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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm giving this 3, but I'd really like to give it 3.5 if that were an option.
The first half (really over half) of this book was fluff. It was so hard to read and remain interested. I usually finish books in about a week, but this one took me a month because I couldn't read more than a chapter at a time without getting bored.
The second half of the book gradually gets more interesting, but you don't really understand what the plot is until about 2/3 of the way through the book. I genuinely had no idea where the book was going until wayyyyyy further than I should've.
BUT all that to say, the fluff does allow you to get to know the characters better. Granted, the description of the book makes it look like it's going to focus on a woman and her career more than the story that it does end up focusing on in the end, but I did shed a tear or 2, signifying that I did enjoy the novel at least a little bit.
Anyway. All that to say, the fluff was annoying but the story overall in the second half was good.
The first half (really over half) of this book was fluff. It was so hard to read and remain interested. I usually finish books in about a week, but this one took me a month because I couldn't read more than a chapter at a time without getting bored.
The second half of the book gradually gets more interesting, but you don't really understand what the plot is until about 2/3 of the way through the book. I genuinely had no idea where the book was going until wayyyyyy further than I should've.
BUT all that to say, the fluff does allow you to get to know the characters better. Granted, the description of the book makes it look like it's going to focus on a woman and her career more than the story that it does end up focusing on in the end, but I did shed a tear or 2, signifying that I did enjoy the novel at least a little bit.
Anyway. All that to say, the fluff was annoying but the story overall in the second half was good.
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I saw this book on a list of “unusual” love stories months ago and thought it would be a great summer vacation read, so I packed it along for our vacation last week. I was luckily right about it being a good vacation read, but curiously the love story is its weakest aspect. The slowly blooming romance between Hugh and Beatrice falls oddly flat.
But the rest of the book is terrific. Beatrice has served as her scholarly father’s assistant for years, but is left at the mercy of her tightly bound trust fund after he dies. She accepts a position as a Latin teacher in the Sussex town of Rye to escape her stifling relatives and is plunged into Rye's complex social mini-dramas, including a vocal and determined group who are scandalized by the idea of a female Latin teacher. All the while the larger drama of WWI is building and then crashes around them. I loved this book- there are a dozen lovably flawed, memorable characters: Aunt Agatha, Beatrice’s first fierce supporter; Snout, the working class boy who is Beatrice’s best student; Bettina Fothergill, the pompous, malicious mayor’s wife; Daniel, Agatha’s idealistic poet nephew. Great book, but if it’s a romance you want, look elsewhere. The relationship between Aunt Agatha and Uncle John is far more interesting than the one between Hugh and Beatrice.
But the rest of the book is terrific. Beatrice has served as her scholarly father’s assistant for years, but is left at the mercy of her tightly bound trust fund after he dies. She accepts a position as a Latin teacher in the Sussex town of Rye to escape her stifling relatives and is plunged into Rye's complex social mini-dramas, including a vocal and determined group who are scandalized by the idea of a female Latin teacher. All the while the larger drama of WWI is building and then crashes around them. I loved this book- there are a dozen lovably flawed, memorable characters: Aunt Agatha, Beatrice’s first fierce supporter; Snout, the working class boy who is Beatrice’s best student; Bettina Fothergill, the pompous, malicious mayor’s wife; Daniel, Agatha’s idealistic poet nephew. Great book, but if it’s a romance you want, look elsewhere. The relationship between Aunt Agatha and Uncle John is far more interesting than the one between Hugh and Beatrice.
Audiobook from library. Really lovely little novel, especially if you miss Downton Abbey.
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
I received a free ARC of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks, Netgalley!
I hope the author doesn't get tired of comparisons of this book to either Jane Austen or Downton Abbey, because I'm afraid I'm going to make both of them. This is a delightful and deft comedy of manners. Most of the cast of characters strike me as entirely ridiculous in their ceremony, but I think Simonson does a wonderful job of blending the realities of such a time that really did stand on that ceremony with a caricature of how such things could manifest in the extreme. The sharp wit of the characters made me smile, and I found myself spoiling for a fight between several of them. The fierce independence and fortitude of Beatrice and Agatha is refreshing, and the struggles they face, particularly Beatrice, are sharply felt and ire-inducing in this modern time where it's unfathomable that a woman might not command her own affairs. In this way it's a slightly modernized Austenesque comedy set against the backdrop of my personal favorite of historical conflicts.
(Okay, on further reflection, the only way in which it reminds me of Downton Abbey (other than I listened to the soundtrack a lot while reading it) is in the pageantry and ceremony of characters big and small. This is something that's always fascinated me because it is so foreign--being American I have no history of landed gentry or nobles or whatever-you-call-them, so I watch things like Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey with rapt attention. )
I hope the author doesn't get tired of comparisons of this book to either Jane Austen or Downton Abbey, because I'm afraid I'm going to make both of them. This is a delightful and deft comedy of manners. Most of the cast of characters strike me as entirely ridiculous in their ceremony, but I think Simonson does a wonderful job of blending the realities of such a time that really did stand on that ceremony with a caricature of how such things could manifest in the extreme. The sharp wit of the characters made me smile, and I found myself spoiling for a fight between several of them. The fierce independence and fortitude of Beatrice and Agatha is refreshing, and the struggles they face, particularly Beatrice, are sharply felt and ire-inducing in this modern time where it's unfathomable that a woman might not command her own affairs. In this way it's a slightly modernized Austenesque comedy set against the backdrop of my personal favorite of historical conflicts.
(Okay, on further reflection, the only way in which it reminds me of Downton Abbey (other than I listened to the soundtrack a lot while reading it) is in the pageantry and ceremony of characters big and small. This is something that's always fascinated me because it is so foreign--being American I have no history of landed gentry or nobles or whatever-you-call-them, so I watch things like Upstairs Downstairs and Downton Abbey with rapt attention. )
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No