Review: Our Kind of People

Our Kind of People by Carol Wallace
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sadly, I am one of the very few that just did not adore this novel. I felt that it was slow and repetitive, dreary and depressing. But, yes, it did show the mores of the times...at least for the rich. This book did show what it was like to lose one's fortunes during this time period...if you were rich.

I can see that this book will be a success for those who like to read dishy gossipy books (think the Vanderbilts and the Astor's), and I usually love them also. However, there was just something about this book that didn't stick that specific something with me. It was a fascinating 'coming of age' novel, and I did like the fact that these women broke a lot of molds.

I liked this book; I just didn't adore it.

*ARC supplied by the publisher Penguin Random House, the author, and Edelweiss/ATTL.

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SYNOPSIS: "Among New York City’s Gilded Age elite, one family will defy convention.

Helen Wilcox has one desire: to successfully launch her daughters into society. From the upper crust herself, Helen’s unconventional—if happy—marriage has made the girls’ social position precarious. Then her husband gambles the family fortunes on an elevated railroad that he claims will transform the face of the city and the way the people of New York live, but will it ruin the Wilcoxes first? As daughters Jemima and Alice navigate the rise and fall of their family—each is forced to re-examine who she is, and even who she is meant to love.

From the author of To Marry an English Lord, the inspiration for Downton Abbey, comes a charming and cutthroat tale of a world in which an invitation or an avoided glance can be the difference between fortune and ruin."