Book Review: A Room at the Manor by Julie Shackman
I just checked and this book has fairly high rated reviews on Goodreads. I’m obviously missing something.
Lara returns to her hometown after being dumped by her boyfriend, gets a job at a local cafe, and meets Hugo, an elderly local aristocrat who mentions her in his will when he passes away. Hugo’s grandson, Vaughan, is instantly suspicious but obviously he finds himself attracted to Lara and is won over by her sweet nature. Besides the will conflict, Lara believes Vaughan is a player and engaged to a rich socialite, considering how often they’re pictured together in the newspapers. Sounds oddly familiar, doesn’t it? Yes, half of the Mills & Boon books of the 80s had the same plot.
Vaughan’s character is a Mills & Boon cardboard cutout, right down to his dark good looks and occupation (sculptor). I suppose I might have had more interest in him if he’d featured a little more. For a leading man, he doesn’t get many scenes.
There is a plethora of other supporting characters. The book was beefed up with boring scenes featuring them. Tedious conversations and mundane actions that made me want to scream. I don’t need a blow by blow of creating a website or whatever. This was a real sign there was no real plot to speak of and Spackman was forced to add things to reach a suitable word count. (If I was her editor, I would have culled and turned it into a novella.)
None of the supporting characters were so endearing either that I would want Spackman to make them the lead in a sequel.
The book is advertised as charming and funny. I wouldn’t say I felt either label fit. I agree it’s a clean romance but I don’t think this automatically makes it charming. I don’t remember laughing too much.
The Scottish setting is completely wasted too. It didn’t really play any part of the book.
There is foodporn. Lara bakes and we get descriptions of the food. It didn’t save the dullness of the plot for me though.
A generous 2 out of 5
readwritewish 