[I received a copy of this book through NetGalley. ]

A story with Austen undertones… and zombies. (I’ve seen it compared to ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’, but not having read that one, I honestly can’t tell.)

At Porthampton Abbey, a couple of years after World War I, the Clarke family has to contend with the problem of the entail, just like in ‘Pride and Prejudice’—meaning that if one of the daughters (preferably the elder, Kate) doesn’t marry very soon and has a male heir, their family will lose their estate after the death of Earl Clarke. Which is why the latter has invited a couple of potential suitors to stay for the weekend, including an older businessman from London, a duke, and a recently discovered cousin who’s very likely to inherit anyway, considering he’s the only male heir (but here’s to hope he’ll marry Kate, and all will be well in the world). And the story would go its posh, merry way, if not for the strange death of a villager, found half-devoured… A villager whom his widow has to kill a second time with a bullet to the head.

The beginning of this story definitely has its appeal: the Clarkes display a comical mix of common sense (Kate when it comes to hunting, for instance) and quirky, whimsical inability to grasp that other people are not only their servants, they’re, well, human beings with their own lives, too. This was a conflict in itself in the book, with the ‘Upstairs’ people having to realise that they have to pay more attention to the ‘Downstairs’ people. The build-up to the part where zombies actually make an appearance was a little slow, but in itself, it didn’t bother me, because discovering the characters (and rolling my eyes while trying to guess who’d kick the bucket) was quite fun. Granted, some of the characters weren’t very likeable; the earl felt too silly, Kate too insensitive… but on the other hand, I liked where Lizzy and Grace started and how they progressed—Lizzy as the girl whom everyone thinks stupid, yet who turns out to be level-headed when things become dangerous, and Grace being likely the most humane person in her family. The suitors, too, looked rather bland at first, however a couple of them started developing more of a (pleasant) personality. And I quite liked Fanny as well, the quiet-at-first but assertive maid who refuses to let ‘propriety’walks all over charity.

After a while, though, the style became a little repetitive. The way the various characters’ point of views were introduced at the beginning of each chapter or sub-chapter, for some reason, tended to grate on my nerves, I’m not exactly sure why; and while I don’t have issues with casts of more than 2-3 POV characters, here the focus regularly went back to some action already shown in a previous chapter, but this time from another character’s point of view, which felts redundant.

I also thought that while there -were- zombies, I’d have liked seeing a little more of them. There was tension, but I never felt the story was really scary (for me and for the characters both), and the moments when a character got hurt was usually due to their being too stupid to live and doing something that no one in their sane mind should’ve done anyway.

Finally, I’m not satisfied with the ending: I don’t know it there’ll be a sequel or not, but if it’s meant to be a standalone, then it leaves way too many things open.

Conclusion: 2.5 /3 stars. I’m curious about how the situation at Porthampton Abbey will unfold, and if there were a sequel, that’d be good, because it’d mean the characters could finish growing, too.

This reader's personal opinion, ©2018, all rights reserved, not to be quoted, clipped or used in any way by goodreads, Google Play, amazon.com or other commercial booksellers* 

This was so hit and miss with me, I need to review it.  I was drawn to this library wishlist-one because of interesting premise (think reverse Pygmalion), an author I've been meaning to try, and wanting a funny read.  

Well, I like the author's writing and the humor.  The premise somehow turned just plain mean.

It was a funny book.

Mixed feelings about the main character.  Every time I thought about DNF'ing the book, she'd do or say something I could relate to or sympathize -- none of which carried through to the end.  I did not like or connect with her or any of the characters.  I expected shallow and vain from the book description, but I expected it to be hilarious and lesson-worthy instead of the woe-is-me-I-can-get-any-guy-and-will-even-if-I-don't-want-him.  Mean-spirited on the part of the default best friend and main character often mean-spirited to others.  Still, she had her moments so did not DNF. 

