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drizzleandhurricanebooks's review against another edition
4.0
Trigger warnings:
I had such a fun time reading this one - definitely an entertainin read to keep on your radar :)
Read my full review of Dangerous Alliance on the blog.
Thank you to HarperCollins (Harper 360) for sending me an ARC of this book. This did not, in any way, influenced my thoughts and rating.
My Blog - Drizzle & Hurricane Books - Twitter - Bloglovin'
Spoiler
mention of abuse, physical violence and blood, mention of rape, parental abuse.I had such a fun time reading this one - definitely an entertainin read to keep on your radar :)
Read my full review of Dangerous Alliance on the blog.
Thank you to HarperCollins (Harper 360) for sending me an ARC of this book. This did not, in any way, influenced my thoughts and rating.
My Blog - Drizzle & Hurricane Books - Twitter - Bloglovin'
palomabird1's review against another edition
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
heartscontent's review against another edition
3.0
You can find this review for Dangerous Alliance on my blog, Heart's Content!
Received an Advanced Reader’s Copy via Edelweiss+ from publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
When I read the blurb for Dangerous Alliance, I was utterly interested in this book. I haven’t read any of Jane Austen’s classics before, but I have watched one or two of the movie adaptations of her books (taking into account that movies are rarely as good as the books) and read an abridged version of Pride and Prejudice when I was much younger for a project.
I expected to be immediately immersed in DA and I was disappointed that I wasn’t immediately taken by the writing, the characters or the plot, even though the book takes off on a very interesting note. I found that I was struggling a bit with this book, not able to really enjoy it when Fanna gave me some really lovely advice. She suggested I focus on the quietly unravelling plot and perhaps I could overlook all the less significant happenings that lead up to it–which was perhaps what made the book seem like too much or a little less for me.
I did focus single-mindedly on the plot a lot after that and I really like the way every character was portrayed under different lights, all the various shades that come with the different roles and the variety of challenges that are thrown at someone at the same time. Vicky was more than just the heroine of the story in search of the hero, she was also a daughter, a sister, a friend and above and all this, a woman with her own ideas, thoughts and requirements for her future and present. Tom, too, was very many things, in fact it’s only to the absolute end that he was actually shown in the light of the male protagonist of the story. Until then, he was a man, struggling under the weight of the pain in his past and the burden of his responsibilities in the present. I will say I loved how much the book was not just about throwing two personalities at one another in random, having them in a variety of situations together and enacting a typical romance. I have to say there was another character that I became rather fond of, Mr. Carmicheal, who actually had almost as much (or more than) scene-space as the actual hero. I really did love his personality and strangely enough he had more romantic scenes with the heroine than the actual hero did. It was very different from the usual and I had enjoyed seeing Vicky hold ground and listen to her instincts, despite the charm he displayed.
The last thirty percent was what drew me in entirely and that was when the actual plot makes itself seen, the rest of the book was a slow build up to this last thirty-or-so percent of swift-paced climax. The surprises dealt out to the readers in the end was not what I had predicted; sure there were some very predictable parts, but there were also some surprising factors mixed in.
I did suffer with the first half of the book where the protagonist is linking everyone to a JA character from a book and comparing herself to one. I understand this, we all sometimes want to or do channel our favourite characters, but perhaps many times within a short gap was bit much. However, towards the end as reality starts to leak into Vicky’s life she stops doing this, the constant comparisons with JA characters are drastically lesser than before. Vicky handled the matter of choosing suitors rather well, in my honest opinion. Some of her thoughts during them, be it what she felt for her sister, her parents and whether despite their own situations, if they felt for her plight was rather lovely. I loved these honest moments and how neatly the comparisons mentioned before were tied up and away in the end as Vicky comes to an understanding of reality and choices that make her truly happy.
Three stars, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a Jane Austen fan and would love to relive the feel of societal politics, prideful protagonists, strong women and the writing style reminiscent of classics.
Happy reading!
Received an Advanced Reader’s Copy via Edelweiss+ from publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!
When I read the blurb for Dangerous Alliance, I was utterly interested in this book. I haven’t read any of Jane Austen’s classics before, but I have watched one or two of the movie adaptations of her books (taking into account that movies are rarely as good as the books) and read an abridged version of Pride and Prejudice when I was much younger for a project.
