I really wanted to love this book. It's about Jack the Ripper, with a female protagonist billed as smart and defying society's conventions, and published under James' Patterson's new imprint. Plus the next book in the series features Dracula.
Sadly, I did not love this book.
It's not a bad book by any means, I just didn't feel it's a very good book either. It starts out strong, with Audrey Rose Wadsworth, born into wealth and high society, but with a passion for forensic medicine. She is drawn into the Jack the Ripper murders by working on the corpses of the unfortunate victims.
But it's here that the book started to lose me. A lot of the character development just doesn't make a lot of sense. The writing unfortunately starts to veer into corny and cliched, and a lot seems to come out of left field. Also, why is Audrey Rose allowed so much police access-not only allowed, but specifically brought in (she is seventeen years old)? I saw the ending coming from a long way away, and thought the very last chapter didn't make any sense in the context of all the characters had done and said before.
This book definitely has potential. The romance has some good banter, and Audrey Rose is a strong female character to carry the book. The author discusses in the back of the book all the liberties she took with dates and times and historical facts surrounding Jack the Ripper, and I think that shows in the story. The book meanders around, and it's disjointedness keeps it from holding itself together as the good book it could have been.
No comments:
Post a Comment