I think the premise went too far.  If main character had decided to drab herself up to see if guy was attracted to her or her looks, that would have worked better for me than the frenemy harassing her into it from jealousy then pushing it too far.  By too far, I mean changing name, job and residence -- who would do that?  At least MC fought back when frenemy pushed for more like binding breasts and hinted at actual surgeries (that saved a DNF right there).

Everyone was at times judgmental, selfish, jealous, petty, mean, arrogant, blame others good qualities for why others notice their bad qualities ...

Overall all, didn't really like most of it (mostly for characters) but would read more by the author.  Ending seemed a bit rushed and could have been more satisfying without some cheating, hypocrisy and deus ex machina.  

Really close to the end there was a rape-apologist bit that would have made for an automatic DNF had it come anywhere earlier.  It totally soured the book for me despite earlier laugh-out-loud moments.  

See?  If you read the spoiler you know a big reason I disliked the main character.  I don't think she learned or grew at all from the experience other than dumping the frenemy.

*©2018.  All rights reserved except permission is granted to author or publisher (except Penumbra Publishing) to reprint/quote in whole or in part. I may also have cross-posted on  Libib, LibraryThing, and other sites including retailers like kobo and Barnes and Noble. Posting on any site does not grant that site permission to share with any third parties or indicate release of copyright.  

Ratings scale used in absence of a booklikes suggested rating scale:

★★★★★ = All Time Favorite 
★★★★½ = Extraordinary Book. Really Loved It.
★★★★☆ = Loved It.
★★★½☆ = Really Liked.
★★★☆☆ = Liked.
★★½☆☆ = Liked parts; parts only okay. Would read more by author.
★★☆☆☆ = Average.   Okay. 
★½☆☆☆ = Disliked or meh? but kept reading in hopes would improve.
★☆☆☆☆ = Loathed It. Possibly DNF and a torturous read.
½☆☆☆☆ = So vile was a DNF or should have been. Cannot imagine anyone liking.  (Might also be just an "uploaded" word spew or collection that should not be dignified by calling itself a "published book." If author is going batshit crazy in the blogosphere over reviews -- I now know why they are getting bad reviews.  Or maybe author should take remedial classes for language written in until basic concepts like using sentences sink in. Is author even old enough to sign a publishing contract or do they need a legal guardian to sign for them?)

Daisy was a cleaning lady that worked in wealthy households and offices. Daisy loved Princess Diana though she had never met her but in all honesty Daisy felt she could have done a better job. Daisy whimsically believed that Diana and herself had been separated at birth.

I just could not get into this story. It just made no sense to me and i could not force myself to finish this. It made no sense to me. Daisy is no way being realistic . I just couldn’t get into the story, plot or characters.Just not my kind of story.

I received an ARC of this story for an honest  review.

Falling for Prince Charles

Lauren Baratz-Logsted

Genre: Chick Lit
Publisher: Diversion Books
Date of Publication: February 9, 2016
Number of pages: 320

"Lauren Baratz-Logsted has mastered the real life fairy tale in her explosive and hilarious FALLING FOR PRINCE CHARLES. It's all here, lovelorn Daisy Silverman flush with cash and high hopes, Prince Charles who can't resist her, and London in all its splendor. Curl up and get ready to laugh long into the foggy night." —Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of THE SHOEMAKER'S WIFE

Daisy Silverman has always been obsessed with His Royal Highness, Prince Charles. When the underachieving 30-something cleaning lady wins a million dollars, she follows her lifelong dream to go to London. Once there, she meets Prince Charles—the real Prince Charles. Through a series of misunderstandings, the Royal Family doesn't realize that Daisy's Jewish or that she's spent her life up to the elbows in the wrong kind of toilet water. By the time they do, Daisy is in love with Charles, Charles is in love with Daisy, and the Queen's white gloves are off. FALLING FOR PRINCE CHARLES is an offbeat alternate-universe romantic comedy showing the heir to the British throne in a light quite unlike any he's been seen in before.

