Review of Hattie Vavaseur

[Maddie Atkinson]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Hattie Vavaseur" by M. Rebecca Wildsmith.]

---

4 out of 4 stars

---

Share This Review

---

Hattie is a very proper woman and takes no nonsense from anyone. So, imagine her surprise and horror when she is taken to a mysterious house with an eccentric master, and where everyone, appears to be dead! Watch as the story unravels and Hattie is thrown into the midst of several murders all intertwined with each other, and it is up to her to solve them...

One thing that I really enjoyed about Hattie Vavaseur was that it dropped little clues and hints here and there about what is yet to come. However, it is only when that event happens or a clue is realised that you understand that it was foreshadowing. I found this to be a very clever way of making the reader figure out the mystery alongside the characters. I also found that the author, M. Rebecca Wildsmith, has a talent for very vivid descriptions. I thought this to be a great way to transport you into the scenery and the text. There were parts where I was holding onto my breath at the suspense that Wildsmith was building. I also liked the characterisation and character development. To begin with, I did not like Hattie at all. As the book went on, however, she really grew on me and I found myself empathising with her a lot. This is another talent that the author has, which I find is usually very hard to portray in novels.

One thing that I was not so keen on was that it felt like Wildsmith was big words to try and make the story sound more sophisticated. While there is not anything wrong with this, she repeated the same words too close to each other which made the flow of the book a bit more difficult to read. My dislike of Hattie also came from the fact that the book reads as a stereotypical feminist novel, the irony being that Hattie is anything but stereotypical. This is just a personal peeve that I found with the story, so this does not take away from the fact that I very much enjoyed the story.

Overall, I very much enjoyed this book and the things that I did not like are so small compared to the rest of the novel that they do not take away from how good the book is. I also found the book to have been professionally edited. Therefore, I rate this book four out of four stars.

I highly recommend Hattie Vavaseur to anyone that enjoys a good old fashioned murder mystery and has a taste for the macabre. If you enjoy Agatha Christie novels, then you will enjoy this!

******
Hattie Vavaseur
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on iTunes

[Soraya Bayah]

Such an intriguing plot. My interest was piqued by your review. I will make sure to read this novel sometime soon, as I always appreciate a suspenseful read. Thank you for the amazing review!

[Maddie Atkinson]

Such an intriguing plot. My interest was piqued by your review. I will make sure to read this novel sometime soon, as I always appreciate a suspenseful read. Thank you for the amazing review!

No problem! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!