Tannat

Series: Lady Darby #4

I put off writing this review partly because I was busy and partly because I wasn’t exactly sure what to say. This particular installment mostly didn’t work for me. I’m not sure if I can explain why, exactly. It just started to feel more and more like Lady Darby was a transplanted modern woman rather than one of her time, and all the stuff with Lord Gage just made him look villainous. I want complexity in my fiction, not caricatures.

[Nitpick: Lady Darby introduced herself to a lady at an assembly. *headdesk* to quote Susanne Alleyn. Also, half a crown plus a crown on delivery of a note.]

The mystery itself was pretty weak. We were halfway through the book before the investigation even started, really. The mystery was more or less solved by some half-reasoned conjectures followed by running around town.

It also kind of sounded like Alana was trying to plan a modern American wedding rather than a 19th century one. I think I’m going to see if the library will get in the next one rather than buy it myself. I just hope more thought gets put into either the setting or the mystery, and preferably both.