Review: A Lady’s Formula for Love by Elizabeth Everett
Photo by Eduardo Olszewski on Unsplash
Synopsis:
Lady Violet Hughes is keeping secrets. First, she founded a clandestine sanctuary for England’s most brilliant scientists. Second, she is using her genius on a confidential mission for the Crown. The biggest secret of all? Her feelings for protection officer Arthur Kneland.
Solitary and reserved, Arthur learned the hard way to put duty first. But the more time he spends in the company of Violet and the eccentric club members, the more his best intentions go up in flames. Literally. When a shadowy threat infiltrates Violet’s laboratories, endangering her life and her work, scientist and bodyguard will find all their theories put to the test—and learn that the most important discoveries are those of the heart.
Excellent idea. Bad execution.
I had such high hopes for this book. The idea behind it was so original: A secret society of female scientists in Victorian London? Yes please. I may be a stubbornly liberal arts-minded person, but I’m all for women in STEM kicking ass and taking names.
Unfortunately this book did not deliver. Everything was just so flat. It felt like this was a first-draft rather than a completed novel.
For one thing, there were just waaay too many characters, and you never get a good sense of who any of them are. They were all introduced very randomly; everything was just so unfocused. It’s never a good sign when a reader has to constantly flip back and forth to remember what exactly is happening.
Not only that, every woman who is a part of Athena’s Retreat seems to be the same type of kooky, brilliant scientist who runs slapdash experiments ending in explosions. Now I know a lot of scientists are eccentrics who lose themselves in their work—my dad is a scientist, so I’m very familiar with the type—but given the fact that these are women trying to work in an era that is actively discouraging them from using their intellect, I found it extremely annoying that every one of them was impractical and lacking in common sense. How are we supposed to believe that these women want to be taken seriously when their idea of extra security is not to simply use a stronger lock on a door, but to instead employ a full on set of Rube-Goldberg-esque booby traps that would take off someone’s head?
And there were several times throughout the story that Violet would forget to eat or sleep unless Arthur was there to take care of her. How did she survive without him for 30 years if she was this incapable? Is it too much to ask for one bad-ass science lady who doesn’t need a man to constantly remind her to do basic human tasks?
But ultimately, the biggest problem I had with this book was that the author relied on telling readers who a character is, rather than showing. Violet was recovering from an unhappy first marriage; her late husband was purportedly a very controlling man, who didn’t appreciate Violet’s intellectual pursuits. We never really see the damage that was done to her, we’re just told it happened.
The same thing is true with Arthur, who is dealing with so much baggage, that I honestly forgot what most of it was. His sister died like thirty years ago? He almost had an affair once, but didn’t?
I think the reader would have benefitted if Everett wrote flashbacks of these core moments of Violet and Arthur. We would actually see just how cruel and undermining Violet’s husband was to her; we would feel Arthur’s grief and conflict Without them, it felt like something essential was missing from the story.
Also, Arthur Kneland is supposed to be Scottish. This could have been accomplished by simply stating where he’s from. Instead, the author chooses to write Arthur saying things like, “Oh aye,” “Me wee sister,” and “Me dear old mam.” First of all: Is it just me or is that reading more Irish? I half-expected him to break into a jig, crowing, “They’re after me lucky charms!”
My point is, if an author is going to write a specific dialect for the character, they should make sure it’s accurate, otherwise it pulls the reader’s focus.
Like I said, this was such an original idea for a story, but the author just didn’t deliver. Nothing really worked for me: The progressive, feminist message was hindered by the bickering and petty infighting between the members Athena’s Retreat—their constant exclusion and judgment of Violet doesn’t exactly scream “sisterhood.” The other women who aren’t a part of the club are portrayed as shallow, gossipy bitches. There’s a trans character who is rejected by his family and constantly dead named by his brother, and that’s literally all we know about him. I didn’t feel like his story was treated with respect at all; he was just a throwaway character that was shoehorned into the plot for no explicable reason, which is a huge disservice to the trans community.
Violet and Arthur’s relationship isn’t really developed beyond the instant attraction they feel for one another; the obstacles the couple face are a big problem for them, until all of a sudden, they aren’t. I kept reading because I thought that Violet would end up saving the day using her intelligence—which would have redeemed the story for me—but no (spoiler alert), she needed Arthur’s brawny, Scottish body to rescue her.
And I still don’t understand what the villain was actually trying to accomplish with their “evil” plan.
Suffice to say, I was not amused. I was not amused at all.