy Malcolm. After Malcolm escorts Julia to the opera and declines to call on her again, Julia is feeling rather hurt - even more so after she learns Malcolm has a list of qualifications for his future wife, and Julia has failed to meet them. Julia enlists Selina to help humiliate him by introducing her as the perfect woman who will ultimately reject him. However, the plan gets complicated when Selina and Malcolm find themselves genuinely falling for one another.
The core of this plot is actually rather fun and feels very in line with other plots in the romance genre. I'm a fan of narratives in which characters have one impression of each other, but over time, they learn to see their partner (or themselves) as they really are and work through their prejudices.
That being said, the writing style made this plot hard to get excited about. Because everything was told to us point blank, there wasn't a feeling of suspense. Scenes moved so fast that there was no time to explore the character's feelings or psyche, and some of them felt rather childish, which enhanced the feeling of this book being middle grade.
Characters: Selina, our heroine, doesn't have much of a personality unless she is contrasted with the other female characters in this book. We're told that Selina is kind, intelligent, witty, and talented, but there wasn't much on the page that made me think of her as exceptional. Selina only appears to be these things because she is surrounded by selfish, shallow characters such as Julia and Gertie, and I wish there had been a little more to make her feel more fully fleshed out.
Malcolm, our hero, is likewise a little flat. He's a bit gruff at times, but that seems to be swept aside rather quickly in favor of him being perfectly pleasant (though kind of dull). I did like, however, that he had to work through his own judgmental attitude, so I do think Allain deserves credit for that. On the whole, though, I don't think he was a very interesting love interest, and he didn't have many qualities that made me understand why Selina liked him.
Julia, Selina's friend, is fairly selfish and shallow, and her attitude came across much differently than in the film. In the film, her selfishness was somewhat endearing because she was both self-centered yet seemed to genuinely care about Selina. In the book, I had to wonder why Selina put up with her at all, especially since she says multiple times how glad she is to get away from her friend.
Henry, Julia's love interest, is fine except for the fact that he falls in love with Julia for no reason. Cassie, Julia's cousin, is fine as the bumbling-man-who-is-dragged-along-for-the-ride, and he has some admirable moments when he stands up to Malcolm, but later in the book, when he tries his hand at plotting on his own, he just comes across as profoundly incompetent. Other characters likewise fulfill their function but have little to offer for plot or character development.
Romance: While the premise of Malcolm and Selina's romance may fit well in the genre, the way it played out was actually rather dull. Aside from their initial interaction, which felt honest and philosophical, there wasn't much there to convince me that Malcolm and Selina were genuinely falling for one another. I guess one could say that Malcolm starts falling for Selina because she meets the requirements on his list, but then falls for her for real when she stands up for herself, but that's giving Allain a little more credit than I think is due. There isn't a whole lot on the page aside from us being told point blank that the two were falling for one another.
I also think a lot of this relationship was deprived of drama because Allain writes her characters as incredibly self-aware and quick to admit fault. There are a few times when Selina or even Malcolm's mother would explain to Malcolm why he seems to have a list or how the list betrays the inner workings of his psyche. Malcolm likewise is quick to ask for forgiveness and doesn't do much work to make me think he legitimately had a change of heart (in romance-speak, there isn't a period of groveling). It made me feel like all our characters were perfectly fluent in therapy-speech, and while this might make a story "non problematic," it also robbed the romance of dramatic action.
TL;DR: Mr. Malcolm's List has a charming presence but is undercut by the author's writing style. Because Allain relies on telling more than showing while also fumbling the dramatic action and character development, this book felt more aimed at a middle grade audience.
Bought this after hearing about it on a podcast and seeing it on a display table at a local bookstore. Reminded that this genre is not for me. Finished it only because it’s short. Headed for the donate pile.
A fun read. Not up to Georgette Heyer's standard, but at least here is an author trying to emulate Heyer. Clean, funny, with lots of interesting side characters. I particularly enjoyed the idiot friend and cousin Cassie.
(I do have to wonder why this book has been made into a movie but not any of Heyer's hilarious romances. Presumably because the author is a screen writer.)
Looking forward to more books by this author, and to seeing the movie eventually.
(I do have to wonder why this book has been made into a movie but not any of Heyer's hilarious romances. Presumably because the author is a screen writer.)
Looking forward to more books by this author, and to seeing the movie eventually.
I’m saving my thoughts for book club but know that I am NOT happy about it