Daddy's Girls

by Tasmina Perry

[Leah]

Since the start of May I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump. I went an entire week without picking up a book (which may not seem too bad to some people, but to me that’s disastrous) so when I noticed Daddy’s Girls, I decided to give it a read. I generally don’t read long blockbuster books like this, but recently I am reading more of them and I decided this would be perfect to get me out of my slump. It promised to be glitzy and glamorous with an intriguing mystery peppered into it, too. It took me three days to finish, and I must admit, it was enjoyable enough, so I’ll definitely be picking up Tasmina’s other novels.

Daddy’s Girls is a whopping book, coming in at 612 pages, and it’s mammoth. There’s a lot going on in Daddy’s Girls, as I expected, but I must admit, I thought the synopsis was rather misleading. The synopsis I read mentions Oswald’s death and it seems as though that’s a major part of the book, when it’s not. In fact, Oswald’s death is mentioned briefly in the Prologue and then we go back to 10 months ago leading back up to the day of Oswald’s death. The book was more about the Balcon sisters, Camilla, Cate, Serena and Venetia and the lives they lead and the struggles they face. Yes, Oswald is pivotal to that, but his death isn’t necessarily the main plot. Because it barely covers 100 pages. The main plot, I suppose, is the leading up to Oswald’s death. I suppose each girl shows a reason for wanting Oswald dead, and that’s what the book focuses on. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it immensely but I did have some problems with the novel.

The first thing I’d like to say is that the book was too long; some scenes featuring the sisters could have been cut. Because some scenes didn’t necessarily add anything to the story so the words could have been better spent. I mean the build up to Oswald’s death was plentiful but his death and the subsequent ‘mystery’ was wrapped up within 100 pages, which was rather disappointing. It was as if it was all wrapped up in double-quick time and my mind is still whirling with all the different things we learned. I must admit, also, that I think one of the sisters could have been cut. Originally I thought there was three sisters and it took me ages to differentiate between Camilla and Cate. Camilla could have been cut out completely because she didn’t really add anything to the book and her big secret could have, quite easily, been given to Cate, Serena or Venetia because that’s all she was there for, this big mysterious secret.

I found the characters fascinating. Characters in novels like this are always larger than life and aren’t like normal people. They’re rich, glamorous and nasty most of the time. For much of the novel, the only sister I felt anything for was Cate. Cate was the more level-headed sister and it was easy to forget she was rich and glamorous. I liked how she fought her way into the journalism world and made herself a success. I also liked Venetia, she was fairly normal, too, with her interior design business. For most of the book I couldn’t take to Serena. She was horrible, and selfish and felt as if the world owed her. However, she did change as the novel wore on and she did become easier to tolerate. I don’t entire know where the change occurred, but she did seem to stop being as nasty as she was in the beginning of the novel. As I’ve already said about Camilla, she was easily forgettable. I thought Oswald Balcon was a pantomime villain, a bit too evil to be true, and he had no redeeming features at all.

I thought Daddy’s Girls was well written, Tasmina clearly has talent and I did enjoy the novel. I did think it was overly long, yes, and I did find myself just wanting to get to the end by the time I got to page 500, but for the most part it was a good read. If you like your books to be super-sized with larger than life characters then you would enjoy this. I have Tasmina’s newest novel Kiss Heaven Goodbye to read and I’ll certainly be picking it up soon. I’m really pleased I persevered with the novel and didn’t let the 600+ pages put me off as it’s definitely brought me out of my Chick Lit slump! I would absolutely recommend it if it’s the sorta thing you like and I look forward to reading more of Tasmina’s novels.