For those of you who have had the pleasure of being edited by Head Smart Bitch Sarah, you’ll know that she’s a master at drilling down to the core of things – distilling language so that it accurately reflects your feelings on a book and, more importantly, the reasons for those feelings so readers can assess for themselves if that book is a good fit for them.
Ed.note: thank you!
While I am a reviewer on the site, I’m also a reader of the site. I recently started working my way through Sherry Thomas’s historical romance back catalogue. I listened to the Lady Sherlock stories on audio a couple years back and really enjoyed them, so I was curious about her more romance-forward books.
I started with The Luckiest Lady in London. Once I finished the book, I searched the site for past reviews to see what had been said about it as I thought about my own experience with this romance. There were five reviews! Three RITA reader reviews, one guest review and one by Carrie. A wealth of thoughts for me to devour!
Four of the five reviews gave the book an A while Carrie landed on a C+.
Shari, one of the reviewers, made a salient point here: “Sometimes a book can go from just good to fantastic because of the particular state of mind you are in when you read it”. Good reviews are able to push past that simple ‘love’ into the nitty gritty of ‘why’, and our reviewers certainly do that.
Before I dive into a review of the literature, dearests, the blurb:
Felix Rivendale, the Marquess of Wrenworth, is The Ideal Gentleman, a man all men want to be and all women want to possess. Felix himself almost believes this golden image. But underneath is a damaged soul soothed only by public adulation.
Louisa Cantwell needs to marry well to support her sisters. She does not, however, want Lord Wrenworth—though he seems inexplicably interested in her. She mistrusts his outward perfection and the praise he garners everywhere he goes.But when he is the only man to propose at the end of the London season, she reluctantly accepts.
Louisa does not understand her husband’s mysterious purposes, but she cannot deny the pleasure her body takes in his touch. Nor can she deny the pull this magnetic man exerts upon her. But does she dare to fall in love with a man so full of dark secrets, anyone of which could devastate her, if she were to get any closer?
Although be warned, Pam G alerted that “prospective readers will need to ignore the cover copy as it is kind of misleading if not downright deceitful.” A personal bug bear of mine – misleading cover copy.
But on to the meat of the reviews …
Several reviews commended the writing (brava, I agree!) Patricia described herself as a “sucker for a really well phrased sentence, a bon mot of a sentence” and Thomas delivers that in spades. Pam G agreed, saying ‘There is just something so clean, controlled, and precise in her use of language. Even her prepositions are perfect. That is not to imply that her writing is stodgy or overly formal. Her descriptions are sumptuous without being wordy, she uses imagery and metaphor like a poet, and her work never seems to contain any repetitive verbal junk.”
The premise is pretty simple and straightforward. Pam G described the story as “deceptively simple”. Lulu concurred saying, “Sherry Thomas is a master at creating beautiful things from simple ingredients. She begins with rather ordinary themes and characters, in this case a rich man meeting and marrying a poor girl … Thomas then adds great dialogue and human frailty, and creates entrancing stories that are completely addictive.” Note, the great dialogue came up in all five reviews!
For Lulu, as Louisa and Felix interact with one another, “so commences an interchange of forward and feint, nuance and coercion. Thomas builds the relationship between Louisa and Felix brilliantly. They are loveable, imperfect creatures brought to life through their actions.”
Lulu’s claim of ‘lovability’ is one of the hot topics in these reviews. I was asking myself a similar question: are both characters lovable? Louisa, certainly. But Felix?
For Carrie and Pam G, Felix was a sticking point. Pam G said, “At more than one point the reader will want to reach into the pages and beat the crap out of Felix. After the initial piece of cruelty, the relationship recovers in a superficial manner, but, later on, another time bomb explodes and demolishes the fragile understanding they manage to reconstruct” For Carrie, she “felt distressed, and frustrated and worried, and never did believe the happy ending.” And it all hinged on Felix’s cruelty: “Felix is so horrified at the realization that he has fallen in love with Louisa that he gives her all kinds of confusing signals and at one moment treats her with absolutely unforgivable emotional cruelty. I’m not past that moment, as a reader. I don’t believe Louisa is past it, as a character. I think Sherry Thomas made Louisa get past it.”
Why were our other reviewers able to get past Felix’s cruelty while for Carrie it was a dealbreaker? Carrie herself has the answer, “I have no personal trigger greater than the idea of someone treating another person with great warmth and then suddenly, with no warning or explanation, becoming utterly cold, while maintaining that nothing is wrong.”
This is by no means an exhaustive comparison of the reviews of this story. A lot more could be said about just the dialogue!
But that isn’t my purpose. I wanted to look for similarities between the reviews and where there were differences, I wanted to see how they were handled by the reviewer. I wanted to see where I fell on the spectrum of these reviews. Certainly there had been moments for me where Felix’s cruelty made me flinch IRL. It’s unspeakable, some of it.
Like the reviewers, I was enamoured with the dialogue and the description and the writing in general. I adored Louisa and even liked Felix. Partly because I so WANTED to see the good in Felix and WANTED to like him, I was able to put to one side those flashes of cruelty and instead focus on the rest of his character. I think in the end, I land at about a B+.
Reading and comparing reviews for a book I’ve just finished was a good reminder of the importance of ‘why’ in a review: why did the reader assign that grade? Why did they like or dislike certain elements? It’s fair and well to love or hate a book, but if I don’t know why the reader felt that way, I have no idea whether the book will be a good fit for me or not.
