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A review by moonlightcupofcocoa
Murder in Season by Mary Winters
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I first wanted to say thank you for the opportunity to read the ARC. As someone who loves historical fiction, I was more than excited to give the book a try. Anything set in the Regency or Victorian eras would be immediately interesting to me.
Murder in Season would be a good fit for Bridgerton fans who are looking for romance with a whodunit plot. Even though I hadn't read the previous books in the series, it didn't present a blocker for me to dig into this book and catch up with what the characters are up to. The book makes sure to bring you up to speed pretty quickly.
I appreciated the fashion descriptions and the general aesthetic described in the scenes. All characters (almost) wear the most beautiful clothes and live in glorious, scenic houses. It's easy to find yourself imagining the spaces as you read.
Unfortunately, despite enjoying the aesthetic, I found myself really not enjoying the characters. I thought I'd be rooting for Amelia and her love interest. I thought I'd enjoy the side characters, but sadly that didn't happen. The characters often felt flat, and at times very obnoxious.
It's understandable of course with some of the side characters that are clearly meant to be disliked, but that unfortunately extended to Amelia and her sister, Madge. It isn't that I dislike characters with flaws, it's that the book seems treats them as if they can do no wrong.
The other problem I personally had was with historical inaccuracies. I don't necessarily expect everything to be perfect. I've enjoyed many books that had the occasional historical misstep. The problem here is I found myself feeling that the book often forgot the Regency setting until it was beneficial for the vibes.
Characters often enough acted in modern ways that really wouldn't make sense in the setting. Or at times, makes the story less powerful. I love strong, outspoken female leads. Especially in historical fiction. But for that to work, there needs to be consequences to acting against the norms. That's what makes them impressive, that despite facing great consequences they still did what they needed to do. In most cases in this story, the consequences were very vague and/or subdued. Someone may get their feelings hurt perhaps. A glare. That's it.
There are other glaring issues. Ignoring the fact that Amelia was the daughter of an inn keeper and married a titled gentleman (I am a romantic at heart so I appreciate the appeal and the fantasy every now and then), the book started pushing it even further by making Amelia's mother ask and expect for Madge, Amelia's daughter, to attend the season. That wouldn't happen. Amelia would barely be tolerated by society at that point. Especially when her husband is dead, even more so when they were married for a very short time.
Assuming that her husband's family were so enamoured by her, and were even progressive enough to accept her, the rest of the ton would not. Not even with all that wealth. I find it hard to believe they would then attend a ball thrown in her sister's honour. And even more so, that wealthy bachelors would show interest in her so quickly. So much so that someone would comment on how half the bachelors are after her? Everyone is gushing about Madge. Only ones that don't clearly have ulterior motives or are just plainly villainous.
The writing style itself was fine at times. Other times, I found myself skimming entire paragraphs, or pages, because it felt they were repeating things we've already read before. Sometimes they restated the same things the characters just said a few sentences ago with little to no additions.
While the characters and the historical inaccuracies were enough for me to find the read tedious, I still can see some readers enjoying this.
Read it for the fashion and aesthetic.
Murder in Season would be a good fit for Bridgerton fans who are looking for romance with a whodunit plot. Even though I hadn't read the previous books in the series, it didn't present a blocker for me to dig into this book and catch up with what the characters are up to. The book makes sure to bring you up to speed pretty quickly.
I appreciated the fashion descriptions and the general aesthetic described in the scenes. All characters (almost) wear the most beautiful clothes and live in glorious, scenic houses. It's easy to find yourself imagining the spaces as you read.
Unfortunately, despite enjoying the aesthetic, I found myself really not enjoying the characters. I thought I'd be rooting for Amelia and her love interest. I thought I'd enjoy the side characters, but sadly that didn't happen. The characters often felt flat, and at times very obnoxious.
It's understandable of course with some of the side characters that are clearly meant to be disliked, but that unfortunately extended to Amelia and her sister, Madge. It isn't that I dislike characters with flaws, it's that the book seems treats them as if they can do no wrong.
The other problem I personally had was with historical inaccuracies. I don't necessarily expect everything to be perfect. I've enjoyed many books that had the occasional historical misstep. The problem here is I found myself feeling that the book often forgot the Regency setting until it was beneficial for the vibes.
Characters often enough acted in modern ways that really wouldn't make sense in the setting. Or at times, makes the story less powerful. I love strong, outspoken female leads. Especially in historical fiction. But for that to work, there needs to be consequences to acting against the norms. That's what makes them impressive, that despite facing great consequences they still did what they needed to do. In most cases in this story, the consequences were very vague and/or subdued. Someone may get their feelings hurt perhaps. A glare. That's it.
There are other glaring issues. Ignoring the fact that Amelia was the daughter of an inn keeper and married a titled gentleman (I am a romantic at heart so I appreciate the appeal and the fantasy every now and then), the book started pushing it even further by making Amelia's mother ask and expect for Madge, Amelia's daughter, to attend the season. That wouldn't happen. Amelia would barely be tolerated by society at that point. Especially when her husband is dead, even more so when they were married for a very short time.
Assuming that her husband's family were so enamoured by her, and were even progressive enough to accept her, the rest of the ton would not. Not even with all that wealth. I find it hard to believe they would then attend a ball thrown in her sister's honour. And even more so, that wealthy bachelors would show interest in her so quickly. So much so that someone would comment on how half the bachelors are after her? Everyone is gushing about Madge. Only ones that don't clearly have ulterior motives or are just plainly villainous.
The writing style itself was fine at times. Other times, I found myself skimming entire paragraphs, or pages, because it felt they were repeating things we've already read before. Sometimes they restated the same things the characters just said a few sentences ago with little to no additions.
While the characters and the historical inaccuracies were enough for me to find the read tedious, I still can see some readers enjoying this.
Read it for the fashion and aesthetic.