Book Review – Lady Lost by Jane Goodger.

2 out of 5 stars.

New disclaimer due to new Amazon rules: I was gifted a free electronic copy of this book by Kensington Books, via Netgalley. I am not obligated, nor being forced, to post a review – I’m doing it of my own free will as I enjoy reviewing.

On advice from Amazon, and based on their emailed reply I can say – “My review is given voluntarily and the Author/publisher does not require a review in exchange for the book, or attempt to influence my review.”

My Review:

Okay, from the score you can tell I wasn’t a huge fan of this book… and I do plan on explaining my reasons to you too. But I want to start off by pointing out three things:

I read the entire book – that says something. I didn’t just give up in disgust as I have done with so many other works of late.

I am perfectly imperfect and know some readers find my own writing leaves a lot to be desired. Whether that be my books or my blogs. 😉

I am not an expert on the era in question, nor a world leading critic – so please feel free to mutter to yourself ‘What would she know’ if you don’t agree with me. 🙂

Now that is all sorted, here comes the dreaded constructive criticism as to why I was not a fan of this book. Firstly it was the third book in a series – not something mentioned on Netgalley – and I am never a fan of books mid-series. I do believe they are all stand-alone works, but still… not a fan of mid-series books.

Also, I really did find ‘Lady Lost’ came across more as a fan-fiction work than an actually well written piece. Meaning, the author is someone who is a fan of the historical romance and so felt that alone would give them the experience to write an historical romance… it did not. It really came across as a horrid mish mash of cultures, ideologies and eras. Half the time it was as if we were still in the Georgian (Regency) era and then we would suddenly be transported to Victorian era ideologies and technologies and then into the 21^st century and back again. Really gave me a headache that it wasn’t planned and mapped out that well.

Perhaps it is because I do read a lot of work from the two former eras that were written in those eras? Perhaps it’s because the modern works I do read were well researched and the stories fleshed out to set the appropriate scene, use the correct terminologies and – mostly – stick to the ideologies and principles of those eras… Maybe I am just being a picky book snob? All I can say is the writing style and its hit and miss fan-fiction approach got to me in the end and lowered the score.

I also found the constant hot and cold approach rather annoying. I mean, every single page seemed to chop and change between the negative “get them out” to “I need them to stay” mantra that I started to wonder if the leading man was bi-polar (not that that condition was known as that back then). Doing it occasionally throughout a romance story, to keep it spicy and that desire, intrigue and anguish drawing the reader on – that’s good. Chopping and changing every single page? Dull, annoying and frustrating (but not in the good frustrating one reads a romance book to get).

There was no true emotional attachment to the work. It was as if the author knew all the right boxes to tick, but couldn’t be bothered putting their heart and soul into it and fleshing it out (pardon the pun) more to help the reader connect too. It could be from a lack of life experience to help add the needed emotions, it could be from lack of experience in writing this genre outside of fan-fiction, it could be me being a nit-picky so and so… There just was something there that was lacking to the point I just could not connect with the work, but was determined to finish it as Kensington Books usually provide such good quality works. This one, for me, was severely lacking.