Thursday, November 19, 2009

Tears of Pearl (Lady Emily Mysteries, #4) by Tasha Alexander


I was halfway through this book and afraid of what my review was going to be, but the second half redeemed the story. There is only so much lovely dovey stuff I can take without upchucking my dinner, but eventually the action picked up. Admittingly, I didn't enjoy it as much as the previous two installments, especially A Poisoned Season.

I missed Lady Emily's whole gang of friends. None of the new characters particularly grabbed me. I was happy when Margaret showed up, she quirked things up a bit. I didn't enjoy Colin as much as I usually do. I'm afraid the book lost something with Colin and Emily being married. There's no more tension. I liked the tension.

I did figure out the murderer as soon as he/she entered the story. I'm not sure if that was a lucky guess or what.

The descriptions were wonderful. The setting was Constantinople and this book makes me want to fly over there and visit. And this novel was no doubt excessively researched. It shows.

Fans of the series will enjoy this, but it is a bit different than the previous three. I'm hoping the next installment will have all her friends back.


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I won this book from Goodreads. It in no way affected my review.



2 comments:

Joanne said...

I completely agree with you -- I loved the first three books in the series and enjoyed the physical and emotional tension between Colin and Lady Emily, but found this latest installment fell flat. I still like Tasha Alexander's elegant writing style.

Misfit said...

I had always planned on reading TA's books until I observed the snarky attacks on critical reviewers (one in particular) at Amazon, one of whom turned out to her Tasha's intended. None of those commenters bothered to declare their relationshiop with Ms. Alexander when they posted either. She has lost me as a reader, and others as well.