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A review by mrpitmansgranddaughter
Mrs England by Stacey Halls
4.0
Stacey Halls books are like a warm cup of tea of a cold winter’s day. They are atmospheric, full of lovable characters and warming. They feel safe, you know you are going to get a solid read, a well thought through story and you know you can get lost in the worlds she so beautifully brings to life.
Mrs England is my third Stacey Halls read and certainly didn’t let me down. It was exactly what I was expecting, not in terms of the story but in the comfort of the writing I have come to expect.
I could anticipate some criticism for the pacing of the book, I would say that a good two-thirds of the book feels like scene-setting and character development and building and weaving the story before it comes together in the final third. For me this didn’t feel like an issue, I needed to build relationships with the characters and draw my own conclusions, with my thoughts changing on each multiple times. I never once felt like I was willing things to move faster.
I think my only criticism and it is small and links to huge spoilers, so I won’t dwell. But the ‘big’ moment felt maybe too obvious, I think I would have liked there to be a little more complexity there, but I also felt it was recovered slightly at the end.
Ah the ending!! What I enjoyed was that this wasn’t the ‘happy ending’ I predicted, I was still left content and fuzzy with how Halls wrapped up the story, but it wasn’t what my heart was willing, and it was nice to be taken on a different route. Reminding me that happy endings are not always the obvious ones. And then just as you feel you can close the book with that warm fuzzy feeling the final carrot is dangled and let me tell you … I LOVE an open ending.
It’s the perfect autumn book, it has enough historical elements to set the scene but not too much that you have to whip out your old history books to check timelines (guilty as charged), it's atmospheric and a great read for a book club. I will continue to jump on any of Stacey Halls work, knowing that for me she offers the safety in a book that I occasionally need.
Mrs England is my third Stacey Halls read and certainly didn’t let me down. It was exactly what I was expecting, not in terms of the story but in the comfort of the writing I have come to expect.
I could anticipate some criticism for the pacing of the book, I would say that a good two-thirds of the book feels like scene-setting and character development and building and weaving the story before it comes together in the final third. For me this didn’t feel like an issue, I needed to build relationships with the characters and draw my own conclusions, with my thoughts changing on each multiple times. I never once felt like I was willing things to move faster.
I think my only criticism and it is small and links to huge spoilers, so I won’t dwell. But the ‘big’ moment felt maybe too obvious, I think I would have liked there to be a little more complexity there, but I also felt it was recovered slightly at the end.
Ah the ending!! What I enjoyed was that this wasn’t the ‘happy ending’ I predicted, I was still left content and fuzzy with how Halls wrapped up the story, but it wasn’t what my heart was willing, and it was nice to be taken on a different route. Reminding me that happy endings are not always the obvious ones. And then just as you feel you can close the book with that warm fuzzy feeling the final carrot is dangled and let me tell you … I LOVE an open ending.
It’s the perfect autumn book, it has enough historical elements to set the scene but not too much that you have to whip out your old history books to check timelines (guilty as charged), it's atmospheric and a great read for a book club. I will continue to jump on any of Stacey Halls work, knowing that for me she offers the safety in a book that I occasionally need.