An Unending Disaster

I am unsure of my feelings for this book. It annoyed me most of the way through, after first completely throwing me off with the Regency-style language at the beginning, then annoying me with the amount of out-of-place modern Americanisms. I will list: ‘sass’, ‘tush’, ‘biscuits and gravy’ (in England, biscuits are for tea!), ‘earbobs’ (I had absolutely no idea what they were, until I found out on Google that it’s a word from the Southern US), ‘gee’, and the rather referential ‘gorgeous, darling’. If one is writing a Regency-style novel, I think it best to get the language right! I am unsure if I’m offended with cream in tea or not, as I’ve read that that might be an upper-class thing.

The story itself, the raw bones, is a good idea. There was absolutely far too much “s/he loves me, s/he loves me not”, so much back and forth, done in an overdramatic way each time, lots of repeated deceit and betrayal, with barely a word different. I actually did enjoy the intrigue part of the story, who’s pulling the strings. The reveal of who Lady Osprey is might have worked better if the rest of the story wasn’t so chaotic.

Then there were all the trysts, all the repeated words, mostly feelings; is it possible that someone can feel the same, but not in a completely identical way each time?

Some additional notes: a bizarre typo ‘cardsharp’. Then, whilst they’re at sea, they’re told to stay in their cabin but don’t…?

Add to this, all the sheer editing work that hasn’t happened yet meant that it was a headache at times trying to work out where each person’s speech began and ended.

There is potentially a solid story lying within these pages. A solid, interesting story. But it’s not ready yet.

Final rating: ★★☆☆☆ – Disliked

*I received a free digital Beta copy via the author in exchange for an honest review*