#TBRChallenge 2025: Snowdrops and Scandalbroth

The Book: Snowdrops and Scandalbroth by Barbara Metzger

The Particulars: Traditional Regency, Fawcett Crest, 1997, Out of print, eBook publication by Belgrave House 2010.

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: This one has been in my TBR for literal decades because of two words: Virgin. Hero.

The Review: For this month's optional theme, Previously, In Romance..., I decided to not only go Old School, but to go with a subgenre that no longer exists - Traditional Regency. For you young'uns, Trads were category length, Regency-set historicals often defined by the manners of the era and "just kisses" romances. They had a hearty following back in their day with numerous publishers having their own lines. By the early 2000s however we were in the final death throes and once Signet killed their line in 2006 it was pretty much over. But you can still find many of them floating around in digital reprints, and, of course, in all the places you can find used books.

I picked up Snowdrops and Scandalbroth, quite literally, decades ago because I am nothing if not trash for a virgin hero - and this story has one. What I didn't realize is that this turns out to be one virgin hero who does his damnedest to turn me off his brethren entirely. A more sanctimonious prig you'll never meet - despite the fact he has one really great scene where he talks about the common double standard between men and women being "pure" until the marriage bed. It's not enough to make up for how insufferable I generally found him.

Kathlyn Partland is in a bind. Her mother, gone for many years, was disowned by her blue-blooded family when she married Kathlyn's father, a poor tutor. He, in the fine tradition of Romancelandia Fathers, makes no arrangements for Kathlyn, financially or otherwise, so when he dies she's quite literally on her own. She manages to secure a job as a governess in London but her mail coach is quite delayed through a series of misadventures and when she finally arrives she finds out the family has given up on her, gone to the country and hired someone else.

Riding to her rescue is Courtney Choate, Viscount Chase, who can't just leave the damsel in distress when he spies her lost, carrying her own luggage, down a seedy London street. She's pretty much accosted in no time flat. Courtney is in a bind of his own. He was engaged, but unceremoniously dumped his betrothed after finding out she's had two lovers already. Our Courtney is very principled and having witnessed the pain his father's infidelities caused his mother has vowed to 1) wait until marriage and 2) to never, ever take a mistress. He has vowed to stay true to his future wife, whomever she turns out to be.  Of course the broken engagement gets tongues wagging, and soon Courtney's manliness and sexual preference is called into question (the author doesn't come out and say "everybody thinks he's queer" but it's definitely implied between the lines). Anyway, Courtney goes off to war, and despite coming back a hero with a bullet wound and gimpy leg, the rumors persist. 

We all can guess what happens next. Kathlyn is flat broke with no options. Courtney needs to convince the gossipmongers and the ton he likes girls. She puts up a token resistance but before you can say bingo-bango, she's going by an assumed name and masquerading as Courtney's mistress - for a new wardrobe and a pile of coins, of course.

This sounds pretty straight-forward but it's actually an Everything and the Kitchen Sink romance. It's a farce y'all. Not only do you have the Fake Mistress thing going on, there's also a jewel heist involved (remember Kathlyn's delayed mail coach?) which brings Bow Street calling, along with the dead thief's compatriots he swindled - and they all think that Kathlyn knows where the missing jewels are. There's also a misunderstanding thrown in - Kathlyn thinks Courtney needs a fake mistress to convince the ton he's "still a man" because she speculates the wartime bullet wound damaged his, uh, "little soldier." Courtney, of course, isn't forthcoming as to the why he needs the fake mistress subterfuge so speculation is all our girl has.

The cast soon bloats like a drunk on a 3-day bender to include future appearances and mentions of Courtney's former fiancée (hello, slut-shaming, followed by fat-shaming - because of course she married a decrepit old man after Courtney dumped her and put on some pounds), Courtney's former nanny, two rascally Lords he pals around with (well, sort of), two Bow Street Runners, three members of the jewel thief gang, the nannie's grandchildren, Kathlyn's loathsome aunt, Courtney's mother, and a partridge in a pear tree.

