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teatimeforsarah 's review for:
Dearest Josephine
by Caroline George
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the published in exchange for an honest review.
The premise of this book sounded promising, and within the first 40 or so pages I was absorbed into the atmosphere of Cadwallader Manor. The misty moors reminded me of all the Regency era books that I enjoy curling up on the couch with.
Unfortunately, the book didn't hold my interest for much longer. The story is broken into three separate segments: The present day, consisting of emails and text messages between Josie De Clare and her friends; Letters from Elias Roch; and a fictional manuscript written by Elias Roch. For a bit, the dual Elias Roch storylines confused me, and I had a hard time keeping the two tales straight. I also felt that having all three going at once bogged the story down and slowed the pace.
Josie's storyline in particular was lacking. It was hard for her character to be developed in a way that showed us what she was like as opposed to having her friends just tell us. This particularly comes into play because Josie is convinced that Elias knew her in a past life since he writes to a Josephine de Clare in his letters and about a Josephine de Clare in his novels. So, her friend will say something like, "She smears her chocolate everywhere! Just like you!" And later in the novel, Josephine is talking about how she gets chocolate all over the place. If we hadn't been told this, we never would have known because we never see Josie do much of anything.
Having the dual Josephines who look very similar and have so much in common really calls on readers to suspend their disbelief. I was hoping for a reason for the similarities, maybe some fantastical time travel, but there's none given. I'm just expected to roll with it.
Speaking of which, I am also expected to roll with the notion that people just instantly fall in love with one another. Josie is in love with Elias (who is super dead and she has never met), Elias falls in love immediately with Josephine after a quick dance at a ball, Oliver falls for Josie at first sight, etc. etc. It's so unrealistic, and the fact that it happens multiple times in the book makes it feel kind of like a cop out.
Another point of contention for me is that Josie and her best friend, Faith, email back and forth throughout the novel, and they mostly talk about boys. They're two young women with more going on in their lives than men. They're both going through huge changes and making decisions that could impact the rest of their lives. Plus, their emails don't sound natural. They're full of heavy-handed lessons about love and feelings and overly wrought prose. (In fact, this also probably worked to the novel's detriment since having the emails sound more natural would have upped the pacing and made things more interesting.)
I could go on, but I think you get the gist. This was not for me, but I do think that the author's writing style holds promise for better books in the future.
The premise of this book sounded promising, and within the first 40 or so pages I was absorbed into the atmosphere of Cadwallader Manor. The misty moors reminded me of all the Regency era books that I enjoy curling up on the couch with.
Unfortunately, the book didn't hold my interest for much longer. The story is broken into three separate segments: The present day, consisting of emails and text messages between Josie De Clare and her friends; Letters from Elias Roch; and a fictional manuscript written by Elias Roch. For a bit, the dual Elias Roch storylines confused me, and I had a hard time keeping the two tales straight. I also felt that having all three going at once bogged the story down and slowed the pace.
Josie's storyline in particular was lacking. It was hard for her character to be developed in a way that showed us what she was like as opposed to having her friends just tell us. This particularly comes into play because Josie is convinced that Elias knew her in a past life since he writes to a Josephine de Clare in his letters and about a Josephine de Clare in his novels. So, her friend will say something like, "She smears her chocolate everywhere! Just like you!" And later in the novel, Josephine is talking about how she gets chocolate all over the place. If we hadn't been told this, we never would have known because we never see Josie do much of anything.
Having the dual Josephines who look very similar and have so much in common really calls on readers to suspend their disbelief.
Spoiler
Even though later, the explanation is given that someone who actually knows Josie penned a majority of the novel, including the aforementioned chocolate. There's still about a third of this novel written about Josephine by Elias. She looks like her, has clothing with bees like Josie does, and there's also a portrait of her hanging in the manor from 200 years ago that looks just like her. No explanation given.Speaking of which, I am also expected to roll with the notion that people just instantly fall in love with one another. Josie is in love with Elias (who is super dead and she has never met), Elias falls in love immediately with Josephine after a quick dance at a ball, Oliver falls for Josie at first sight, etc. etc. It's so unrealistic, and the fact that it happens multiple times in the book makes it feel kind of like a cop out.
Another point of contention for me is that Josie and her best friend, Faith, email back and forth throughout the novel, and they mostly talk about boys. They're two young women with more going on in their lives than men. They're both going through huge changes and making decisions that could impact the rest of their lives. Plus, their emails don't sound natural. They're full of heavy-handed lessons about love and feelings and overly wrought prose. (In fact, this also probably worked to the novel's detriment since having the emails sound more natural would have upped the pacing and made things more interesting.)
I could go on, but I think you get the gist. This was not for me, but I do think that the author's writing style holds promise for better books in the future.