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A review by bookish_kristina
Winnie West Has an Agenda by Kat Sterling
3.0
Not sure if I should boost this up a star because it’s a debut and had good ideas and an original setting, but it was way too light and fluffy for me and relied too much on a misunderstanding as a conflict and plot driver. Also this missed the opportunity to really be about female independence in a time when women had few rights. Give me a suffragist plot and I expect some ass kicking by the heroine. Sadly, the FMC’s accomplishments at the end were all because the hero gave them to her due to his position and feelings. It would have worked better for me had she really quit the paper and earned her spot as a writer somewhere else. The way it all fell together smacked of damsel in distress and white knight. Yes, I liked that he was supportive, but he kept saving her and handing her her opportunities, when she should have been saving him and been instrumental in helping him with his issue.
All that being said, this wasn’t a bad book, it had a Sabrina Jeffries feel to it and had some aspects of Tessa Dare as well. The one thing this really lacked though that those ‘light and fluffy’ authors do well, is emotion. It was all too surface level. But both Dare and Jeffries have been writing forever and this is a debut novel so lots of room to get there. I really enjoyed this author’s take on a light historical, it was cute and enjoyable. The research on suffragists was well done and incorporated naturally in the narrative. I just wanted more development with the characters, more grit from the heroine and more conflict than miscommunication. I did like the side characters and the side plot and will look for more if this is a series. But it’s staying at three stars and not being rounded up because it didn’t hit it enough for me to give it that honour (yes I know, I am full of myself). So if you want a light fluffy read with an original setting this might be ok for you, I’m a bit of a stickler and need more than that to really wow me.
All that being said, this wasn’t a bad book, it had a Sabrina Jeffries feel to it and had some aspects of Tessa Dare as well. The one thing this really lacked though that those ‘light and fluffy’ authors do well, is emotion. It was all too surface level. But both Dare and Jeffries have been writing forever and this is a debut novel so lots of room to get there. I really enjoyed this author’s take on a light historical, it was cute and enjoyable. The research on suffragists was well done and incorporated naturally in the narrative. I just wanted more development with the characters, more grit from the heroine and more conflict than miscommunication. I did like the side characters and the side plot and will look for more if this is a series. But it’s staying at three stars and not being rounded up because it didn’t hit it enough for me to give it that honour (yes I know, I am full of myself). So if you want a light fluffy read with an original setting this might be ok for you, I’m a bit of a stickler and need more than that to really wow me.