Review by the_discworldian - The Other Daughter

the_discworldian 's review for:

The Other Daughter by Lauren Willig

4.0

I could not be mad at this book. Was it contrived? Oh my, yes. More contrivances in the first fifty pages than you could imagine. Was it ridiculous? Oh HELL yes. Predictable? More or less. But there were surprisingly fun characters and it was engaging. I was rolling my eyes (mostly at Love Interest's lines - seriously? STOP BITCHING. Either help her or don't). I was also laughing at some of the clunkier lines and more obvious contrivances. If I had my own copy of the book, I would have been writing "OH NO SHE DIDN'T" in the margins on many pages. I realized when I finished that some of the characters we were supposed to hate were...not really all that bad

Spoiler

for example, John. I'm pretty sure we're supposed to hate him for not seeing World War II coming, which is an easy call to make NOW. Yeah, he's kind of pompous, but he's right about a few things (the best minds of the generation partying constantly because the first world war traumatized them, for example), and he hits on Rachel because they have a lot in common and agree on a lot of things. If she hadn't been all cut up thinking about her parents and the sordidness of it all, she might have gone for it, too. Also, it turns out he has a COMPLETELY legit reason to dislike Simon.

There were also characters we were supposed to find sympathetic or at least sympathetic by the end who were really not great

Spoiler

like dear old Dad. See one of my live-tweet-esque status updates, I called early on that he was not going to be as awful as she thought. And that Mum FAKED THEIR DEATHS so he would go take care of the estate? Hard not to feel bad for the guy. But "I refused to love my children because I thought my first child died"? Asshole.

I'm sure the heroine and hero will live a long, happy life of total miscommunication because they are both. Such. Shit. At communicating. But I'm even laughing as I write that. Cannot be mad at this book. It was fun, distracting, and entertaining all the way through. Pleasantly surprised.