Wednesday, September 23, 2015

DNF Explanation: The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie

Received: ARC from publisher, via NetGalley
Read to page 69 of 449
Goodreads

Here's the thing about mistress books: I'm not really a fan. Mistresses aren't usually very exciting since their main claim to fame generally begins and ends at sleeping with a king. And since that's their thing, the books about them are often pretty romance heavy and not much else.

Plus, yeah, I get that the times were different and all and these marriages weren't all romance and love, but it's hard for me to get behind a home-wreaker. Maybe I've read too many books from the poor queens' perspectives.

So I broke my unofficial No Mistresses rule by requesting this book. Times four, because The Sisters of Versailles is about FOUR mistresses, all sisters (yeah, this family apparently had a lock on the mistress market, at least for a time). But I really wanted to read about this time period and I convinced myself that the cover looked sufficiently historical so I'd probably get a good amount of historical details, right?

I should have known better.

So, yes, I DNF-ed this book in part because it was exactly what I should have known it would be: it's a mistress book. Romance and fluff and not much else. I was sorely disappointed at the lack of historical detail, which I was hoping would at least come through.

But that's not even the main reason I chose to DNF. No, I probably would have stuck it out to the end if it weren't for the fact that I ended up loathing each of the sisters.

One is like an evil step sister from Cinderella, one is bland and silly and easily led to make poor choices, one is barely there, and one is straight up psychopathic (and not in a good way, even if the fire cabinet was kind of nice payback to the evil sister. But, the girl tortures animals!)

This is why I chose to stop reading. Even with the short chapters (max 10 pages), and even with the rotating point of view (done decently enough), and even with the good writing (I really did like this Sally Christie's style), and even with the time period (I'm really interested in reading the just-pre-Marie Antoinette years), I just could not bear the thought of spending any more time with these awful women.

Maybe when Sally Christie finishes with this series she'll write about historical figures I like. I hope so, because I would still give her a shot.


Looking for another book like this?
The one on the left I also disliked and the one on the right I loved
http://smallreview.blogspot.com/2014/01/book-review-becoming-josephine-by.htmlhttp://smallreview.blogspot.com/2013/10/series-review-marie-antoinette-by.html

 Click on the covers to go to my reviews


3 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear this was so disappointing. It can be difficult to finish reading a book when you don't like any of the characters. Maybe I'll try the Juliet Grey book instead.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm not a fan of the cover of the book or what it seems to be about. Just out of curiosity, how realistic is it to have a family of girls all be mistresses, Small?

    ReplyDelete

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