For the record, Trad Regencies are category length, and this one clocks in at a little over 200 pages. The author takes many writing short-cuts to trim down word count (a lot is mentioned but takes place off page), coupled with the farce and the large secondary cast means very little time is given to the actual romance. Which probably isn't a bad thing since what is on page largely didn't work for me. Courtney has one good scene where he talks about "purity" and the double-standard between men and women and why aren't men held to the same standards, yada yada yada - but otherwise he's entirely too smug and self-righteous for my tastes. There's one really good scene where Kathlyn fires both barrels at him - but otherwise there's just not enough here to make be buy into these two falling in love. A lot of what I would consider "courtship moments" take place off page.  The whole thing is entirely too overcrowded by the farcical comedy (Kathlyn gets kidnapped TWICE!) and the wide cast of secondary characters.  Basically folks what we have here is a screwball comedy set in Regency England and it just didn't work for me.

That said, I know there's a readership out there for farce and certainly it can work very well in a Trad Regency setting. However, Courtney nearly putting me off virgin heroes entirely (which I thought was basically impossible - who knew?) coupled with the strong Not Like Other Girls vibe to Kathlyn and the general overall writing of Courtney's former fiancée (deplorable) means that this is a Old School romance that just hasn't aged all that well.

Final Grade = D+

Note: It's not lost on me that I have referred to a book published in 1997 as "old school." Excuse me while I go crawl into my coffin...

Mini-Reviews: Bring On The Fluff!

I recently had my first DNF of 2025, a suspense novel featuring vile, hateful characters and y'all I just couldn't even. What's a girl to do? Well this girl decided to dive head first into a pile of cotton candy fluff and it was just what the doctor ordered.

Confessions of a Forty-Something F**k Up by Alexandra Potter was the inspiration for a short-lived American sitcom, Not Yet Dead, that lasted two seasons. I never watched the show, but based on the synopsis of it I'm fairly confident in saying it diverges wildly from the book - other than some of the characters sharing the same names and the obituary writing job thing. 

Nell is on the other side of forty and her life has imploded. Her business (a bookstore / café) went bust right along with her engagement. She's now single, broke, and with no other option than to tuck tail and head back to London. A couple of problems with that is she has no prospect of a job, she's broke, and rents in London are through the roof. All her friends are happily married with a couple of kids meaning not only is she a fifth wheel, she can't impose on them by couch surfing until she gets her shit together. Nothing for it, she answers an ad to rent a room from a wound-tight eco-warrior wannabe who controls the thermostat like the Gestapo, borrows a little money from her parents, and tries to work her contacts to find a job. Which she does - writing obituaries. That's how she meets Cricket, an 80-something widow with her own challenges. The two become fast friends and naturally help each other heal and commiserate along the way.

I came back to the romance genre in the late 1990s through Chick Lit, and that's what this is. Chick Lit with a 40-something heroine. She wants a husband and children, and well life hasn't exactly turned out the way she's planned. Having been in the States (New York, then California) for the last several years, she's now back home to lick her wounds and has discovered life (along with her friends and family) has kept on moving along without her.

It's a very character driven read and you're inside Nell's head for the duration. If you don't find her funny and interesting from the jump, save yourself some time and DNF early. I've always been one of those readers who can find Chick Lit great fun so long as I don't consume a steady diet of it, and this book largely worked for me - but like a lot of romantic comedy stuff these days, readers should be warned there's some heavy themes underpinning the story that, even with foreshadowing, still pop out to slam the brakes on the overall fluffy mood. That said, the author does say some interesting things about the expectations placed on women by themselves and society that still stand out even with the lighter tone. I had a good time with this and it's a crackin' good listen on audiobook, which I highly recommend. 

Content warning: infertility, miscarriage

Final Grade = B+

Everybody's favorite rich girl social media influencer and part-time serial killer, Kitty Collins, is back for her second adventure in I Bet You'd Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent.

Poor Kitty. She really doesn't want to kill men, but they make abstinence so darn difficult! She's trying to break her social media addiction, has pretty much stopped her work as an influencer, is attending an anger management group, and settling into a blissful existence with her boyfriend Charlie. A Chick Lit version of Dexter, Kitty only ever killed men who really, really deserved to die but she's determined to be good - until a social media influencer, a misogynistically vile incel going by the name of "Blaze Bundy" starts targeting her. On top of that her vulnerable gang rape survivor friend has just declared she's fallen in love with her therapist (but it's OK since he's no longer seeing me as a patient, so why aren't you happy for us Kitty?!) and Kitty's estranged, fabulously wealthy mother is getting married to a man Kitty didn't know existed until the wedding invitation showed up in the mail.

