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georgilvsbooks's review
3.0
2.75 stars.
An historical fiction novel set In 19th century New York.
This story focuses on Peggy who has no choice but to go with her family and stay at the Oriental Hotel for a short while, where you will also find Dreamland, an amusement park.
“It was a city of fire, a city of lights that danced across the velvet sky, with atop the tall town the sign, “Dreamland,” blinking.”
Here, the murder of 3 women happen. It is believed that it is all connected to Peggy, no one knows why and neither does Peggy but, when the police catch who they think is the suspect Peggy does everything possible to prove his innocence and find the real killer.
I really enjoyed Peggy’s determination to be independent and not do what was expected of women during this period of time. I found her very amusing.
I must admit, there were times that I did not enjoy this story. Some parts felt very boring and didn’t grab my attention however, I really enjoyed the last 40% of the story. From liking Peggy at the beginning and becoming my favourite character, towards the end of the story I began to really like Lydia (Peggy’s sister). She really surprised me and became a more likeable character.
Perfect for fans of historical fiction/mystery.
Thank you NetGalley.
This book will be released in January 2020.
An historical fiction novel set In 19th century New York.
This story focuses on Peggy who has no choice but to go with her family and stay at the Oriental Hotel for a short while, where you will also find Dreamland, an amusement park.
“It was a city of fire, a city of lights that danced across the velvet sky, with atop the tall town the sign, “Dreamland,” blinking.”
Here, the murder of 3 women happen. It is believed that it is all connected to Peggy, no one knows why and neither does Peggy but, when the police catch who they think is the suspect Peggy does everything possible to prove his innocence and find the real killer.
I really enjoyed Peggy’s determination to be independent and not do what was expected of women during this period of time. I found her very amusing.
I must admit, there were times that I did not enjoy this story. Some parts felt very boring and didn’t grab my attention however, I really enjoyed the last 40% of the story. From liking Peggy at the beginning and becoming my favourite character, towards the end of the story I began to really like Lydia (Peggy’s sister). She really surprised me and became a more likeable character.
Perfect for fans of historical fiction/mystery.
Thank you NetGalley.
This book will be released in January 2020.
bookfever's review
3.0
I have many feelings about this book. Most of them are possitive luckily so I'll start with them. I loved loved loved looooved the era and setting. 1911, New York City, Coney Island. It can't get any better than that for me. I absolutely love reading about the early 1900's. And I thought that the author really captured the essence of it, especially the contrasting differences of the often corrupt ruling class versus the much lower classes. She really wrote that splendidly.
Although overall not the most likable character, I did enjoy reading about Peggy Batternberg, a 20 year-old heiress, for the most part. She was kinda the misfit of the family, prefering to work at a bookstore. Which is something I can totally understand, of course. And I've always been a sucker for misfit characters. In the story she was basically forced to leave her bookstore job and spend the summer with her family at a hotel near the beach. She agrees so it, but reluctantly so. Once at the hotel, dead women are found on the beach and Peggy unwittingly becomes involved in it all when the man she falls for gets arrested for the murders.
Now the not so good things. I really did enjoy the story for the most part but the last 40% or so were a little less interesting to me. I liked reading about Peggy, but sometimes I also wanted to strangle her for her lack of communication, especially towards her sister Lydia. Also towards the end the story became quite tangled too much. A lot at once seemed to be happening, maybe a little too much and my attention was getting a little lost in it all. I had wished that the identity of the killer had been more of a surprise. I wanted it to be someone unexpected but it wasn't unfortunately. I also was a little disappointed by the ending in general, I must say.
But again I want to point out that for most of the book I was really into the story and enjoyed the various characters and of course the setting of Coney Island was very magical indeed. I also thought that a lot of the topics in the book are very relevant. For example the prejudice against immigrants was a big theme in this book and obviously that's still relevant to today time and age. I just wanted to mention this because I think it's something really important. So overall this book was good but not quite good enough for me to give it four stars. I've kind of been going back and forth about the rating but now I've settled on 3.5/5★
Although overall not the most likable character, I did enjoy reading about Peggy Batternberg, a 20 year-old heiress, for the most part. She was kinda the misfit of the family, prefering to work at a bookstore. Which is something I can totally understand, of course. And I've always been a sucker for misfit characters. In the story she was basically forced to leave her bookstore job and spend the summer with her family at a hotel near the beach. She agrees so it, but reluctantly so. Once at the hotel, dead women are found on the beach and Peggy unwittingly becomes involved in it all when the man she falls for gets arrested for the murders.
Now the not so good things. I really did enjoy the story for the most part but the last 40% or so were a little less interesting to me. I liked reading about Peggy, but sometimes I also wanted to strangle her for her lack of communication, especially towards her sister Lydia. Also towards the end the story became quite tangled too much. A lot at once seemed to be happening, maybe a little too much and my attention was getting a little lost in it all. I had wished that the identity of the killer had been more of a surprise. I wanted it to be someone unexpected but it wasn't unfortunately. I also was a little disappointed by the ending in general, I must say.
But again I want to point out that for most of the book I was really into the story and enjoyed the various characters and of course the setting of Coney Island was very magical indeed. I also thought that a lot of the topics in the book are very relevant. For example the prejudice against immigrants was a big theme in this book and obviously that's still relevant to today time and age. I just wanted to mention this because I think it's something really important. So overall this book was good but not quite good enough for me to give it four stars. I've kind of been going back and forth about the rating but now I've settled on 3.5/5★
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