I expected to be immediately immersed in DA and I was disappointed that I wasn’t immediately taken by the writing, the characters or the plot, even though the book takes off on a very interesting note. I found that I was struggling a bit with this book, not able to really enjoy it when Fanna gave me some really lovely advice. She suggested I focus on the quietly unravelling plot and perhaps I could overlook all the less significant happenings that lead up to it–which was perhaps what made the book seem like too much or a little less for me.
I did focus single-mindedly on the plot a lot after that and I really like the way every character was portrayed under different lights, all the various shades that come with the different roles and the variety of challenges that are thrown at someone at the same time. Vicky was more than just the heroine of the story in search of the hero, she was also a daughter, a sister, a friend and above and all this, a woman with her own ideas, thoughts and requirements for her future and present. Tom, too, was very many things, in fact it’s only to the absolute end that he was actually shown in the light of the male protagonist of the story. Until then, he was a man, struggling under the weight of the pain in his past and the burden of his responsibilities in the present. I will say I loved how much the book was not just about throwing two personalities at one another in random, having them in a variety of situations together and enacting a typical romance. I have to say there was another character that I became rather fond of, Mr. Carmicheal, who actually had almost as much (or more than) scene-space as the actual hero. I really did love his personality and strangely enough he had more romantic scenes with the heroine than the actual hero did. It was very different from the usual and I had enjoyed seeing Vicky hold ground and listen to her instincts, despite the charm he displayed.
The last thirty percent was what drew me in entirely and that was when the actual plot makes itself seen, the rest of the book was a slow build up to this last thirty-or-so percent of swift-paced climax. The surprises dealt out to the readers in the end was not what I had predicted; sure there were some very predictable parts, but there were also some surprising factors mixed in.
I did suffer with the first half of the book where the protagonist is linking everyone to a JA character from a book and comparing herself to one. I understand this, we all sometimes want to or do channel our favourite characters, but perhaps many times within a short gap was bit much. However, towards the end as reality starts to leak into Vicky’s life she stops doing this, the constant comparisons with JA characters are drastically lesser than before. Vicky handled the matter of choosing suitors rather well, in my honest opinion. Some of her thoughts during them, be it what she felt for her sister, her parents and whether despite their own situations, if they felt for her plight was rather lovely. I loved these honest moments and how neatly the comparisons mentioned before were tied up and away in the end as Vicky comes to an understanding of reality and choices that make her truly happy.
Three stars, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is a Jane Austen fan and would love to relive the feel of societal politics, prideful protagonists, strong women and the writing style reminiscent of classics.
Happy reading!
mtremblay1994's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
readingella's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment
proxima09's review against another edition
1.0
Honestly, I didn't love the characters and the mystery wasn't compelling. I do think the plot was okay and the characters seemed nice too, but this book just didn't draw me in and I was pretty bored reading it. This one was just not for me, but if you like old-fashioned mysteries you might like this one!
TW: SA
TW: SA
Spoiler
I HATED the casual, offhand mentions of sexual assault. There was honestly no reason for them to be there, except maybe the one that caused Tom to stop talking to Vicky to protect her, and even that was only there to establish Tom as a good person. I can tolerate some pretty bad writing and plot, and this book was actually fine on that front, but I did not appreciate how lightly the author treated sexual assault. Even at the end, when Vicky is kidnapped and TIED DOWN and nearly sexually assaulted by her brother-in-law, two pages later she's in Tom's arms and everything is forgotten and Vicky is completely unfazed. I was flabbergasted, honestly. The entire book reads like a silly little mystery and then there's these random really awful moments and the reader is supposed to just move on because it doesn't have any emotional impact on the characters. Ridiculous.lindseyt92's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was okay but I didn’t feel very connected to the characters in the book.
evie_de_heus's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
'Indeed, as much as Vicky had always wanted to emulate Elizabeth Bennet, she now realized she was more than content to simply be herself.'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Classism
mairelon's review against another edition
4.0
Her life was looking less and less like one of Miss Austen's novels and more and more like an utter mess.
3.5 out of 5 stars
Review copy provided by the publisher through Edelweiss.
Read this review on my blog!
