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

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Attachments by Rainbow Rowell

Stole the picture from Goodreads

In the past I have really like Rainbow Rowell writing. Attachments, not so much. I understand this was Rowell's first novel and I think it shows. Everything feels super contrived. 

So, this novel is about Lincoln, basically 90's loser that is cute. Today he would probably fall into the hipster category. The original hipsters, the ones that didn't try. He is, what amounts to, an internet night watch man. He reads his co-workers emails in case they are breaking company policy. Meet Beth and Jennifer-they don't care about company policy. They rattle about personal problems all the time. This is where it starts to turn fake and plastic like, other than Lincoln being cliche. We, the readers, only get to read exchanges from Beth and Jennifer. Sure, we hear that others vaguely exist but we only get the exchanges from Beth and Jennifer. There were so many missed opportunities with this to built Lincoln and add interest.

Jennifer and Eve were probably the best characters in the book. Lincoln didn't disappoint me, but he didn't wow me either. Beth was....okay. Chris wasn't believable, like at all. Lincoln's mom was a typical mom, nothing too exciting going on there. Doris was also a pleasant character but it felt so convenient for her to appear. Then there was the subplot and backstory Sam, believable but so flat and boring. She was "different" in a trendy sort of way and she was extremely predicable. These clauses are oxymoronic (I'm making that a word!) which sums up Sam. The Dungeons and Dragons gang was alright. I don't understand anything about that so I felt a touch lost. Then there is Justin, a walking cliche. SPOILER ALERT: I'm sure him and Dena will be divorced within a year. Justin is a total tool.  

All the cliche movie references were kind of annoying. I was surprised there wasn't more internet shorthand in the emails. The plot was pretty stale, especially for a publish date of 2011, even though it was a throwback. Maybe I just can't appreciate throwbacks? Not sure.The ending was very OOC. I had to back up a page because I thought I missed something. Anyone that's read it, please tel me if you agree.If you want something cutesy to read, go ahead, this isn't terrible but don't expect the fantastic work of Fangirl in Attachments. 

I give Attachments a 2.5 rainbows out of 5.

Found on Google Search

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