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onlyliana's review against another edition
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
pigeonboy28's review against another edition
2.0
its a fun romance dumb book just ignored the fatphobia and the dated references because it was written in 1978, but still it kinda sucks average at best
jeremiglio's review
2.0
I never read Jilly Cooper before because I wrote it off as trash. It just goes to show that sometimes our prejudices are absolutely correct.
pigeonboy28's review
2.0
its a fun romance dumb book just ignored the fatphobia and the dated references because it was written in 1978, but still it kinda sucks average at best
cristinaelizabeth's review
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
oatmilkmaid's review
4.0
I will just leave you this perfect blurb from the jacket flap: "Girls like Imogen, tied to dreary job in provincial towns, are apt to dream of romantic escapes to sun-drenched beaches and to conjure of images of ultimate bliss in the bronzed arms of the athletic heroes of their nighttime fantasies. Seldom, however, do they have to face up to their dreams coming true. In Imogen, a rustic Yorkshire ingenue, finds her dreams coming true rather faster than she can cope with them. How she parries the advances of Nicky, the lecherous tennis ace, and copes with the gropes of the rest of the Riviera drones, will bring a warm glow a reassurance to all those nervous mums, who's daughter's tender bosoms have been over exposed to the San Trope sun."
rickaevans's review
3.0
I've wanted to read a Jilly Cooper novel for ages, and the fact that this novel had been chosen by Backlisted podcast seemed like a great time to dip my toe in the water. IMOGEN is one of Cooper's early fictions and it was far less bonkbustery than I was expecting, fitting more in the young adult field, perhaps, than books like RIDERS and RIVALS for which she is most famous.
What I did get from this book was a fun and frothy social comedy in the style of Nancy Mitford's THE PURSUIT OF LOVE. The eponymous heroine is a hapless but thoroughly charming vicar's daughter whose head is turned by a celebrity tennis player, launching a riotous and farcical plot that takes her from the parochial villages of West Riding to the glamours of the French Riviera.
This book was a fantastic period piece. The handsome men of Cooper's world are pencil-moustached, medallion-wearing Lotharios. The descriptions of France, and indeed English attitudes towards its citizens, are very much of the time. Most of the characters are awful, but comically so, and although the conclusion is very obvious from early on, this doesn't mar the journey Imogen takes to get there.
This early work from Cooper is probably not going to set your world alight but it's a great comforting read, and definitely gave me the appetite to read some of her later novels.
What I did get from this book was a fun and frothy social comedy in the style of Nancy Mitford's THE PURSUIT OF LOVE. The eponymous heroine is a hapless but thoroughly charming vicar's daughter whose head is turned by a celebrity tennis player, launching a riotous and farcical plot that takes her from the parochial villages of West Riding to the glamours of the French Riviera.
This book was a fantastic period piece. The handsome men of Cooper's world are pencil-moustached, medallion-wearing Lotharios. The descriptions of France, and indeed English attitudes towards its citizens, are very much of the time. Most of the characters are awful, but comically so, and although the conclusion is very obvious from early on, this doesn't mar the journey Imogen takes to get there.
This early work from Cooper is probably not going to set your world alight but it's a great comforting read, and definitely gave me the appetite to read some of her later novels.
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