A Name Unknown (Shadows Over England, #1)

by Roseanna M White

[Jane]

I received this book in exchange for a review.

I struggled to like this book, but that's owed to the writing: I use the blurb as a telling sign of how the book may be written. This one included full thoughts in sentences; the book is written nothing like the blurb.

It's like this, for an example: There are periods. Where commas should be placed. So thoughts can continue. Instead of stopping. And making the reader think the thought is finished. Complete. No longer in progress.

I'm not a fan of that. I understand its trendiness originates from the idea that people are less likely to read long sentences, but literally the only people I see saying this are the people who do it -- I've never seen studies for it, for example. The general consensus, in my experience, is that people are lazier with their writing and don't care if it makes the reader pause and/or have to reread something because they just realized, "Oh, this thought is unfinished and continuing beyond the period..." I don't know about you, but I'd much rather read a long sentence than read several sentences (or even a while paragraph) multiple times to understand what is being said. Written constipation is neither fun nor easy to read -- diarrhea reads better.

I originally gave 4 stars, but in writing this review have gone down to my average 3 because aside from the writing, there was a really slow start so bad I dropped reading this book for "Evelyn Hugo".

There was a moment in which a character, Eseld, kissed Rosemary's hand because the prince had kissed it, then continued on in an [inferred] attempt to make her husband jealous of her kissing Rosemary's hand. It was—ah, a lil bit like homoromanticism, sans the romanticism. This gave me mixed feelings because I'm not into lesbianism for the purpose of the male gaze, and I'm not into promotion of it, but I understand people partake in it regardless for attention/to tease a partner, and it's even something I have [present tense] written into current stories somewhere because people are flawed and do their own thing. On the other hand, I was glad to have read something within the Christian genre containing such content, because it's so often met with the hide your gays trope or utter ignoring, as if they don't exist. I also enjoyed it, despite its flaws, as a lesbian myself, because such doesn't mean I've abandoned my faith.

Full review tomorrow @ https://janepedia.com/soe1-name-unknown/