Synposis is promising, but excerpt failed to deliver
First, the cover is atrocious. The font and font color just feel wrong for the book. And I get that the art is supposed to be reminiscent of the rib sauce label, but it just isn't working. The synopsis says the label is "a caricature of a wildly grinning August," so I think that would make more sense or even some sort of sauce bottle than a weird outline of a human but for some reasons flowers & greenery. It's just weird and does nothing to convey anything about the book.
It was clear from the start that this was historical fiction. The use of the words "orphans" and "asylum gave that away. But it wasn't until page 9 that we really get any timeframe context. That really should have been more up front because throughout the first pages I was distracted by trying to put this novel in a time setting. There also seems to be a lot of tell instead of show in the excerpt, and so I had a bit of a time really getting into it. And then it isn't even until the end of the excerpt, past page 130, where the sauce is even mentioned. So this is definitely falling into the maybe category. The synposis was intriguing, but so far, I'm not feeling the excerpt.
It was clear from the start that this was historical fiction. The use of the words "orphans" and "asylum gave that away. But it wasn't until page 9 that we really get any timeframe context. That really should have been more up front because throughout the first pages I was distracted by trying to put this novel in a time setting. There also seems to be a lot of tell instead of show in the excerpt, and so I had a bit of a time really getting into it. And then it isn't even until the end of the excerpt, past page 130, where the sauce is even mentioned. So this is definitely falling into the maybe category. The synposis was intriguing, but so far, I'm not feeling the excerpt.