Not my cup of tea, but that's okay
The High Season has all the pieces necessary to make it a great beach read--location, vacation, gossip, and intrigue. The drama in this book is potent. While such summer books aren’t my usual cup of tea, I can appreciate what Blundell set out to accomplish with this one.
The plot of this story, while very predictable, had several engaging moments. I appreciated the ways in which the characters’ lives became intertwined. I would have appreciated more suspense or mystique, but perhaps that’s just me.
The characters in this one are as depraved as ever. I was a little bothered by the limited redeemable qualities--I always find it hard to root for such people. However, I’ve found that this type of “everyone has a dark side” model is very common with this genre, so at least Blundell is writing to her audience.
The writing itself was well-done and engaging. We weren’t bogged down with too much description or exposition. I felt the text-messaging model was a little stilted, and I had trouble keeping track of characters through the multiple points of view (it was usually the second paragraph of the chapter before I figured out who we were supposed to be following. And there was a least one chapter where I just never figured it out). Blundell has a good voice for the beach read, and it comes through here, although she overcomplicated the modes of communication and narrative focus.
Overall, this was a decent book. Again, it’s outside my genre comfort zone, so I may be more critical than those who typically read this type of story. It’s going to be a great one to take on vacation this summer, and it could be a great topic for a book club meeting.
The plot of this story, while very predictable, had several engaging moments. I appreciated the ways in which the characters’ lives became intertwined. I would have appreciated more suspense or mystique, but perhaps that’s just me.
The characters in this one are as depraved as ever. I was a little bothered by the limited redeemable qualities--I always find it hard to root for such people. However, I’ve found that this type of “everyone has a dark side” model is very common with this genre, so at least Blundell is writing to her audience.
The writing itself was well-done and engaging. We weren’t bogged down with too much description or exposition. I felt the text-messaging model was a little stilted, and I had trouble keeping track of characters through the multiple points of view (it was usually the second paragraph of the chapter before I figured out who we were supposed to be following. And there was a least one chapter where I just never figured it out). Blundell has a good voice for the beach read, and it comes through here, although she overcomplicated the modes of communication and narrative focus.
Overall, this was a decent book. Again, it’s outside my genre comfort zone, so I may be more critical than those who typically read this type of story. It’s going to be a great one to take on vacation this summer, and it could be a great topic for a book club meeting.