Can you take this book seriously? Absolutely not. Kitty continues to think she's smart but bungles her way through her murder spree - and in this day and age of cell phone tracking and DNA it's a wonder the cops don't at least know she exists. But it's not that kind of book. It's a female rage book with an undercurrent of dark humor - and that's either going to work for you or not. It naturally doesn't take Kitty long to get up to her old tricks and soon her relationship with Charlie is on life support.  Be advised this does not stand alone well at all, with events from the first book playing a heavy role and the ending got a little bit "out there" even for me - the moral of the story apparently being the family that kills and covers up murders together apparently stays together.  But it all goes down like a candy-flavored cocktail even when it turns bleakly dark.  The ending isn't entirely "happy" as far as the romance goes, but the author leaves the door wide open for potential future books. It's not high art but I had a good time reading it and inhaled it in a couple of greedy gulps. Also, and this cannot be overstated - terrible, awful, asshole men getting exactly what they deserve....

Content warning: Murder, violence, attempted rape

Final Grade = B

Reminder: #TBRChallenge Day is February 19

Here we are, Happy 2025 and the start of another #TBRChallenge! Our inaugural #TBRChallenge day is set for Wednesday, February 19 and our theme is Previously, In Romance...

This suggestion came out of my annual theme poll, and was one my favorites because it tickled the long buried part of myself that used to gobble up daytime soap operas. Some suggestion ideas for this theme include, a book that's part of a series, an author you haven't read in a while, or something Old School.

However, remember the themes are completely optional. If this all sounds like too much work and you'd rather blindly reach for a random book in my pile, go to work!  Remember our goal with this challenge is always to read something, anything, that has been languishing in her your TBR piles.

Also, a reminder that it's not too late to sign-up for the Challenge (fun fact: it's never too late to sign up!).  For more details and for a list of participants, you can check out the 2025 #TBRChallenge page.

Library Loot Review: A Dangerous Game

I took a flier last month and featured A Dangerous Game by Mandy Robotham on my January 2025 Unusual Historicals post with the caveat that it was probably "historical fiction with romantic elements" and I was crossing my fingers while I typed that. Turns out my instincts were correct. After reading, I'd call this more historical suspense with romantic elements and it was mostly successful for me.

Unbeknownst to me when I picked this up, it's actually Book 2 in a series (or maybe just a duet?) featuring Inspector Harri Schroder of the Kriminalpolizei, the German Criminal Police stationed in Hamburg. He first appears in The Hidden Storyteller, and the heroine of that book, Georgie Young, puts in a few brief appearances in this story in a secondary character capacity. I definitely got the clear message that this book was part of a series, but it stood alone well and I had not trouble keeping up.

It's 1952 and much of Europe is still recovering from the devastation of World War II.  Harri spent the war years working as a cop, and was SS by default. 

"All Kripo employees were SS - that bastard Himmler saw to that, tainting us with his vile ideology. I was a police officer through the entire war, nothing more. God knows how, but I managed to stay out of all that shit."

The war over, his wife and young daughter dead, the widower Harri is still a cop, until he's called into his superior's office and told he's going to London. He was personally requested and Harri chalks it up to a goodwill mission. Utterly pointless really when he has a pile of cases on his desk. But off he goes to London because it's a chance to catch up with friends and have a little holiday.

He's told to report to London Metropolitan Police's West End Central station and that's where he meets WPC (woman police constable) Helen "Dexie" Dexter. Widowed during the war, Dexie becomes a police officer and dreams of joining the Criminal Investigative Division (CID), the road block, of course, being that she's a woman. Sexist colleagues, glass ceiling, yada yada yada.  Dexie spends her days walking a beat, dealing with hookers and johns, and intervening on "domestic cases." 

Harri soon finds out why he was personally requested. MI5 wants him to find James Remington, an influential money man with connections in British political circles. They think this Remington is really Helmut Praxer, a former high ranking Nazi official who ran underground after Germany's surrender. 

