Yelims 77

Unfortunately the book falls very short to try to find anything interesting about it. Characters are not developed, like cardboard cutouts or caricatures. The story is really shallow and things are conveniently wrapped up. Please read the negative reviews as I agree with all of them. I fully understand this is a work of fiction but there are some things I just cannot even accept as part of the creative process. The whole book is written from a single perspective of a modern woman from the US including how individuals of different ages would speak in different epochs. The representation of the 18th century London really needs to be revisited; the modern day perspective just floods the pages (colourful children’s toys, boy misbehaving in the street and mother trying to put a coat on the child while handing the newspaper for the character to hold, the bookstore that has baubles and toys in the front and books neatly stacked in the back organized on shelves and by topics like self-help titles [think what to expect when you are expecting], boy flirting with the girl over a book while she is perusing a book in a bookstore, poor girl having spare change in her pockets and skirts with pockets galore [I know shocker], the inheritance of a bookshop by a woman and dropping hints to the journalists???? like who would interview a woman, the use of specific linguistic expressions that didn’t even exist yet, and many many others). This reads like a really really bad straight to DVD movie. I really wanted to like it but I just could not. I was wishing for the book to end after about 100 pages. Please I cannot stress enough the importance of research please please please. If you are not sure ask anyone who lived elsewhere whether anything glares as something that maybe coming from your culture/country-specific views and biases. Please do not assume the rest of the world thinks like a U.S.-based individual from the 21st century especially if you are trying to create an atmosphere of long ago and in a different country. Please please please think about whether what you perceive as normal schemas and cultural expectations/behaviour may differ drastically based on the topic and the setting.