Book Review: A Proper Pursuit

A Proper Pursuit by Lynn Austin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was impressed. I think I would rate this a 3.5, honestly. I thought it looked cute when I saw it at my friend's house and am glad I asked to borrow it.

Not a waste of time.

The main girl reminded me a lot of Catherine Morland in, Northanger Abbey with her wild and overactive imagination and silliness. She was lovely and cute and funny and fanciful and just a little ridiculous.

And Silas was lovely, too.

The book had a lot of silliness and fluffy-ness, but the main character, Violet spent the book having her eyes opened to the silliness and fluffy-ness of her world.  She had to spend a lot of time deciding what was worthwhile and where her place was in the world.  Set in a time when the world is on the cusp of change,  Violet has to find a place somewhere between the excitement of the new world and the safety and goodness of certain traditional values.

I was also really impressed with the obvious level of research that went into this book.  The knowledge the author has about the World Fair that year, what the exhibits were, etc.  She does a wonderful job bringing Chicago in 1839 to life.



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