9501506223

After the previous book in the series, which I thought was great and rated five stars, this follow-up left me disappointed.

“Lament for a Lost Lover” does not have the strong plot or appealing narrator compared to any of the previous Carr novels. Several themes and their outcome are obvious to the reader more or less immediately, yet the narrating heroine is clueless. When certain realisations hit her, she alone is shocked, as the reader saw it coming long ago.

Another aspect that doesn’t appeal to me is the amount of time dedicated to plays/theatrical performances. This is like fiction within fiction and it fails to engage me. I’ve read a few books in which the theatre takes up a significant place in the story and I’ve always found this tiresome.

There are also several instances where the heroine is recalling her dreams – dreams as in, “Last night I dreamt that …”, which I find irritating.

As always with this author there’s a notable amount of repetition throughout the tale. Sometimes she gets away with it in her books but not in a story that lacks depth like this one.

Whether writing as Carr, Plaidy, or Holt, this author is talented at building suspense but invariably resolves the final confrontation – or confrontations in general – much too soon and far too easily. She’s notorious for doing this as Victoria Holt and she goes further with the final “live or die” scene in this book. I won’t mention what the situation is in this review, but will state that instead of milking the heroine’s dire peril for all it’s worth, after pages and pages of build-up, she resolves the matter in a few lines, resulting in a huge anti-climax.

It’s not a bad book by any means, but it has a “going-through-the-motions” feel. Little advantage is taken from two of the most pivotal events in English history, namely the plague of 1665 and the following year’s Great Fire of London.

Carr/Plaidy/Holt was a very prolific writer and is a favourite of mine, but among the quality stories there are a number of mediocre efforts and the occasional dud. I feel that had she spent more time revising existing books rather than rushing on to create new ones she would've produced many more works worthy of four and five star ratings. Better to pen 70 wonderful novels than 100 ranging up and down the scale.

In short, “Lament for a Lost Lover” is a run-of-the-mill novel by an author capable of much greater things. ( )

Read during Fall 2002

Apparently Phillippa Carr writes in defined historical periods, unlike Victoria Holt, who writes in a vaugely Victorian world. The Restoration is the setting for this one. I strongly object to the reformed rake love interest that she often uses and Carleton Eversleigh is the one here. The fact that Arabella seems to both hate and love him makes it only slightly more palatable. She is also immensely gullible, which makes it hard to feel much sympathy for her. However, the general sweeping historical melodrama works for the most part. The weaving in of historical events is well done and it does pick up speed as it goes. I guessed most of the plot twists but I also began to realize that it appealed to all those pre-teen novel writing ideas I had but, luckily, never put to paper. Perhaps why I keep going back to read them.

won this book off of www.listia.com 9 days ago. cant wait to read it ( )

won this book off of www.listia.com 9 days ago. cant wait to read it ( )