"He was the Nazis' money man, the key to juggling millions in Reichsmarks and dollars, turning stolen gold and artwork into hard currency. It's not an overstatement to say that, without him, Hitler could never have financed the war."

The wrinkle is that if Remington is Praxer he's had extensive cosmetic surgery and worked on changing his accent and speech patterns. Harri and Praxer went to the police academy together and knew each other fairly well before their ideologies took them on very divergent courses. MI5 is hoping Harri can find and confirm Remington is Praxer, and do so discreetly before he becomes further entrenched in British politics and matters of governmental finance. 

Harri agrees to help but knows he'll need someone riding shotgun. Someone who knows London better than he does. Someone who knows the streets. And that someone turns out to be Dexie, who jumps at the chance to prove her mettle and hopefully move a step closer to CID.

Of course it all gets complicated in short order. They have a very short window to find Remington, confirm his true identity and just as they start to run him to ground, the Great Smog of 1952 descends on London, a four day event of toxic pollution that killed thousands of people. 

This started a little slow for me as the author lays the groundwork to get Harri to London, meet Dexie, and get his case. Once they're dispatched to find Remington things pick up steam and I had no trouble staying invested and flipping the pages. The setting against the Great Smog was truly inspired and really adds to the overall atmosphere of the story.  

The suspense and hunt for Remington/Praxer is really the driving force of the story, but as promised we get "romantic elements" in the relationship between Harri and Dexie. These are two characters who fit together well. They like and respect each other, and this is nothing to overlook with Harri - who is the first man (well, ever) who treats Dexie as a valued colleague. Someone who is good at her job, with a keen mind, and capable of more than just making tea and filing reports. 

That said, liking and respecting is a good foundation but getting from that to romance and love isn't developed as well. I totally got that they liked each other, even admired each other, but getting tingly in their private bits? Not at all. You can't even call this book "just kisses" because there are no kisses. There's not even "heated looks," or "sparks" when their hands accidentally brush up against each other. They share a bed a couple of times out of necessity, and warmth, but literally that's all it is. I mean, I'm happy they're together at the end. I wanted them together at the end. I just wasn't really sure when or how they "fell in love."   Yes, the romantic component of their relationship is secondary to the overall story, but just a stolen kiss, a heated glance - a couple of small moments was really all that was missing. 

Some "telling" does creep into moments of the narrative, but it's not egregious and the overall story is well executed. I'm not sorry I read it in the least and I enjoyed it enough that I likely will read the first book at some point. But oh, if only a little teensy oomph had been added to the romance. Just a smidge. A mere modicum. And well, it would have been closer to perfect.

Final Grade = B-

Library Loot Review: When I Think Of You

There is nothing better then when a book that flew completely under your radar falls into your lap "for reasons" and you end up loving it to pieces.  When I Think of You is Myah Ariel's debut and was published in April 2024. I maybe saw some reviews for it back then? Maybe? (I mean, what is time?) But since I'm no longer actively in the role of selecting books for The Day Job and with the sheer explosion of self-publishing, y'all I just can't keep up anymore. However, Ariel will soon by doing a virtual library program and while I won't be moderating, I was asked to do the introductions, so I snagged copy using one of my handy library cards and proceeded to inhale this in two greedy gulps. 

Kaliya Wilson has paid her dues ten times over. A small town Southern girl with dreams of producing movies she's stuck in a dead end receptionist job at a Los Angeles film studio, working for privileged assholes who dismiss her talent and ambition. It's just another soul-sucking day at the office when opportunity waltzes through the door in the form of the man who shattered her heart. Danny Prescott. Son of Hollywood royalty. The boy she fell hopelessly in love with when they met in NYC film school. The boy who now has a CW-like soap opera princess on his arm. 

Danny is the son of an award-winning, now deceased, white Hollywood director and a black mother - his parents childhood sweethearts who grew up and fell in love in Tennessee, naturally against all odds. Danny was their "miracle baby" and he is determined to bring his parents' love story to the big screen. Danny has garnered a lot of buzz around town and people are already talking about how this movie is major Oscar bait. He certainly did not expect to see Kaliya working a crummy receptionist job when he came to the studio to meet with execs. Kaliya, the girl who championed his film school thesis movie, the girl he was hopelessly in love with, the girl he pushed away but never forgot.

