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3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
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.
Skated a bit too closely to romance in several parts (for me anyway) and seemed a bit obvious with regards to some things, but nonetheless a good read. I enjoyed the characters who were well drawn and interesting. Will read the next two I'm sure.
I'm hesitant giving this book three stars. While it was an interesting read,(and I liked the main characters), it drrrrrrrraaaaaagggggggeeeddd on and on, at various points. What was worst, it wouls happen, just as something relevant to the mystery was discovered.
Hopefully, now that A LOT of ground work was laid in the first book, the series will get better.
Hopefully, now that A LOT of ground work was laid in the first book, the series will get better.
2.5 stars
Meh. It was just barely interesting enough to keep me listening through to the end. Rather than being a true mystery novel, it's more of a "lifestyle of the rich and widowed in Victorian England" story, which is interrupted at the end by the climax of the minor plot of the murder mystery. I never grew to like Lady Julia---she's one step up from a typical Too Stupid to Live heroine. Anytime she's told: "DON'T DO THE THING," of course she has to immediately run out and do the thing. And because it's written in first-person, from her POV, I never grew to like Brisbane all that much, either, because I was so disconnected emotionally from her and from everything she did and thought.
So, at least I avoided getting sucked into yet another series.
The narrator, Ellen Archer, annoyed me with her fake British accent (repetitive mispronunciations and accent slippages made it VERY obvious) and pauses/breaks in odd places in the middle of sentences and paragraphs. I've heard samples of other books she does in a regular (generic American) accent, and she sounds much better--with a better rhythm--in those. (She also does commercial voiceovers, like this one for Met Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIYi-wXk7eA) I'd actually purchased this audiobook back in 2008, before the boom, and before there was much information available about the narrators online. I might have enjoyed the book much more had it been narrated by Charlotte Parry, who did the other book of Raybourn's I've listened to twice and enjoyed both times: The Dead Travel Fast.
Meh. It was just barely interesting enough to keep me listening through to the end. Rather than being a true mystery novel, it's more of a "lifestyle of the rich and widowed in Victorian England" story, which is interrupted at the end by the climax of the minor plot of the murder mystery. I never grew to like Lady Julia---she's one step up from a typical Too Stupid to Live heroine. Anytime she's told: "DON'T DO THE THING," of course she has to immediately run out and do the thing. And because it's written in first-person, from her POV, I never grew to like Brisbane all that much, either, because I was so disconnected emotionally from her and from everything she did and thought.
So, at least I avoided getting sucked into yet another series.
The narrator, Ellen Archer, annoyed me with her fake British accent (repetitive mispronunciations and accent slippages made it VERY obvious) and pauses/breaks in odd places in the middle of sentences and paragraphs. I've heard samples of other books she does in a regular (generic American) accent, and she sounds much better--with a better rhythm--in those. (She also does commercial voiceovers, like this one for Met Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIYi-wXk7eA) I'd actually purchased this audiobook back in 2008, before the boom, and before there was much information available about the narrators online. I might have enjoyed the book much more had it been narrated by Charlotte Parry, who did the other book of Raybourn's I've listened to twice and enjoyed both times: The Dead Travel Fast.
Was ultimately disappointed in this because did have some real potential and some interesting characters. Liked the plot twists but just wanted more depth and complexity.
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated