Thursday, May 31, 2012

Speed Date with the Darlington Family: Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame

Hi! This feature is hosted by Mary over at The Book Swarm. Speed Dating is basically giving a shorter review of the book and it's ton of fun! Go check it out!


Title: Wentworth Hall
Author: Abby Grahame
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication Date: May 1, 2012
Source: Bought
Add to your shelves 


Summary: The prettiest people often have the ugliest secrets… 

Eighteen-year-old Maggie Darlington has turned into an entirely different person. The once spirited teen is now passive and reserved. A change Lord and Lady Darlington can’t help but be grateful for.

It’s 1912, and the Darlingtons of Wentworth Hall have more than just the extensive grounds to maintain. As one of Britain’s most elite families, they need to keep up appearances that things are as they have always been… even as their carefully constructed façade rapidly comes undone.

Maggie has a secret. And she’s not the only one… the handsome groom Michael, the beautiful new French nanny Therese, the Darlingtons’ teenage houseguests Teddy and Jessica, and even Maggie’s younger sister Lila are all hiding something. Passion, betrayal, heartache, and whispered declarations of love take place under the Darlingtons’ massive roof. And one of these secrets has the power to ruin the Darlingtons forever.

When scandalous satires start appearing in the newspaper with details that closely mirror the lives of the Darlingtons, everyone is looking over their shoulder, worrying their scandal will be next. Because at Wentworth Hall, nothing stays secret for long.


Review: My thoughts on Wentworth Hall are a bit turbulent. I loved that scandal and the secrets that were involved in the book. But the characters? They were not what I was expecting. 


I thought this book would be entirely about Maggie but this book actually encompasses multiple people from the household. Everyone mentioned in the summary is a part of this book. It's not that I didn't like the switching perspectives but I never really got to know a character. You know how English teachers always say, "Show don't tell?" I wanted to be shown that Maggie and Michael actually had a romance and that Maggie used to be a fun-loving person. Sadly, that didn't happen. 


I loved the secrets and the intrigue that went on it wasn't hard to figure out at all. It was written very well but it was more than a bit predictable


Wentworth Hall is a fun book and it's definitely not short on scandal but I wish it would have lived up to my expectations. 


Rating: 
Sorry, this review is a bit long! :)

7 comments:

Jenny said...

Hmmmm. This sounds like a book I could wait on, I live for amazing characters that make me love them or hate them, so it's disappointing that you never really got to know any of the characters all that well. The scandal aspect intrigues me though:) Thanks for the review Katie!

Anonymous said...

Awe boo, I hate when books are predictable. I'm not a huge fan of multiple POVs unless it's done really well.

I'm sorry to hear it wasn't a favorite for you.

Jenny

Lisa said...

I love scandalous books. It is very sad though that the characters were not fully developed.

Mary @ BookSwarm said...

This one has such potential! Perhaps if the focus remained on just a couple characters rather than switching around so much, it really would have worked. I really like the premise--sounds like a good library book! Cheers!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I had hoped the book would be better but it sounds like it lacks focus :(
which is sad because the summary sounded pretty good.

Lauren M said...

Dang, it sounds like the multiple-narrator thing didn't work so well in Wentworth Hall. I was looking forward to reading it! :/
- Lauren

Anonymous said...

I need to to thank you for this excellent read!! I definitely
loved every bit of it. I've got you bookmarked to look at new things you post…

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