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A review by bklassen
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I really wanted this book to be for me, but it really wasn’t. I do think there were elements that drew me to the book, but plot points or writing style put me off.
This book is chock-a-block full of ✨ whimsy ✨, but at one point, I realized it was just too much. I think it was a combination of adding things for the sake of adding things, the flippant tone became too flippant, and the book didn’t seem to follow its own internal logic.
Things in books don’t always have to follow “real world logic” (see other weird or wild books like Neverwhere, pretty much any Terry Pratchett novel, or The Library at Mount Char, to name a few), but they do have to follow their own logic. It’s tough for this book since it plays with a lot of historical Victorian conventions, norms, people, and events, but then twists them for this story, but at least follow your own logic.
A big example that kept popping up was that the lady scoundrels would talk about being a proper lady, etiquette, and rules, which follow traditional Victorian beliefs and customs. These included not talking about murder at the dinner table, unmarried women not being alone with a man to maintain their reputation, not swearing, and classic Victorian ideas about sex and nudity. And yet Cecilia manages to be alone with Ned practically all the time and no one bats an eye, Cecilia will mention murder at the dinner table at one time and be scolded, then the Aunt will go on about murder later at the table, and also Ned has to retrieve a key from the vagina of an older lady in society. Yes, you read that correctly, right after he fishes the key for her chastity belt from her bodice. My jaw dropped to the floor and that scene solidified that I couldn’t follow this path the book had laid out.
Flippancy was the name of the game of this book – the women would rob everyone blind and there were never repercussions. And it wasn’t secret, and all the townspeople were afraid of them and yet continued to live in a place occupied by a group of women who thieve constantly? And good god, the amount of banter in this book was too much to bear, and I say that as a person who *LOVES* banter. I think because it was constantly used, didn’t make me laugh beyond a couple of times, and didn’t further the plot or show us any insight into the characters, because they were already telling us how they felt all the time.
That was another thing – the women joke about being scoundrels and basically murdering and pillaging, except we all agree that murder is quite bad and taking someone’s life is worse than taking their things, so while everyone talks a big game about being these badass women who wreak havoc, no one goes farther than stealing. They’re just robbers.
All the men in this book are bumbling idiots except for the love interest and his hot friend who is the love interest in the next book.
Ned himself was CONSTANTLY thinking about boning Cecilia to that point that it got distracting and not sexy or fun for me. He also seemingly fell in love with her at first sight, which is annoying for me in any book.
The houses flew – but why? There wasn’t that much world building that explained why that was how magic worked, why no one could use magic beyond flying houses…
There’s a character who is 16, lies to a guy about her age and hooks up with him (he is 19), and when he gets mad about it, the book laughs it off and says “but look how stupid he is! He’s a guy!” It all felt a little icky to me.
There’s no stakes or character development – Cecilie remains snarky and pretty deluded about what she wants in life (until of course her love interest has to pursue her relentlessly despite her regularly telling him that she won’t be with him), and the “twist” at the end was seen from 300 miles away. The villain was not intimidating or powerful in the slightest, and part of that stems from his over-the-top cartoonishly sexist and misogynistic ideals and plan. I’m sure there are people out there like that, but it was beyond the pale for me.
I’m rambling at this point about my frustrations, and I am aware that this is a book best enjoyed when you shut off all the parts of your brain that cannot suspend disbelief or point out illogical elements. But I’m a big believer in setting expectations for a book, and should you want anything more than a whacky story with fantasy in one aspect (flying houses) and a romance plot first and foremost, then I would recommend you look elsewhere. Or if you can just turn off your brain and read, this might work. But it didn’t work for me.
This book is chock-a-block full of ✨ whimsy ✨, but at one point, I realized it was just too much. I think it was a combination of adding things for the sake of adding things, the flippant tone became too flippant, and the book didn’t seem to follow its own internal logic.
Things in books don’t always have to follow “real world logic” (see other weird or wild books like Neverwhere, pretty much any Terry Pratchett novel, or The Library at Mount Char, to name a few), but they do have to follow their own logic. It’s tough for this book since it plays with a lot of historical Victorian conventions, norms, people, and events, but then twists them for this story, but at least follow your own logic.
A big example that kept popping up was that the lady scoundrels would talk about being a proper lady, etiquette, and rules, which follow traditional Victorian beliefs and customs. These included not talking about murder at the dinner table, unmarried women not being alone with a man to maintain their reputation, not swearing, and classic Victorian ideas about sex and nudity. And yet Cecilia manages to be alone with Ned practically all the time and no one bats an eye, Cecilia will mention murder at the dinner table at one time and be scolded, then the Aunt will go on about murder later at the table, and also Ned has to retrieve a key from the vagina of an older lady in society. Yes, you read that correctly, right after he fishes the key for her chastity belt from her bodice. My jaw dropped to the floor and that scene solidified that I couldn’t follow this path the book had laid out.
Flippancy was the name of the game of this book – the women would rob everyone blind and there were never repercussions. And it wasn’t secret, and all the townspeople were afraid of them and yet continued to live in a place occupied by a group of women who thieve constantly? And good god, the amount of banter in this book was too much to bear, and I say that as a person who *LOVES* banter. I think because it was constantly used, didn’t make me laugh beyond a couple of times, and didn’t further the plot or show us any insight into the characters, because they were already telling us how they felt all the time.
That was another thing – the women joke about being scoundrels and basically murdering and pillaging, except we all agree that murder is quite bad and taking someone’s life is worse than taking their things, so while everyone talks a big game about being these badass women who wreak havoc, no one goes farther than stealing. They’re just robbers.
All the men in this book are bumbling idiots except for the love interest and his hot friend who is the love interest in the next book.
Ned himself was CONSTANTLY thinking about boning Cecilia to that point that it got distracting and not sexy or fun for me. He also seemingly fell in love with her at first sight, which is annoying for me in any book.
The houses flew – but why? There wasn’t that much world building that explained why that was how magic worked, why no one could use magic beyond flying houses…
There’s a character who is 16, lies to a guy about her age and hooks up with him (he is 19), and when he gets mad about it, the book laughs it off and says “but look how stupid he is! He’s a guy!” It all felt a little icky to me.
There’s no stakes or character development – Cecilie remains snarky and pretty deluded about what she wants in life (until of course her love interest has to pursue her relentlessly despite her regularly telling him that she won’t be with him), and the “twist” at the end was seen from 300 miles away. The villain was not intimidating or powerful in the slightest, and part of that stems from his over-the-top cartoonishly sexist and misogynistic ideals and plan. I’m sure there are people out there like that, but it was beyond the pale for me.
I’m rambling at this point about my frustrations, and I am aware that this is a book best enjoyed when you shut off all the parts of your brain that cannot suspend disbelief or point out illogical elements. But I’m a big believer in setting expectations for a book, and should you want anything more than a whacky story with fantasy in one aspect (flying houses) and a romance plot first and foremost, then I would recommend you look elsewhere. Or if you can just turn off your brain and read, this might work. But it didn’t work for me.