Danny knows he needs Kaliya on this project and after a series of misadventures and heartbreak (Hollywood politics yo) she ends up agreeing. Kaliya has only heard no. She can't get anyone to consider giving her a shot working on a film, and while seeing Danny rips open a lot of old wounds, she sees it as an opportunity she cannot pass up - her movie-making dreams having been on life support for so long.

Second chance romances can be very tricky to write because the author has to straddle the line of having the couple breaking up for credible reasons and still make them redeemable so that you root for them getting back together. This was honestly a tricky tightrope for me early on since all I could think to do was tell Kaliya "Run Girl! He destroyed your heart once and this smacks of him using you for his own gain."  But as the story unfolds you realize that Danny recognizes that while he does need Kaliya by his side to make this movie, just like her he's been in a state of emotional limbo since they split. There's a mess of unfinished business between them.  The fly in the ointment? He's got a girlfriend who has thrown some of her money into his movie, plus the overall general bullshit of Hollywood politics. 

This book does feature two plot elements that normally drive me batshit insane in other books. Of course Danny's girlfriend plays The Evil Other Woman role and of course the first time Danny and Kaliya have sex there's no condom and we get the "I'm safe, I'm clean" nonsense. But you know what? I loved this book anyway. Subdued isn't quite the right word, but The Evil Other Woman stuff isn't drenched all over the narrative, it's more like a snide-ness that creeps in when the plot dictates it. Also, Danny doesn't drag that relationship out over the course of the entire book. Once the unfinished business between him and Kaliya becomes undeniable, they break-up. But she's still invested in his movie, hence the added bits of conflict with her sticking around.

There are also underpinnings of grief and privilege to the conflict. Danny, who idolizes both of his parents, who is determined to make this movie about their love story, while staying true to his vision, has had to process the loss and grief of losing his father. Kaliya is stuck in limbo with her career, still hopelessly in love with Danny, and has maybe lost a bit of herself along the way. Danny, while biracial, has been afforded certain privileges because of who his father was, while Kaliya has seen nothing but struggle and doors slammed in her face. 

What struck me most about this book is how great the world-building is (this story could only take place in Los Angeles and reads like it - brava!) and the emotional heft, especially in the second half. There's a heart-stopping scene between Danny's mother and Kaliya, and the climactic reunion between our couple at the end after the third act break-up is one of the best I've read in a long, long time. 

Quibbles and my pet peeves aside, this was such a great read and a wonderful debut. I'm already crossing my fingers and hoping permission is granted for me to score an advanced copy of Ariel's upcoming second book.

Final Grade = A

Little Miss Crabby Pants: The Historical Is Dead, Long Live The Historical!

At the end of February I will have been blogging for 22 years. That's a lot of years with a lot of words, and not just here. I've helped kill off so many defunct group blogs I've lost track of all the places I used to blather on about romance novels.

What's my point, exactly? Well, for one thing, I'm old. For another, I've said a lot of things about romance novels over the years and written a lot of opinion pieces. People used to like my opinion pieces, and it probably hasn't gone unnoticed that I don't write them anymore. Why? Reread that first paragraph again. I've been blogging for 22 years. I have reached the point where I feel like I've already said it and Romancelandia tends to be cyclical in it's Drama Llama. I mean how many times do I really want to wade into the "do romance novels need a happy ending?" discussion?  Y'all I found it annoying as shit the first time around, let along the 4,598th time.

But it's not lost on me that my longevity in blathering about the genre means I have seen some things. I got grudges yo. I've come through the fire, and your Auntie Wendy is here to impart some hard-won wisdom to you young'uns. That is, what do we do about what feels like the final gasp of historical romance? Once the Grand Dame, the stalwart of the genre, she's now lying bleeding in the forest getting pitchforked to death by Grumpy/Sunshine (god I hate that term - we used to just call that shit Opposites Attract....) single title contemporaries with cartoon covers that think trope = conflict. 

