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A review by mg_in_md_
Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen
3.0
To be rated/reviewed after this month’s book club
I found this to be a pleasant read overall, but it seemed a little unfocused in terms of genre. It's certainly fine to blend various elements/genres together (and I tend to like books that do this), it felt to me like the novel couldn't decide which direction it wanted to take and kept changing its mind as the plot progressed. Was it a historical fiction novel? A foodie novel? A romance? A mystery? It's billed as a mystery, but the murder mystery doesn't appear until well over the halfway point and I felt like it was very hastily resolved. I don't expect a dead body to drop in the first few pages, but it almost seemed like an afterthought to the story. I also felt like when the main character's secret was revealed to the other characters (the reader is in on the secret from the beginning), everyone took it in stride. I suspect there would've been far more serious repercussions in the real world (especially during that period of time). But, this is a fictional tale and sometimes it's nice to have some lightness instead of realism. My favorite aspect of the novel was the fact that it was inspired by Queen Victoria's time in southern France. I enjoyed learning about that piece of history and spending some time in the Victorian Age.
I found this to be a pleasant read overall, but it seemed a little unfocused in terms of genre. It's certainly fine to blend various elements/genres together (and I tend to like books that do this), it felt to me like the novel couldn't decide which direction it wanted to take and kept changing its mind as the plot progressed. Was it a historical fiction novel? A foodie novel? A romance? A mystery? It's billed as a mystery, but the murder mystery doesn't appear until well over the halfway point and I felt like it was very hastily resolved. I don't expect a dead body to drop in the first few pages, but it almost seemed like an afterthought to the story. I also felt like when the main character's secret was revealed to the other characters (the reader is in on the secret from the beginning), everyone took it in stride. I suspect there would've been far more serious repercussions in the real world (especially during that period of time). But, this is a fictional tale and sometimes it's nice to have some lightness instead of realism. My favorite aspect of the novel was the fact that it was inspired by Queen Victoria's time in southern France. I enjoyed learning about that piece of history and spending some time in the Victorian Age.