Now that her elder sister has married, Lady Victoria Aston is free to enjoy her idyllic country manor lifestyle knowing that the family estate has been secured. With her sister in London and her once exiled best friend avoiding her, Vicky spends her time roaming their estate in a stolen pair of breeches and hiding away with one of Miss Austen's novels. When the unspeakable happens, Vicky is thrust into the centre of the Season with one goal: Find a husband to save her family. With Miss Austen's books as her guide and the spirit of Lizzie Bennett in her soul, Vicky must learn to navigate London's marriage mart without breaking her heart. Is roguish Mr Carmichael as charming as he seems? Does childhood friend Tom Sherborne mean well, or is he after Vicky's dowry? As if all that isn't enough, Vicky finds herself the victim of a series of increasingly unfortunate accidents that make her wonder if someone wants to stop her from ever walking down the aisle.
By this point, I hope I have established just how much I love Regency novels. I just love the adventure, romance and drama between all the dance halls, carriage rides and ribbon stores. I was so pleased to be granted an ARC of Dangerous Alliance, which promised to be an Austentatious Novel, with a heroine who loves Jane Austen's books as much as the average Regency reader. Vicky often took time out of her adventure to comment on similarities between her life and that of any number of Austen's heroines. This sometimes felt a bit forced ("Tonight I must act as Fanny Price") and instead of Vicky feeling relatable, it had me cringing. There is one point in the story where a character compares her brother to Mr Darcy - to everyone's agreement - which didn't seem to match what we had seen of him. While I appreciate the sentiment that Fandom has been a thing for a long time, the characters all standing around comparing themselves to romance characters felt a bit weird. That being said, I did this myself as a 17-year-old so who am I to judge?
Dangerous Alliance is told through the dual perspectives of Victoria Aston and Thomas Sherborne. Vicky and Tom were childhood friends whose relationship ended after a confrontation led to Tom's exile to the Swiss countryside. While Tom and Vicky were likeable enough characters, I didn't enjoy these dual perspectives at all. For me, it felt like this took away any ambiguity the story tries to sew as to who Victoria's love interest is as it is fairly obvious from the start that the two characters will end up together. I also felt that there was some incongruity between the stories the two were telling. Where Vicky's read as an age-appropriate teenage adventure of a country girl navigating Society, Tom's read as a more adult novel, not the fun kind of adult novel. More the kind about taxes, laws and business ventures. I quickly found myself bored with Tom's story and I feel like it didn't add much to the story.
The romance was, well, a bit predictable. We are told early on that the main character sees herself as a Lizzie Bennett type and our love interest is soon after compared to Mr Darcy himself. While this is changed up a bit with the characters being childhood friends with a mysterious incident in their past that changed everything, there's not much else to say for this dynamic - he's curt to the point of rudeness and she's oblivious of his affections. The characters are fun together but for a book that tries to leave some mystery in Vicky's love life, it is fairly obvious which way it is going to go from very early on.
The secondary cast of characters was a comfortable collection of historical character types - the charming villain, the plucky orphan, the indebted aristocrat and entitled snob. They helped flesh out Cohen's ton and helped facilitate the rumour and miscommunication that the genre demands. I enjoyed these characters, but I feel like none really stood out as an interesting character in their own right.
As for the setting, Dangerous Alliance hits all the notes for a great Regency novel, with dashing rogues, foul brutes, flirtatious dancing and a dramatic finale that should appeal to any Regency fan, but something that stood out to me in Cohen's writing was her attention to detail in an unexpected area - Regency marriage and divorce laws. Cohen has clearly done her research into this, and it was something I was surprised to find myself fascinated by in the early chapters of the book. I'm not sure I've read a book that really delves into these historical laws and issues and I wish the book had spent more time on them. Though I suppose I could do my own research, I loved how Cohen incorporated this information into the story and in her appendix at the end.
This all sounds quite negative, doesn't it? I don't mean for it to. While Dangerous Alliance brings very little to the table that hasn't been done in YA Regency fiction, it was still a thoroughly enjoyable romp through the ridiculous London Society. Yes, it was a bit cliche and a bit cringy at times but I think that comes with the genre. Cohen has written a really fun novel that should appeal to Austen fans - if only so they can argue with Vicky's assessment of your favourite Austen's characters!
*Throughout this review I refer to Dangerous Alliance as a Regency novel which isn't exactly true. Cohen mentions in her notes that this is an Edwardian novel but I am prone to over and misusing the "Regency" label and too lazy to change it so Regency it shall remain!
purps's review against another edition
The references to Jane Austen got real old real fast.