“This book is filled with Victorian melodrama; secrets, lies and twisty-turny plots abound. The writing is utterly absorbing and by the power of the author's descriptive writing and spot-on characterisation (I mean, it might be spot-on. How could I know, since I never lived in Victorian England.... you know what I mean though. ?) and dialogue, I sank into Victorian England every time I picked this book up.
So why did I find it a) so hard to read large chunks of (I could only read it for 15-20 minutes at a time) and b) so hard to finish? I did finish it but not without considerable skip-reading of the last part and when I read the last sentence and shut the book I just felt a huge surge of relief rather than satisfaction at what I would normally consider to be a top-notch ending.
Maybe all the melodrama just got too much for me. Who knows? Any thoughts?”
StellaMac wrote this review Sunday, August 24 2008.
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