Location: United States
Member Since:
Dec. 23, 2012
Mandolin Ziadie
Books
Smashwords book reviews by Mandolin Ziadie
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The Affairs of Harriet Walters, Spinster
on Jan. 13, 2013
When her father dies and leaves her and her mother homeless due to the entailing of his estate, Harriet Walters is left in a most undesirable state: that of a relatively penniless spinster reliant upon the goodwill of family for a home. Leaving her mother to live with her younger sister’s family, Harriet takes up residence with an old widowed aunt whose personality leaves much to be desired. Though she initially dreads her life in the small town of Rexton, Harriet grows to love the little village and the people she meets there. Her new acquaintances expand her horizons and foster her growing independent spirit. Even more importantly, one leads to a surprising inheritance which gives Harriet freedom that she never dreamed would be possible. Her first use of the windfall is a trip to London, where her developing taste for adventure and desire to see all the world has to offer grows. As a result, Harriet begins her journey down an unconventional yet satisfying path to a bright future. I was disappointed with this book. Though it is compared to the romantic comedies written by Jane Austen, it falls woefully short of that standard. It is a sweet story but it lacks the witty humor, social commentary and superb characters that make Austen novels such treasures. The plot is slow to start and doesn’t get truly interesting until the end of the first third of the book. I was very tempted to give up on it before then but had committed to read the entire book since it was provided to me as a review copy. If that had not been the case, the story could not have held my interest long enough to incite me to read until the end. The author had a good story basis and solid characters and tells the story well, but the book just lacks a certain something to really engage the reader. I always hate to give a poor review, but I must say that this book left much to be desired. In addition, the kindle version that I received had several (I counted at least fifteen) typos, grammatical mistakes and mislabeled characters (i.e. a “Mr. X” was addressed when really the character being spoken to was “Mr. Y”), which always makes me think even worse of any book. There is no excuse for this many easily caught mistakes! All in all, though not a bad read, one which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend as a top choice.