Longbourn by Jo Baker

From Goodreads

Baker has given me a roller coaster ride. At first I wasn't too interested but then suddenly-invested! I was invested for awhile and then that lulled too. I started to get bored right at what was suppose to be a climax--not a good sign. But then she started this backstory/flashback sequence which interested me again. By the end I was tapping my foot waiting for it to be over.

Baker does a lot of great things. She captures the time period perfectly, she did her research. Historically the events notch in the story elegantly. She uses appropriate language and turn of phrase without weighing down the narrative.

Baker also spins her orginial characters beautifully. Each character is unique and free of stereotypes for the most part, this helps flesh them out into individuals instead of place holders. Sarah is the main character and I actually enjoy her thoroughly. The rest of the staff at Longbourn get fully developed and are interesting in their own ways. What I fault Baker is her understanding of the ladies from Pride and Prejudice.  Jane and Elizabeth seem wrapped. Mr. Wickham is particularly villainous and over the top. Elizabeth, after she is married, does a 180 in her personality. She goes from independent to pressured by society to look good at breakfast. Elizabeth even asks Darcy to fight her battle which is NOT like her at all. Mr. Bennett was more of a central figure in this and he got an "interesting" back story but I did enjoy his character being further developed.

The plot was fully developed but the pacing was too slow to keep my attention. I appreciate details but sometimes it just went overboard. Especially with Jame's back story which initially hooked me again but ended up too heavy. Then the large gaps where the characters went missing were suppose to build suspense (I guess?) but really weakened the plot as a whole because it was about as suspenseful as a gaping ragged whole where you can clearly see the bottom about two feet down. I also did not like how the ending was handled, it was just awkward in my opinion. The content was fine and it was just the kind of ending everyone wanted which I appreciated after reading some other works (not reviewed) this month.

The audience is probably what I call "older mom" age which fine but just not something I am use to. It was fairly clean cut and just a tad scandalous. Overall I give Longbourn 3 out of 5 bonnets.

From Sentimentalbaby on Etsy