Review : The Season

Posted by kay on January 6, 2010 1:35 am in 4.5 stars reads | 9 comments

The Season by Sarah MacLean
Pages : 336
Genre : YA, Historical Fiction
Series : Stand Alone
My Rating :

The setting is London 1815, and Lady Alexandra Stafford, seventeen years old, is about to be introduced to society for her first season. Alex and her two best friends, Vivi and Ella, have almost no interest in romance and marriage, and the coming season is the last thing they would want to think about : they much prefer to sit around and discuss politics and literature.

But the balls and dinners don’t turn out as Alex first expected it : after the death of the Earl of Blackmoor, his son Gavin comes back home just in time for the beginning of the season. Gavin has always been a close friend of Alex’s family, so much so that she considers him like a brother… or maybe something else? Then, some surprising conversations are heard and suspicion arises : what if the Earl’s death hadn’t been accidental? And what if the murderer was still out there, waiting to get rid of Gavin too?

I usually take a few quick notes while I’m reading, so that when comes the time to write the review, I actually remember what I’m talking about. Those are usually short sentences about things I enjoy, things I don’t, and that I assemble once I put the review together. This time though, my notes were the shortest and looked something like this :

Cool setting (London 1815). Romance (Gavin! <3)! Mystery! Ball! Dancing! Dresses! Gossip! Squee! This book is candy!

So, I guess you can pretty much conclude that I really enjoyed this book! I liked the characters, the story, the setting, the writing, everything!

Oh, I’m not saying the book was perfect, but it all worked so well together that I loved every page of it. My rating is purely based on the fact that I enjoyed the book so much that I didn’t really care about its flaws. But since there are a few, let’s get them out of the way right away! My main problem (if you can call it that) is that I found it took a little too long before we really got into the mystery. There are a few clues about it in the first half of the book, but it really becomes the center of the story in the second half. Also, there are a few details that could be viewed as a bit unrealistic for the time period, mostly in some of the characters expressions and actions.

That being said, the author still did an excellent job of carrying us 200 years back in time. She wrote the scenes with detail, but not too much, in such a way that I could really well imagine the scenes. The characters were likable but also realistic in their reactions, and the political discussions were not too long, but good. In fact, that’s one of the things I really enjoyed in this book : I didn’t feel like MacLean was trying to simplify her talk to be “accessible” to young adults. While I have no doubt that teens and young adults will enjoy this novel, it’s one book that I would easily recommend to some of my friends who enjoy romance, England and the period.

Conclusion : this novel is the kind of fluff that makes you go “awww!” and the perfect cure to a morose afternoon. Yes, the romance and the mystery are predictable, but this is exactly what you would wait for when you pick up the book. If like me you enjoy “Ball! Dancing! Dresses! Gossip! London 1815!”, go pick it up. 🙂