Review: The Seamy Side of Life In the Early 20th Century
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 20, 2013
Disclosure: E-Galley provided by Publisher via NetGalley for review on my blog from which this is excerpted and edited. No remuneration was exchanged and all opinion presented herein is my own except as noted.The cover and story remind me a little of "Girl with a Pearl Earring," but the execution of the story is not as well done.One thing I liked about this book was how the Sophie’s (the main female character) voice changes as she matures. I also like how the relationship between the “hero.” Ash and Sophie develops right before the end.Even so, Sophie, a poor, 13 year-old sent to the big house to go into service when she is left alone in the world. But the drawing of Sophie’s character doesn’t really fit the character as far as social status and education. The characters are just sketches.If you’s watched much Masterpiece theater or Agatha Christie style murder mysteries you’ve seen everyone in this book.Just about every plot device that’s been paraded out the past couple of years is found in this book. Some are combined with different characters than the Downton Abbey plots of the past few years but they’re all there: dead heirs, marrying for money, creepy footmen, philandering counts humping the help, rich men corrupting naive women.It is true that all the themes used: sweeping change, new freedoms, horrible losses in the first modern war, modernizations, the rise of the middle class, jazz: all those things were happening. There’s a reason they say it’s great for fans of Downton AND Fifty Shades.  There is one thing I had not personally read lately: corruption of the simple, innocent maid by the naughty young widow — a little f/f experimentation.I’d like to say it’s about Sophie’s coming of age, her sacrifices, or even about what she reads in the books she “borrows” from the Duke’s library. She goes from a country scullery maid to a sophisticated jazz baby in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.  I thought the story detailed  the seamy, seedy nature of all but a couple characters. And, that bugged me and made the read unpleasant for me. Even the main character, essentially good, is without enough moral fortitude and ultimately falls. About the only nice female is the housekeeper. Every where Sophie turns is like a pit of snakes.There’s a lot of intimacy, but while it’s hot and dirty stuff  in the end it just gets sort of boring.But in the end, I had to force myself to read the book. Just not my cup of tea.