Review: Excellent book
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2013
I have read books by this author before so when I saw this new release from her I was intrigued. In an obviously excellently researched book we have the story of Annie Smith aka Amelia Haversham. It’s a love story with a difference, very well written and using the Victorian idiom of English the book is a delight. There are instances of Cockney rhyming slang that I hadn’t heard in a long time and made me smile. The descriptions of the era are so well done an atmosphere of reality follows through the story.You find out quickly what a dark cully is. This book is written with Annie and then the character Rose telling their story and it is very well done. I can hear Annie as she speaks. I don’t know if it’s because I know the British culture and some history but I found this book hard to put down. Annie’s a fighter, a survivor, clever, and witty. The story is a page-turner any way but you invest in Annie right from the start of the book. There’s a slight Pygmalion flavor to the beginning of the story, although it is lesbian erotica, excellently done and the underlying story is really about the romantic love two women had for each other in an era when it was not supposed to exist. It deals well with prostitution and the abject poverty experience by some women in this age.The story builds to a rocking ending, a surprise.I loved this book; I loved the language and the story. It must have 5 stars for originality, thought and a really good tale well told.