Rose Boucheron

From Fantastic Fiction Book Description:

A gentle story of English village life - As the domestic mainstay of Cedar Green, Edie Fisher has an insight into the lives of many of the villages inhabitants, from the beautiful but petulant Lady Ledsham to widowed solicitor John Paynter. But when an old school friend of Edies appears on the scene now a doctor, whose son has aspirations to develop luxury flats in the village, the calm surface of life in Cedar Green is definitely ruffled.

My Thoughts:
This is not my usual type of book. I did find parts of it quiet enjoyable and parts of it seem to drag out with no particular end in sight. I liked the character of Edie Fisher. He knew so many of the villagers and had insights into their lives, some they probably wished he didn't have. Plans by the son of one of Edie's old school friends to build luxury flats in the village was rather on the flat (no pun intended) side. Over all a good story.
… (mais)

I couldn’t finish it. It had such potential–lovely little out of the way country town where everyone knows everyone else’s business. Unfortunately, everyone’s business was a tidge more convoluted than I usually have the patience for–from the outsider who moved there because she wanted to (great) and somehow successfully supports herself as a maid for several houses (not likely) and her live in daughter (also a maid) and grandson (who turns out to be the lovechild of a well-respected man in the community) to the girl who is part italian and his more or less patrician mother couldn’t deal with his choice of mate (notice that I didn’t say wife). And on and on.

I think the problem was too much jumping around from chapter to chapter. I didn’t get enough to learn to care about the characters and so couldn’t remember several chapters later what their story was when we got back to it. And Boucheron’s style was almost descriptively there. I think she wanted to achieve (at least it felt that way), a sort of Edith Warton-light–heavy on the description without describing each tine on the fork. But it got confused or cut off.

I almost didn’t do the review because hey–can you really review a book you get 1/3 through and not finish? The answer, yes, I can tell you to save yourself some time. Skip it. Move on.… (mais)