I’m often frustrated by superficial reviews that don’t articulate the reasoning for an opinion about a book, and the exercise of looking in the SBTB archives brought home for me just how important sites like these and the longer narrative reviews are for readers like me who need more in-depth reviews. I want nuance. I want discernment. I want REASONS.
TL;DR Long may sites like this one live on to serve readers thoughtful, considered reviews.
What about you? What do you want in a review? A lot of detail? A short summary? Are you as obsessed with REASONS for opinions as I am? What reviews do you gravitate toward?
The reviews for The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas
I totally agree that a good review must explain what the reviewer liked or hated and WHY. But I want some objective analysis as well. I’ve read so many romance reviews that blurt out far more plot detail than is required for a review and then dwell on how the reviewer responded to the characters and their behaviour, sometimes with reference to current social issues. It feels like the book is being judged on its morals and attitudes rather than as a story about people who are not real and therefore don’t have to be likeable all the time. And often there’s no comment about the quality of the writing, the structure, the use of humour or any other technique. I know romance is about feelings but for me all the feelings in the world won’t make up for clunky prose or wooden dialogue or repetitive internal monologues or a weird lack of supporting characters.
To be honest, the only romance reviews I read properly these days are for books I am fairly sure I’m not going to ever read anytime soon. If it’s an author I like or the scenario seems promising then I just skim the first paragraph or two and stop so I won’t learn too much detail of the story. What’s in the blurb is almost enough plot for me; what I want in a review is an opinion that leaves me plenty of things to discover.
I too would like more assessment of the writing quality. I’ve started many a book with an interesting premise, to toss it at the misused words, clunky prose, impossible dialogue.
I know “historical” romances aren’t historical fiction, but still, I would like reviewers to give some sense of how well the authors portray the period in which the book is set. Often it seems like these romances are set in some vague period where women wear long skirts, people ride in carriages, and there are lots of dukes, but otherwise people act and talk the same as now.
@Lara, thank you for your thoughtful analysis!
I’m often intrigued when other readers praise the quality of an author’s writing because I seem to be oblivious to that characteristic. Poor editing is a different matter entirely.
I’m sometimes reluctant to read a review of a book I intend to read because too much of the story is shared. I do like to know what did or did not appeal to the reviewer to determine whether or not it will work for me. I also appreciate when a reviewer mentions how captured they were by a book especially if they give it a low grade because of issues that they specify.
@Kareni, I have similar thoughts. What is the “quality of an author’s writing”? Or a beautifully crafted sentence? I may sigh at the end of a book when I enjoyed the story – plot, characters, and setting, but I’ve never sighed because a book was beautifully written.
I love this whole discussion because I have reviewed (children’s books) for publications in the past, and also write. It’s a complicated thing, considering what makes something well-written and beautifully written. I like to think that I can choose words well, but if they’re not in service of fully articulating the wholeness of the character, I’m not sure what the point of ‘beauty’ is, really. Also, I too only skim reviews here if it’s a book I’m going to read — I take into account the basic plot points, reviewer letter grade, and trusted reader commentary in the comments and go from there.
Like Carrie, the Sherry Thomas book wouldn’t have worked for me. I’m a big old DNF person on account of emotional gaslighting. Having done the English major thing of yearning for Mr. Darcy despite not exactly understanding why- but going along with the crowd/the author without overthinking it, I’m now old enough to not care about anyone else’s tolerance but my own, and I find that sudden deep friendship then sudden coldness cruel and inexplicable – from anyone. Mistakes are made, obviously, but you either feel your feelings and use your words like a grown person, or you go away.
@Kareni and @LML – I agree on the concept of “beautifully” written, and not understanding quite what that means in a review. I am also put off – sometimes to the point of DNF – by poor editing and wrong word choice (discreet/discrete I’m looking at you). I do appreciate a clever or witty turn of phrase, and good snark as well, but mostly if a book is well edited and there aren’t any obvious clunky sentences I’m good!
I have to say that reading the reviews on this site has made me a more discerning reader overall, due to all the points Lara and the other commenters have made. I’m always slightly disappointed by the reviews on Cannonball Read, simply because they don’t usually go into the whys and wherefores of why they did or didn’t like a particular book. I recommend SBTB all the time for the fantastic reviews!
Technically great craftsmanship will never compensate for a boring story or bland characters; a romance fails if it doesn’t make the reader feel things. But I have started many a book with anticipation based on a review or recommending comment somewhere, only to experience that sinking feeling when poor writing pulls me out of the story. My standards aren’t ridiculously high but I can’t see past terrible dialogue or weird pacing or incorrect word use. And I’d hope a reviewer could see those flaws and warn the reader.
I agree with @oceanjasper’s point that sometimes a book “is being judged on its morals and attitudes rather than as a story about people.” While I do want to know if people in the book are behaving abhorrently, I have seen low grades assigned because a novel doesn’t have enough diversity, or has a law enforcement hero. These are things that are often relevant to note, absolutely. Lowering a grade because the story takes place in a vanilla locale or has a good cop H/h seems a bit of an overstretch. I really appreciate the reviews that are clear about the difference between “doesn’t work for me because *reasons*” and “doesn’t work at all.”