Review: The Sartorialist

Reviewed by Jen
 

As sartorialist to the Prince Regent George, Beau Brummell is the leader of what is fashionable in London.  Society fawns over him. He is used to getting everything he wants.  And as the story begins, what he wants is a handsome young soldier he spots during a ball.  The Prince gives Beau permission to take young Toby under his wing, to clean him up -- and remake him into a positive reflection on the war effort.

Of course, what he really wants to do is give Toby a tumble. He gets his wish and then some. He actually starts to fall in love.  But once the Prince grows jealous of Beau's affections, his happiness is wrenched from his grasp.

The story sounds pretty good, but it was written almost like a journal or a memoir.  We don't experience the events so much as Beau tells us what happened.  Instead of a love scene, which details who touched who, how and where, we get a dry summary from Beau, amounting to little more than him saying, "Then we had sex."  It wasn't just the sex written that way either. It was everything. We didn't see Beau fall in love, he simply told us he did.  And so on with everything that happened in the book.

The characters are based on real people in history, which is interesting.  But the writing style made it virtually impossible for me to invest any feelings into the characters or their relationship.  Add that to its novella length and I felt very little about the story whatsoever.  It wasn't horrible. I just didn't care. Not for me.

Rating: D+

*ARC Provided by NetGalley

Click to purchase: Amazon

The Sartorialist

by Cecilia Ryan

Release Date: March 28, 2012

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press