Friday 3 August 2012

Debutantes - Cora Harrison


Debutantes – Cora Harrison

Pages: 303
Release Date: 5th August 2012
Publisher: Macmillan
Edition: UK proof, review copy

Other Titles by this Author: I Was Jane Austen’s Best Friend, Jane Austen Stole My Boyfriend

It’s 1923 and London is a whirlwind of jazz, dancing and parties, and Violet, Daisy, Poppy and Rose Derrington are desperate to be part of it. Stuck in an enormous crumbing house in the country, with no money and no fashionable dresses, the excitement seems a lifetime away.

Luckily the girls have a secret ambition:

Rose – The Novelist
Poppy – The Jazz Musician
Daisy – The Film Director
Violet – The Perfect Debutante

Who will catch the eye of the prince...

I think that Debutantes had all the possibility to be amazing, but it fell a little short for me.

I expected to hear from each of the four Derrington girls equally so I was surprised to find Debutantes written in third person close-up, focusing on Daisy. I was a little disappointed about that as although I enjoyed getting to know and love Daisy, the other three girls remained a little one-dimensional for me.

Poppy is self-involved and a complete airy fairy; Violet is pretty selfish and I found her very irritating, especially the way she treated her sisters; and Rose really had very little page time. What I did see of Rose, I fell in love with. Every moment provided a trashy newspaper headline in her mind which was always brilliantly tongue-in-cheek and I loved that she spawned a story from everything and desperately wanted her sisters to read them.

I hope that each book in the series focuses on each of the girls so I get to read more about the life of a London debutante spend some time in the clouds with Poppy and her jazz band and be in the mind of an aspiring novelist. I think these areas could be fantastic as I loved exploring photography and film-making with Daisy in Debutantes. It will also be interesting to delve further into the characters of Rose, Violet and Poppy and hopefully some conflict will arise as I thought the they were far too tolerant and forgiving of each other for four girls so close together in age.

One of my favourite elements of Debutantes was the mystery of Elaine. I went through so many theories before her true identity was revealed and I have to admit that I didn't guess correctly which I always enjoy. Strange, I know, but I love to be surprised. I thought the tidbits of information about her were slowly and cleverly revealed and it kept me guessing. Apart from the filmmaking element, it was my favourite part of Debutantes.

Although I was a little disappointed by Debutantes, I did enjoy it and I’ll read the next book in the series.


Sophie 

2 comments:

  1. Great review, it's a pity that the characters fell a bit flat for you though! I think I will be reading this anyway though - the cover is gorgeous :)

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  2. I thought it'd be from the perspectives of all four girls too, with like, alternating chapters, but I liked how it was just from Daisy's POV. Her character was really lovely! I think maybe the other books in the series will be from a different Derrington?

    I looooved the filmmaking stuff! Very interesting :) Glad you enjoyed this, Sophie, even if you were a bit disappointed.

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