Review: Absorbing enough that I read all three of them and hope there will be a fourth and maybe more.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 27, 2014
I really enjoyed these three books but I'm not entirely sure why I did.  The first one mostly annoyed me but by the time I got to the end I just HAD to know what happened next so I bought and read the next one which seemed much more well-written.  The character of the French conman/husband seemed so different from the same character in the first book that it was difficult to believe he was the same character.  And then I thought to myself, "He isn't the same character!"  The author, exercising her authorial omnipotence decided to replace him without some she found easier to incorporate into the plot and into the community of characters she was writing about.  And that made me laugh.  I love being surprised with reminders that authors are the creators and can do whatever they want to their characters and their stories and they are not the takers of dictation from some repository of Truth.  So -- the things I like about the books -- (1) there are a number of interesting women in the books and their friendships with each other are central to the emotional and actual action in the stories.  The book passes the Bechtel test -- are there at least two women in the book who talk to each other about something other than men.  And the author works very hard -- and very successfully -- to create a female central character who is independent, active, decisive, and who saves her very own day.  She gets herself into trouble and then out of it.  I like that.  It's the kind of book I'd like to give to my adolescent granddaughters so they could stuff into their minds/imaginations this kind of independent woman.