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A review by allusory
The Scandalous Letters of V and J by Felicia Davin
2.0
As a big fan of Felicia Davin's newsletter, I was really excited when she announced a serialization of her newest novel via email and signed up right away. An epistolary novel of letters between lovers seemed like an ideal novel to read in daily emailed micro-doses.
Unfortunately while the idea was sound, this novel was a very slow read that I likely would have DNF'd if I weren't getting it in my inbox. I found myself continually hoping that a the pace would pick up and the plot would get more exciting. Part of the problem with the pacing, is that the primary POV character that starts the novel essentially disappears for a third of the novel and the POV switches entirely to the secondary character's POV. While this could have worked to heighten tension, unfortunately the MIA character is the one doing interesting plot relevant things while the other is mostly pining in their diary.
It didn't help that I found the central romance to be lacking. They fall in love very quickly and with little interaction, then spend most of the book apart writing pining diary entries that failed to prove compelling reading.
Unfortunately while the idea was sound, this novel was a very slow read that I likely would have DNF'd if I weren't getting it in my inbox. I found myself continually hoping that a the pace would pick up and the plot would get more exciting. Part of the problem with the pacing, is that the primary POV character that starts the novel essentially disappears for a third of the novel and the POV switches entirely to the secondary character's POV. While this could have worked to heighten tension, unfortunately the MIA character is the one doing interesting plot relevant things while the other is mostly pining in their diary.
It didn't help that I found the central romance to be lacking. They fall in love very quickly and with little interaction, then spend most of the book apart writing pining diary entries that failed to prove compelling reading.