Review: The Season

Book: The Season
Author: Sarah MacLean
Pages: 352
Published: March 1st, 2009 by Orchard Books

Seventeen year old Lady Alexandra is strong-willed and sharp-tongued -- in a house full of older brothers and their friends, she had to learn to hold her own. Not the best makings for an aristocratic lady in Regency London. Yet her mother still dreams of marrying Alex off to someone safe, respectable, and wealthy. But between ball gown fittings, dances, and dinner parties, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get herself into what may be her biggest scrape yet.
When the Earl of Blackmoor is mysteriously killed, Alex decides to help his son, the brooding and devilishly handsome Gavin, uncover the truth. But will Alex's heart be stolen in the process? In an adventure brimming with espionage, murder, and other clandestine affairs, who could possibly have time to worry about finding a husband? Romance abounds as this year's season begins!

General Overview: The Season is a fun, romantic debut by Sarah MacLean! I am a huge historical fiction fan and The Season sounded pretty good when I read the synopsis, so I went in with high hopes. This book met every single one of them!

Characters: Alex was such a cool character for her era! I loved how independent she was and how willing to follow her own paths and choices -- most women at the time were pretty submissive, but Alex was definitely not one of them. Her friends, Vivi and Eleanor, were both just as courageous and adventurous and I had so much fun reading about them! And Gavin…he's the dark, brooding, mysterious loner dude from that time. Heehee (:

Plot: So, the book didn't really catch my attention at first. But that was just the first few pages. After that, I became thoroughly absorbed in Alex's story and the mystery she's trying to solve. The mystery was well thought out and not overdone at all, like I read on another review of this book. Even if a little predictable at times, the reader hardly notices and instead keeps flipping the pages to find out more!

Writing: Sarah MacLean writes effortlessly. This was an impressive debut and I loved it! Her writing style seemed to very much fit this time period, and it might've been difficult for some others to get the speech and mannerisms right (I would've struggled!) but MacLean executes it perfectly.

Cover: The girl who I think is Alex doesn't really look like how I imagined Alex in my head…but I loved the dresses they were wearing! And her expression is very fitting and the font totally fits the time period too!

Overall: 5 out of 5 stars