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