MAY 2023

 

The Seven Skins of Ester Wilding ~ Holly Ringland

 ** OK

Could have been a good read if it wasn't so damn longwinded.  An effective edit would have done it wonders

The Nightingale ~ Hanna Kent

 

** OK

Lightweight fluff

The Romantic ~ William Boyd

OK

If you liked The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window, this is for you. Coincidences, throwing in a famous historical name or ten, tedious implausible backstory linking it all : the similarities are there.

Most of it was shallow research cobbled together with cardboard characters. If only it had maybe concentrated on one of the historical flybys ... Shelley and Byron maybe (as they seemed the only link to "Romantic")... and given more depth, more sense of place, more valid interaction and character development.

I have enjoyed Boyd up till now. I find him a comfortable, immersive storyteller. This was annoyingly bland and tiresome.