I've survived historical western authors jumping ship for Regency England. I've survived historical authors jumping ship to write romantic suspense. I've survived everyone jumping ship to dust off half-baked paranormals they should have left buried in a desk drawer. I'm so old I remember when Romancelandia was whinging about contemporary romance being "dead" (the two biggest blogs at the time launched a Save The Contemporary campaign). All this to say that authors and publishers have always gone chasing after trends because everybody's gotta eat. But where does that leave the folks who love a sub genre that's seemingly being abandoned?  Well, here's my advice - some of which you're not going to like, but Auntie Wendy is old now and all outta spoons. 

Historicals Will Only Die If We Let Them - I started reading the genre heavily before eBooks were "a thing." Mass market paperback was king and went out of print in a nanosecond. Readers missed a lot of books when they could buy them new and resorted to used bookstores and/or trading online with other readers once that became a thing.  Y'all we have self-publishing now. We have books that stay "in print" digitally and in print-on-demand editions for a very, very long time. While traditional publishing has seemingly abandoned historicals, self-publishing has not. Also backlists are more readily available now than they ever were. Like, ever. All this to say that you can now easily still buy and read a historical romance published in 2005 and enjoy it without crawling on the floor at a used bookstore checking the bottom shelves.

You Need To Read Historicals and Promote Them - Yes, I know everybody is reading the new Emily Henry, Tessa Bailey or Whomever book, but if you love historicals you need to invest in them with your time. Read them and talk them up with your friends, on social media, drop the author an email and tell them how much you enjoyed their book (authors love that shit) etc. 

That Said, You're Going To Read Some Shit - Look, you're going to need to take chances on authors you've never read before and you're not going to like all of it. I know you're sad that Lisa Kleypas hasn't published a historical in five years, but you're going to need to take fliers on authors you're not as familiar with. Honestly I used to hear this excuse a lot, but really in this day and age it no longer holds water. Folks, Jesus died to give you ready access to samples via online retailers, and publisher and author websites (some are better about this than others, admittedly).  I realize Amazon is our Evil Overlord and generally vile, but it's a reader's best friend in being able to read samples. You can try something before you buy it. Yes, you might still hate that book once you've finished reading but you at least can get a good idea of the writing style etc. before you invest your dollars.

Find The Helpers - I have many thoughts and feelings on the social media landscape (even prior to current events), but there's a lot of readers out there and there are still blogs and review sites. Google killed Google Reader in 2013. Over a decade ago. There's other RSS feed readers out there and while you will probably not like them as much as Google Reader? It's been over a decade, get over it. Change is good for the soul. Also if you're starting to hate social media as much as I do? Many blogs and review sites allow you to sign up for email notifications and a lot of authors have jumped back on the newsletter bandwagon. I'm starting to get better at subscribing to newsletters from authors I know I enjoy reading or if I discover a new author and I want to stay updated on when their next book lands.

Get Every Library Card You're Eligible For - I'm not going to lie, library funding sucks. I don't know any library that's rolling around naked in piles of money and it's only going to get worse. That said, get a library card because while they're not going to have everything you want to read and you're going to be stuck on wait lists for the stuff they do have that you want to read, it's a great way to take a flier on an author that's new to you or an author you're debating on breaking up with (sorry, not sorry). And while you're at your local public library signing up for a library card - ask them who they have "reciprocal borrowing" agreements with. You might be eligible to get a card in a neighboring jurisdiction and not even be aware of it. This is especially handy for digital services like Libby and Hoopla because it'll expand your access to titles and in Hoopla's case, number of monthly borrows.

Is it sad that historical romance, once the staple of the genre, is falling into a swoon?  Yes. However, it's still out there and there are still authors keeping up the good fight writing them. We, as readers, need to take some chances and yes, maybe do a little more heavy lifting than we're used to. But trust me on this, is there really anything better than discovering a new author you enjoy?  Reader, there is not. Now spread your wings and fly....

Review: In the Face of the Sun

After reading and enjoying Wild Women and the Blues by Denny S. Bryce last year (her debut from 2021), I fully expected to enjoy her follow-up from 2022, In the Face of the Sun. Unfortunately this ended up being a dreaded case of the "sophomore slump" for me.

