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karenchase's review against another edition
4.0
The conclusion to this trilogy was as irresistibly readable as the previous volumes. The hijinx of the high-born continue as Arthur and Minnie’s happy marriage settles in and devolves into a morass as the husband and wife are frustrated by their cultural expectations and limitations, and their lack of communication culminates in a dramatic act that nearly tears the family apart. The Earl and Countess prepare for a visit from royalty, with all the fuss and bother that can be expected of such an honour. And Rosina returns from Australia and steps right back into her life of intellect, verging on the bohemian. As with the previous books, the title only hints at the substance, and its significance is only revealed toward the very end, in which the climax and denouement occur in rapid succession after such a long, slow buildup, I didn’t even realize that’s what I was reading. It is a smart and charming story.
emilymdilley's review against another edition
1.0
This entire series was so frustrating to me. The author wrote literal "squirrel!" moments into the book. Except those moments were the most important events that the entire book was leading up to!
She writes characters that seem to become important, and then they are just as quickly abandoned; their stories completed with some weird way of writing them off. Other characters are gone for a while and then come back for an equally strange reason. Sometimes characters completely change their mind and outlook on their world in what feels like just a couple of paragraphs. I feel like the author brainstormed great characters with interesting, half-formed backstories and just never bothered to finish them. Instead, she decided she was bored with them and wanted to go write about something else instead...leading to another character that would have the same fate.
Story lines that seem to be converging just never do. Or if they do, the actual climax point is told as an epilogue, or afterthought from a character looking back on an event. Babies are born ten minutes after lab or starts, and everything just works out fine even though the characters were so naive they didn't even know how a baby would get out of a body! Ladies turn into hardened criminals in days and then are randomly accepted into the family again. The farther into this series I read, the more confused I became.
The first book was bad. The next two were much worse. Get your Downton Abbey fix elsewhere.
She writes characters that seem to become important, and then they are just as quickly abandoned; their stories completed with some weird way of writing them off. Other characters are gone for a while and then come back for an equally strange reason. Sometimes characters completely change their mind and outlook on their world in what feels like just a couple of paragraphs. I feel like the author brainstormed great characters with interesting, half-formed backstories and just never bothered to finish them. Instead, she decided she was bored with them and wanted to go write about something else instead...leading to another character that would have the same fate.
Story lines that seem to be converging just never do. Or if they do, the actual climax point is told as an epilogue, or afterthought from a character looking back on an event. Babies are born ten minutes after lab or starts, and everything just works out fine even though the characters were so naive they didn't even know how a baby would get out of a body! Ladies turn into hardened criminals in days and then are randomly accepted into the family again. The farther into this series I read, the more confused I became.
The first book was bad. The next two were much worse. Get your Downton Abbey fix elsewhere.
krismcd59's review against another edition
4.0
Fans of Downton Abbey have been drawn to Weldon's trilogy hoping for more of their beloved above-and-below stairs soapiness, and many were disappointed to find the Dilberne clan to be such a lot of snooty, venal, narrow-minded, horny rotters -- and their downstairs staff no better. But Weldon, who wrote the pilot episodes of Upstairs Downstairs, brings her trademark snarkiness about gender and class relations to the over-romanticized world of Edwardian manor drama. This third installment is a wickedly funny conclusion to the saga, and offers an efficient portrait of just what kinds of attitudes brought about the cataclysmic -- and welcome -- end of the British class system that the makers of Downton Abbey seem to wish was still in effect.
jesskmwallace's review against another edition
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.0
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