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cj82487 's review for:
A Monstrous Regiment of Women
by Laurie R. King
The 2nd in the Mary Russell series, I decided to tackle this one as an audiobook instead of reading. I’m trying to get better at listening to books and I wanted to knock out some of the unfinished series that I have piling up on my TBR.
First things first, the narrator on this one, Jenny Sterlin, is fantastic. She really made the book come alive and she fit the voice of Mary that I had in my head from reading The Beekeeper’s Apprentice perfectly. She made the story come alive and I think I might have to tackle the rest of the series as audiobooks, if she is the one reading anyways.
This one was a little slow in comparison to its prequel. I didn’t feel like it matched the pacing the previous book had and there was a lot more politics involved than the mystery associated with Sherlock-themed novels. The mystery to be solved and the solving of it was all tangled in this web of a different story and I felt it distracted from it, but overall still an intriguing story and didn’t make me lose interest in the future books.
I think the flaw of this one in comparison to the previous book was the number of unlikable characters. I didn’t like any of the ladies Mary interacted with and found them all rather annoying. If that was the kind of women Mary constantly interacted with, it’s no wonder she took to academic life like a moth to a flame because I would have done the same were I in her shoes.
Without giving a spoiler, I really try my hardest to avoid that in book reviews, the relationship growth between Mary and Sherlock took me a little by surprise. This one also had far less of Sherlock, Mycroft, and Uncle John in it which I had a love/hate relationship with. The way Mary interacted with Sherlock is what had me hooked in the first book. They were like bickering siblings a lot of the time and I loved it. She also took on some of his mannerisms while still keeping true to herself and I liked that aspect, but in this one, they become more single-minded in a way. Instead of complimenting each other and holding their own, they were on the same page when they were together and it was a little boring, to be honest. I like the banter and the debating, but there wasn’t a whole lot of that in the second Mary Russell novel.
With all of that said, the narrator made me still wanting to press play and listen to what unfolded. I think had I been reading, I might have thrown in the towel because of the boring aspects of the “New Temple of God” and Margery Childe’s influence, but the narrator made it worth my while to stay in the story. I look forward to the next Mary Russell novel and will most likely listen to it rather than read.
First things first, the narrator on this one, Jenny Sterlin, is fantastic. She really made the book come alive and she fit the voice of Mary that I had in my head from reading The Beekeeper’s Apprentice perfectly. She made the story come alive and I think I might have to tackle the rest of the series as audiobooks, if she is the one reading anyways.
This one was a little slow in comparison to its prequel. I didn’t feel like it matched the pacing the previous book had and there was a lot more politics involved than the mystery associated with Sherlock-themed novels. The mystery to be solved and the solving of it was all tangled in this web of a different story and I felt it distracted from it, but overall still an intriguing story and didn’t make me lose interest in the future books.
I think the flaw of this one in comparison to the previous book was the number of unlikable characters. I didn’t like any of the ladies Mary interacted with and found them all rather annoying. If that was the kind of women Mary constantly interacted with, it’s no wonder she took to academic life like a moth to a flame because I would have done the same were I in her shoes.
Without giving a spoiler, I really try my hardest to avoid that in book reviews, the relationship growth between Mary and Sherlock took me a little by surprise. This one also had far less of Sherlock, Mycroft, and Uncle John in it which I had a love/hate relationship with. The way Mary interacted with Sherlock is what had me hooked in the first book. They were like bickering siblings a lot of the time and I loved it. She also took on some of his mannerisms while still keeping true to herself and I liked that aspect, but in this one, they become more single-minded in a way. Instead of complimenting each other and holding their own, they were on the same page when they were together and it was a little boring, to be honest. I like the banter and the debating, but there wasn’t a whole lot of that in the second Mary Russell novel.
With all of that said, the narrator made me still wanting to press play and listen to what unfolded. I think had I been reading, I might have thrown in the towel because of the boring aspects of the “New Temple of God” and Margery Childe’s influence, but the narrator made it worth my while to stay in the story. I look forward to the next Mary Russell novel and will most likely listen to it rather than read.