This is a duel timeline historical fiction novel with some romantic elements. After an introduction set in 1990, the book opens in 1968 with Frankie Saunders finally determined to leave her no-account abusive husband. What was the final straw for Frankie? She's pregnant. Unfortunately her carefully choregraphed plan goes all to hell when Jackson comes home early from work and her escape route, her Aunt Daisy, shows up in her flashy cherry red Ford Mustang early and stoned out of her mind to boot. A bunch of Drama Llama happens, Frankie ends up not taking the bus from Chicago to Los Angeles, and instead ends up agreeing to making the trip in the Mustang with Daisy and a white boy named Tobey (apparently Daisy and his mother were friends, but this is 1968 and Frankie doesn't trust white boys as a general rule). 

The other half of this story is set in 1928 and follows a young college-dropout (for reasons) Daisy working at the newly opened, Black built and owned, Hotel Somerville, located on "Black Broadway" in downtown Los Angeles. Daisy is a chambermaid with ambitions to be a journalist working for one of the famous Black newspapers, and the hotel quickly becomes the hotspot for the city's Black elite. This means Daisy has the inside track on collecting ALL the gossip - which she's doing for a local newspaperman she went to high school with. Daisy needs the money and is hustling her pretty little butt off. Her mother fell into a deep depression after her brothers (Daisy's uncles) died in the St. Francis Dam collapse and has been catatonically lying in bed ever since. Daisy wants to get her mother into one of those posh sanatoriums, not the vile state run hospital that her father is proposing. 

My goal in reading fiction is not to "learn something," but I will admit it's a nice added bonus when I do.  I live in Southern California and had NO CLUE about the Hotel Somerville (which still stands today as part of Dunbar Village and provides affordable senior housing) so the setting, the peppering in of real life historical figures, and the glimpse into that history was really interesting. Unfortunately it's wasted on poor pacing and half-baked character development.

The story is bookended with chapters set in 1990 and it's in the first chapter we learn there was a murder in 1928. Honestly, I ended up forgetting about it because the story drags on and the murder doesn't even happen until the 80% mark. What happens before that?  Not much. 1928 Daisy playing spy gathering gossip, trying to keep her younger sister in line, and falling in love with Malcolm Barnes, an affluent Black man determined to become a premier architect. 1968 Frankie spends the entire time bickering with 1968 Daisy all while somehow not having any kind of meaningful conversation with her (Daisy and Frankie's mother haven't spoken in 40 years and Frankie LITERALLY JUST MET Daisy like two weeks prior to the start of the book). Literally they just bicker. About nothing. It's boring and exhausting.

There's no bread crumbs. No teasing little reveals of family secrets to keep the reader moving forward in the book. It's all backloaded towards the end and when the murder finally does come to light?  Everything, quite literally EVERYTHING, is told to the reader. A police officer showing up on 1928 Daisy's doorstep telling her there's been a murder. The final denouement at the end told to 1968 Daisy by a secondary character. Tell, tell, tell. I wasn't invested in any of it. 

Exacerbating the problem is Daisy's character development. Folks, I couldn't figure out for the life of me how I was supposed to believe that 1928 Daisy was the same person as 1968 Daisy.  For lack of a better description, 1928 Daisy is hardworking, earnest and has a stick up her butt. Oh she'll bend some rules but in many ways she's quite proper. 1968 Daisy is a cherry red Mustang driving, smoking (cigarettes and marijuana), drinking, switchblade carrying (and not afraid to use it) mouthy woman with no filter. I'm not saying these two people can't be the same person - what I am saying is that with nothing happening for 80% of the book there's not enough bread crumbs left for me to believe these two people are the same person. When it comes to Daisy we start at A and somehow end up at Z with no explanation let alone foreshadowing along the way.

It's, of course, all right as rain in the end. Frankie escapes her abusive husband (yes he of course learns she's pregnant and goes chasing after her cross country), Daisy learns the truth and reunites with her sister...along with another secondary character. The problem is I didn't care. It's hard to care about a dead body when it simply falls from the sky at 80% and then the "suspense" is told to the reader. It's hard to care about what happens to the characters when not much happens for most of the book. This is hardly an offensive read, but it's disappointing because the concept, setting and history all made for an interesting framework. It's just what was populating that framework was rather bland.

Final Grade = C-