This book is packed with detail and historical information, sometimes to the detriment of the plot. I felt that the author had gathered so much research that they wanted to share, that the storyline was swamped and appeared trivial and unrealised.
I do think that the non-ending was a disappointment - I like a series but this was not so much a cliff hanger as a full stop, almost as though the author decided that they couldn't add any more pages to the already weighty novel, but also couldn't go back an re-edit to allow a more rounded and complete story.
I feel that the author should have written a social history of domestic life in the period, and then written a separate novel with more fully rounded and believable characters, rather than the rather two dimensional ciphers for lines which often felt interchangeable. Sometimes I really couldn't tell who was speaking because there was not enough. differentiation of speech patterns.
It's a shame, because potentially this was something I should love.
I do think that the non-ending was a disappointment - I like a series but this was not so much a cliff hanger as a full stop, almost as though the author decided that they couldn't add any more pages to the already weighty novel, but also couldn't go back an re-edit to allow a more rounded and complete story.
I feel that the author should have written a social history of domestic life in the period, and then written a separate novel with more fully rounded and believable characters, rather than the rather two dimensional ciphers for lines which often felt interchangeable. Sometimes I really couldn't tell who was speaking because there was not enough. differentiation of speech patterns.
It's a shame, because potentially this was something I should love.