A review by itsnotalakeitsanocean
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton

adventurous funny fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I picked this up because I fell in love with the premise when I heard about it. While it was a good read I don't think it fully lived up to my expectations. Admittedly part of it was my fault for ignoring the massive, extremely obvious hints that this was going to be focused on the romance over the idea of a society of swashbuckling sky pirate ladies with Victorian sensibilities, but with a hell of a premise like that can you blame me?

I've only read the complimentary preview of the next book at the end of the story, and I hope that Holton manages to do more worldbuilding between the two feuding societies and maybe tones the romance down a tad (or gives her couples dynamics that feed into the plot better).

One thing I will say:
Note to any aspiring authors: If you have to lampshade at the end your heroine was just kind of there at the end and didn't contribute anything meaningful, that's not good writing even if it's supposed to be for comedic effect. It's just annoying.


Some other assorted things I liked: 

  • It's a decent example of enemies to lovers. I still think Ned was a bit of a flat character who existed to give Cecilia what she needed, but he was funny enough.
  • I think I'm in the minority when I say that the writing style didn't bother me, having read similar styles before (e.g. Jasper Fforde). 
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