Helpful Score: 1
I admit that I'm not an Austen fan, but I've enjoyed Smith's books in the past. So while the writing was good, I found myself thinking the book was going nowhere at a slow pace. Again.....not knowing the original storyline well, but I found the main character to be totally unlikeable, which I understand that she is supposed to be, but it took the entire book for the "light bulb" to come on for her so to speak, and then the book ended. Rather disappointed in the book.
I really wanted to like this book, an updated take of "Emma". I slogged through 3/4 of the book before throwing my hands up in despair and putting the book down. Unlikeable characters that I found impossible to feel any empathy with. By the time I gave up, Mr. Knightly had appeared only briefly yet I was approaching the final quarter of the book...Mr. Knightly, who was always Emma's compass in the original, was still a minor character. I felt like the author did not like the characters or the situations he put them in, and I didn't either.
Enjoyable, but a little tedious.
This book is 361 pages and I read it in about a week (and I wasn't reading it daily) so it's an easy read. Emma, the main character, is--as others have pointed out on Amazon--unlikable. She comes from a well-to-do family and has little understanding or sympathy for those who are of a lower station. She, however, chooses to befriend some of them and then tries to direct their lives as she, Emma, thinks is appropriate. In spite of Emma's meddling, these folks all appeared to end up happy having made their own way in life. And Emma apparently had an epiphany and found her true love. I probably would have given this 1 or 2 stars but in one section of the book I found myself engrossed in finding out how Emma's plans for her friends would turn out.
