A review by amandabethrose
The Lady Brewer of London by Karen Brooks

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.0

I really wanted to like this book. 13th Century England is not a period of time that I am largely unfamiliar with. I was eager to get a glimpse of that time period through this nice, long novel with the beautiful cover. Karen Brooks' writing walked the line well between placing the atmosphere, language, names and social norms in a historical context while overall keeping the dialogue and actions modern enough to be accessible to readers. 

The plot was an interesting idea - to follow a young woman after the loss of her second parent, struggling to find a way to support a household and younger siblings, accessing one of the few ways to make a living as an unmarried woman (brewing ale!) and fighting against the approval of society to keep her family safe. Oh, and there is also a very handsome (brooding, of course) nobleman who has an interest in her...

Unfortunately, despite a decently strong start, the plot begins to fumble about midway and limps along to its conclusion. Plot tropes pop up suddenly and are just as quickly resolved with little tension. A string of bad fortune follows the main character throughout the whole novel but she never seems to be changed by any of it. By the end, she feels just as naïve and high strung as when she started. There is hardly any recognizable growth or maturity in her character. In one truly bizarre plot twist

that ends up being a fake plot twist - she very briefly believes that the man she is in love with may actually be her bastard brother's father and decides that actually, she would be okay with that if that turned out to be true.

It isn't (thank God) but those few pages were enough to knock this firmly down into a 2 star rating for me.