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<From The Wall, Sunday, March 16, 2008 >
Violet, hurled Enchanting the Lady by Kathryne Kennedy against The Wall.
The reasons were:
OK, maybe it's not a hurl, more like a toss, but I couldn't put this book on the pedestal no matter how much I wanted to. This book had a great premise: Victorian England, where a person's rank is determined by his or her magical ability rather than bloodlines. So, princes are the most powerful magically, followed by dukes and duchesses, and so on down the line. It a very rich world mixing history and fantasy, and I would have loved to love it. But, unfortunately, the early momentum of the book is not sustained in the later chapters. The characters and are not fully fleshed out, and situations are not fully explained. (And now for a minor diatribe on my part: Ultimately I could not get past the doormat of a heroine. I realize the heroine is under a curse, which dulls her looks and abilities, so her stunning naivete and saccharine sweetness are somewhat explained. I forgave it up to a point, but I could only take so much, not a whole book full of it! Just once, when the hero says, "Trust me, don't leave the house," I would like the heroine to actually trust him and follow his advice, and not say, "Oh, he must not have meant it," or "Nothing is going to happen to me," or "He's just worrying, the silly billy," or whatever. But she does leave the house, and unfortunately does not get run over by a bus. Yes, by this point in the book, I was hoping for something surprising to happen, but nothing did, all the action was telegraphed and formulaic.) Anyway, the Amazon.com reviewers who gave the book 3 stars have it right; it's not a 5-star book. That said, I will try the next in the series in hopes that the author improves. I do like the idea of the story (and the world the author has built), just not the execution of it in this book.
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