March 12, 2021
Sometimes I don’t understand
https://elizabetheverettauthor.com/As we all know, I’m always on the look-out for new authors. I always want to encourage writing, so it pains me that after I’ve finished the book, I don’t get it. I always question myself when I’m not as enthusiastic about a book as others seem to be. What am I missing? What am I not seeing that others see? Once again, I find myself in a minority of people. Woe is me. Maybe it’s my age, or maybe I grow weary of my romance stories having a message that I must ponder. Or maybe I just don’t understand what the message is. That was one of the problems I had with A Lady’s Formula for Love. Who am I supposed to be cheering for? The message of the book was not clear, because of that I was not able to pick a side. If an author decides to tackle one issue, or multiple issues, then they need to make it perfectly clear just what they are saying. When an author is voicing their opinions through their characters, then the characters in the book need to be true to that opinion. And by the way, if women are portrayed in the book as supportive of each other, then we should be able to see that support.
I wanted to like A Lady’s Formula for Love, I really tried. But I had to work to finish. I found myself putting it down and becoming distracted by Netflix. (Not Bridgerton this time). First of all, my ability to keep track of characters in my books seems to be dwindling. Now, I can understand this when it’s an eight-part series. But I had trouble keeping track of the overabundance of the characters in the first few chapters of this book. There were too many people wandering around the pages, and not enough character development.
Women. As I mentioned before, the women in this story are supposed to be supportive of each other. But I thought they were catty. They insulted each other in a Marie Barrone kind of way. For the most part, they seemed to be a bunch of aristocratic women who wanted their freedom. However, they seemed blind to the suffering of women not of their class. The reason Violet Hughes created her scientific “refuge” for women was to give them the opportunities they lacked in their male dominated world. But I cannot see too much difference between men who bully and women who are snide, unpleasant, and myopic. If you are supposed to be friends, supposed to help each other, you don’t do gentle digs which wound. What’s the point of having a place to go if your miserable there? I didn’t like Violet, I thought she was a visionary without any vision.
Arthur Kneland is a super-duper guard who has been hired to protect Violet. He’s always had a problem dealing with women. But in this case that shouldn’t matter because his golden rule is to never get involved with a client. Haha, I laugh! He isn’t in Violet’s presence for 5 seconds before his Timothy Toad starts talking to him. It’s instant-lust. There’s furniture breaking all over the place. The whankee-roo would have been a lot nicer if there had been some chemistry between Violet and Arthur.
Loads of plots. Let’s see, we have a group of mad-scientist women, we have Violet trying to save the government by working on a formula, someone is trying to kill Violet, smart women being silly, there’s worker rights movement, there is a transgender person, a hateful brother, and tons of characters waiting for their stories. It was a tad bit overwhelming, and I know I’ve left something out.
As I said earlier, I had a hard time getting through this story. The romance was swallowed up by other plot lines. I love stories where the hero falls in love with a woman who is smarter than he. Yes, they are out there, and they are wonderful! Nothing better than a hero who isn’t intimidated by a woman’s brain. Arthur never exhibited those qualities. I was also irritated with the way the women in this story were portrayed. They were all about the surface, and they were wearing blinders. If one is going to tackle issues in a book of fiction, good for you, but the characters need to reflect those issues. I wanted this book to work for me, but it didn’t. Sorry to say, I’m very disappointed.
https://elizabetheverettauthor.com/As we all know, I’m always on the look-out for new authors. I always want to encourage writing, so it pains me that after I’ve finished the book, I don’t get it. I always question myself when I’m not as enthusiastic about a book as others seem to be. What am I missing? What am I not seeing that others see? Once again, I find myself in a minority of people. Woe is me. Maybe it’s my age, or maybe I grow weary of my romance stories having a message that I must ponder. Or maybe I just don’t understand what the message is. That was one of the problems I had with A Lady’s Formula for Love. Who am I supposed to be cheering for? The message of the book was not clear, because of that I was not able to pick a side. If an author decides to tackle one issue, or multiple issues, then they need to make it perfectly clear just what they are saying. When an author is voicing their opinions through their characters, then the characters in the book need to be true to that opinion. And by the way, if women are portrayed in the book as supportive of each other, then we should be able to see that support.
I wanted to like A Lady’s Formula for Love, I really tried. But I had to work to finish. I found myself putting it down and becoming distracted by Netflix. (Not Bridgerton this time). First of all, my ability to keep track of characters in my books seems to be dwindling. Now, I can understand this when it’s an eight-part series. But I had trouble keeping track of the overabundance of the characters in the first few chapters of this book. There were too many people wandering around the pages, and not enough character development.
Women. As I mentioned before, the women in this story are supposed to be supportive of each other. But I thought they were catty. They insulted each other in a Marie Barrone kind of way. For the most part, they seemed to be a bunch of aristocratic women who wanted their freedom. However, they seemed blind to the suffering of women not of their class. The reason Violet Hughes created her scientific “refuge” for women was to give them the opportunities they lacked in their male dominated world. But I cannot see too much difference between men who bully and women who are snide, unpleasant, and myopic. If you are supposed to be friends, supposed to help each other, you don’t do gentle digs which wound. What’s the point of having a place to go if your miserable there? I didn’t like Violet, I thought she was a visionary without any vision.
Arthur Kneland is a super-duper guard who has been hired to protect Violet. He’s always had a problem dealing with women. But in this case that shouldn’t matter because his golden rule is to never get involved with a client. Haha, I laugh! He isn’t in Violet’s presence for 5 seconds before his Timothy Toad starts talking to him. It’s instant-lust. There’s furniture breaking all over the place. The whankee-roo would have been a lot nicer if there had been some chemistry between Violet and Arthur.
Loads of plots. Let’s see, we have a group of mad-scientist women, we have Violet trying to save the government by working on a formula, someone is trying to kill Violet, smart women being silly, there’s worker rights movement, there is a transgender person, a hateful brother, and tons of characters waiting for their stories. It was a tad bit overwhelming, and I know I’ve left something out.
As I said earlier, I had a hard time getting through this story. The romance was swallowed up by other plot lines. I love stories where the hero falls in love with a woman who is smarter than he. Yes, they are out there, and they are wonderful! Nothing better than a hero who isn’t intimidated by a woman’s brain. Arthur never exhibited those qualities. I was also irritated with the way the women in this story were portrayed. They were all about the surface, and they were wearing blinders. If one is going to tackle issues in a book of fiction, good for you, but the characters need to reflect those issues. I wanted this book to work for me, but it didn’t. Sorry to say, I’m very disappointed.
Time/Place: 1842 Great Britain
Sensuality: A rubbing of sticks together without sparks
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