I’m having such a hard time finding historicals this year! This is one of only two historicals I’ve bought so far this year (the other one is the Carla Kelly book). Is this the death of the historical? (Or am I just being picky?)
The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee
(2013, Turn of the Century) 5/8/13
Grade: 3.5
Betsey Dobson has survived on her wits, and she has advanced from being a typewriter girl to the excursions manager at the seaside resort of Idensea. She enjoys her work and the unexpected freedom it brings her – but she is intrigued by John Jones, the Welsh engineer who is building the resort’s pleasure fair. She and John begin an affair, but Betsey must guard her heart, because she knows their relationship can’t last.
The characters and setting of this book were intriguing, but I struggled with the writing. I enjoyed reading about this unusual setting, and the heroine’s advance from a typewriter girl to a manager. The author did a good job depicting the heroine’s pleasure in her work and how she became better at it over time. But the relationship between the hero and heroine was less successful. The book alternates between the heroine’s perspective and the hero’s, but the language feels stilted and unemotional. Maybe this is supposed to be “literary fiction” but it just felt tedious and hard to read. The first half of the book was a chore to get through. Things improved in the second half, but still, I found myself more frustrated by this book than I expected. Too bad, since the premise was quite intriguing.
Sometimes I feel shallow because I prefer romance to more literary fiction – but trying to parse out the meaning of sentences just doesn’t appeal to me any more. If I have to read a sentence three times to figure out what it means, then it’s too much for my brain – I read enough complex documents for work.
Karen Wheless
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