A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting by Sophie IrwinMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I received an ARC of this book.
I am rounding up a bit for this one. I get that this book is titled A Lady's Guide to Fortune-Hunting, so the reader should expect a certain amount of mercenary behavior on the part of the "lady" in question--Kitty Talbot. But in order for the reader to either 1.) truly sympathize with Kitty's plight and understand her mammoth undertaking in finding a rich husband in order to save her family, or 2.) enjoy the machinations of Kitty as she searches for a wealthy man to beguile and entice into matrimony, the reader has to somehow root for and LIKE Kitty. And I did neither. She came across as robotic and unfeeling. The few misguided attempts to make Kitty seem sympathetic fell flat and so I really just began to feel sorry for Arthur. I was also astounded as to how she managed to be such a master manipulator when she had such a sheltered upbringing and gained most of her experience with men from her fickle "fiance." I was continually surprised by how easy it was for Kitty to find just the right thing to say or do to wrap Arthur around her finger. By the time the true love interest, Lord Radcliffe, was introduced--waaay too many pages in, in my opinion--I found I really didn't care about Kitty and was bored with the story.
I would not recommend this book. Is it trying to say something about the sexist and snobbish attitudes of Britain in the early 1800s? Umm...Pride and Prejudice was written in 1813…if you haven't figured out by now—over 200 years later—that Regency England had numerous flaws, then you need to be reading a different genre. If you are looking for something in the same vein as this--done much better--check out the real classics, by Georgette Heyer or Clare Darcy.
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