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theenchantedlibrary 's review for:
The Last Dance of the Debutante
by Julia Kelly
First, thank you to Simon & Schuster Canada and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.
I had been extremely hopeful when I read the synopsis of this book. I was expecting the story of 3 young women being forward thinkers in a flawed world that holds on too tightly to traditions of the past. Unfortunately, that is not what I got.
It is disappointing to not have something positive to take away from a book after reading it. I do not want to have reviews where I only speak on the negative without a chance to highlight something positive but that is what I fear this review will be. I’ve seen a lot of love for this book by advanced readers but unfortunately it did not give me the same reaction.
My main concern with this book is that I don’t think it knew what it wanted to be. Was it supposed to be a commentary on archaic traditions? A family drama? An empowering feminist story? A coming of age tale? A story about friendship? It seemed like it wanted all of these themes to be prominent but fell woefully short of each of them.
None of the themes had a solid foothold which offered no payoff to the reader. The characters did not have depth which made any ‘empowerment’ moments unearned and overstated. The arguments between characters were the same over and over with no real growth given to anyone. Every aspect of the characters seemed to be written just to serve a purpose for a plot-point. We were also introduced to a great number of characters who had no purpose and yet we were given their titles and a few other formalities which would have been time better suited to developing our main characters and plot.
Another disappointment was that the book TOLD more than it SHOWED. Everything of importance happened off-page and we, as the readers, are only give the Cole’s Notes version of events… if even that.
As for the relationships, I don’t understand the logic. Nothing happened to make me believe that Lily was the reason for anyone finding her interesting. It was all circumstantial. Particularly when the ‘main love interest’ comes out of nowhere, claims he’s been watching her at events and then says he wanted to meet her because he thought she looked like someone interesting. We have no knowledge of him even hearing her speak before that forced interaction and suddenly he’s taking her home. There is also nothing on page that makes me feel for them as a couple.
Leana and Katherine as characters who also have little purpose. We see Leana most and she is simply a brat. Katherine is hardly around enough for her to be included in the synopsis but I guess she has money and some connections which help Lily near the end of the book. But that’s about it.
The plot was oddly paced and unbalanced. There was a LOT that was attempted to be packed into the last 1/4 of the book and everything else leading up to that had no real point. Everything about the debutante society had little to no impact on the main conflicts near the end of the book. The first 3/4 did not serve to develop the characters or give much information to make the reader feel attached to the drama. It all just felt arbitrary.
In the end, I don’t know what I was supposed to take away from this story aside from time spent wishing for something deeper.
I had been extremely hopeful when I read the synopsis of this book. I was expecting the story of 3 young women being forward thinkers in a flawed world that holds on too tightly to traditions of the past. Unfortunately, that is not what I got.
It is disappointing to not have something positive to take away from a book after reading it. I do not want to have reviews where I only speak on the negative without a chance to highlight something positive but that is what I fear this review will be. I’ve seen a lot of love for this book by advanced readers but unfortunately it did not give me the same reaction.
My main concern with this book is that I don’t think it knew what it wanted to be. Was it supposed to be a commentary on archaic traditions? A family drama? An empowering feminist story? A coming of age tale? A story about friendship? It seemed like it wanted all of these themes to be prominent but fell woefully short of each of them.
None of the themes had a solid foothold which offered no payoff to the reader. The characters did not have depth which made any ‘empowerment’ moments unearned and overstated. The arguments between characters were the same over and over with no real growth given to anyone. Every aspect of the characters seemed to be written just to serve a purpose for a plot-point. We were also introduced to a great number of characters who had no purpose and yet we were given their titles and a few other formalities which would have been time better suited to developing our main characters and plot.
Another disappointment was that the book TOLD more than it SHOWED. Everything of importance happened off-page and we, as the readers, are only give the Cole’s Notes version of events… if even that.
As for the relationships, I don’t understand the logic. Nothing happened to make me believe that Lily was the reason for anyone finding her interesting. It was all circumstantial. Particularly when the ‘main love interest’ comes out of nowhere, claims he’s been watching her at events and then says he wanted to meet her because he thought she looked like someone interesting. We have no knowledge of him even hearing her speak before that forced interaction and suddenly he’s taking her home. There is also nothing on page that makes me feel for them as a couple.
Leana and Katherine as characters who also have little purpose. We see Leana most and she is simply a brat. Katherine is hardly around enough for her to be included in the synopsis but I guess she has money and some connections which help Lily near the end of the book. But that’s about it.
The plot was oddly paced and unbalanced. There was a LOT that was attempted to be packed into the last 1/4 of the book and everything else leading up to that had no real point. Everything about the debutante society had little to no impact on the main conflicts near the end of the book. The first 3/4 did not serve to develop the characters or give much information to make the reader feel attached to the drama. It all just felt arbitrary.
In the end, I don’t know what I was supposed to take away from this story aside from time spent wishing for something deeper.