No Life for a Lady: The absolutely joyful and uplifting historical romcom everyone is talking about

Product Information

The format of the book was very interactive and although it distracted me a bit, I enjoyed finding out about this period in history. What is lost is how the author was able to simultaneously live in a particular world while having access to a more universal world as an educated woman (she attended Stanford). She’s never met a man who’s captured her attention enough to make her even consider romantic liaisons, let alone marriage. First, it was able to take hundreds of years of history and put it together in a way that was not overwhelming with billions of factoids.

It is 1886, 18-year-old Violet Hamilton says goodbye to her mother as she head off a party on Hastings Pier to never been seen again. She is an independent confident, but quite naive woman, that knows her own mind and her father fears that she will never get married and keeps finding suitors for her.This was not one of my favourites, but the mystery still managed to keep my attention grabbed long enough to actually enjoy the book.

the plot suddenly began to unfold and Violet became more of an active participant, in stead of just a thinker. There's no sex, no violence, just interesting, and often amazing, living with neighbors, community, and tourists. Tangling lively memories with true-to-earth yarns about westerners, Agnes Morley Cleaveland brings her life on a New Mexico cattle ranch to life.She comes up against Mr Knight (who I felt was a right douche bag throughout) he looked down on her, treated her how I imagine a woman with her own mind would be treated back in those days.

There are multiple themes throughout the book that are very relevant and informative to that time and I found it quite interesting to read. Born in 1874 on a primitive cattle ranch in what was to become New Mexico, Agnes Morley Cleaveland lived the reality of the "Wild West. We’d woke up a grizzly as big as the Missouri mule out of a nice nap, and he was comin’ down that mountain with blood in his eye a-hittin’ the ground only once’t in a while. The one thing that kept me reading was a slight curiosity as to the disappearance of Violet's mother.

But more than anything else, what Violet wants is to find her mother, Lily, who vanished 10 years ago. A delightfully quirky and clever book club read, perfect for fans of Dear Mrs Bird, The Maid and Lessons in Chemistry.

I was lucky to receive an exclusive interactive readalong edition copy, full with QR codes, challenges and topics to discuss whilst reading the book. And while the book definitely picked up in the second half, the stark contrast between the two half definitely hurt the overall flow of the book. Violet, whose name I've just had to look up since she made so little impact on me, had all the strength and determination of a wet piece of cardboard, folding at the slightest pressure and lying because she didn't have the courage to fight for what she wanted. I sadly didn't find this quirky or clever, nor did I find the story to be "fabulously funny" or have "lashings of mystery" as claimed in the editorial quotes.She isn’t your typical Victorian woman, going against social conventions by not wanting to get married and pursuing a career instead.