Excerpt: 

As Daisy Silverman squatted in front of the toilet bowl, first depressing the flush lever and then watching as the milky outgoing spiral removed the mildew and replaced it with fresh water, the thought occurred to her for at least the thousandth time that if the fickle hand of fate hadn’t cast her as a cleaning lady, working in wealthy households and offices in Westport, Connecticut, she would most certainly have made a perfectly lovely Princess of Wales.

This was a fantasy that Daisy had entertained off and on since 1981, the same year that the late Princess Diana had first become Princess Diana. And to this day, eighteen years later, whenever she thought about it, Daisy still thought that she could have done the job better.

Oh, sure, Daisy had loved the late Princess, would have said that she loved her more than anybody. Well, actually even Daisy was aware enough not to say that; she did know that Diana’s family and friends had surely loved her more. But Daisy could legitimately claim to love her easily as much as anybody who had never met her, and that was plenty. So, if Daisy felt a little competitive with a dead Princess that she had loved beyond reason, what matter that? After all, there were some compelling reasons for making a comparison between the two women.

Just like the woman who had possessed the most photographed profile in the world, Daisy had a genius for making the kind of seemingly interested, throwaway comment that left others feeling a little cheerier about their own lot in life. Although even Daisy had felt that the Princess had been pushing things a bit, several years back, when she had blithely informed a widow on the dole with a flat full of small children: “Oh, yes, I just love those microwave pizzas too. Whenever the Heir and the Spare start to look a little peaked, I just nuke a couple of them in the Palace micro, and we’re all set to go skiing in Klosters or windsurfing on Necker.” Or, if those hadn’t been her exact words, it had been something equally inappropriate...

Guest Post: 

I don’t know if this would qualify as funny, unless we use the definition of it that includes peculiar; or, in my case, perhaps we should define it as could only happen to Lauren.

FALLING FOR PRINCE CHARLES was originally the second novel I wrote, after walking away from my day job as an independent bookseller to take a chance on myself as a writer. The novel is about a Jewish cleaning lady from Danbury who meets and falls in love with the heir to the British throne, the man we all know as Prince Charles. You could say it’s an alternate-universe romantic comedy since it’s about real people but living lives they never did. Once I completed it, I sent it out on submission in early 1997.

If you’re up on your British history, you may guess where this story is going.

On August 31 of that same year, Prince Charles’s ex-wife, Princess Diana – one of the two most beloved women of the second half of the last century, the other being Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis – died tragically in a car crash. While I may be a big fan of Prince Charles, at the time I was an even bigger fan of Princess Diana, and so I mourned with the whole world.

I didn’t even think about my stupid book.

Two weeks later, my phone rang. Publishing wisdom back then always dictated that “No comes in a letter; yes comes during a phone call.” The latter was true because editors loved that Cinderella moment of calling an author, waving the wand of “You’re going to be published!” and getting to hear the author’s excitement at the happy news.

In my case, a publisher was calling me – a vice president at one of the biggest publishing companies in the country, no less – only she wasn’t calling with happy news. She was calling because she wanted to tell me personally that as much as she loved my book, she couldn’t buy it; no one in publishing could buy it.

And I knew immediately that she was right.

Worldwide public sentiment was so against Charles in those weeks and first years of the aftermath, no one would be interested in my story of Charles finally finding true love.

So the book went into my closet, meaning it remained on my hard drive, for almost two decades. To be sure, occasionally it got brushed off for various reasons – to detail everything would take this post to novella length – and I did revise it time and time again.

Now it’s being published – at last! – by Diversion Books, and I couldn’t be more pleased. Although if it brings joy to at least some readers, if it helps take your mind off trouble in your own lives and makes you laugh, I’ll be more than pleased. I and my book will have our happy ending.

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of over 30 books for adults (The Thin Pink Line; The Sisters Club), teens (The Twin’s Daughter; The Education of Bet; Little Women and Me) and children (The Sisters 8 series for young readers which she created with her husband and daughter). Read more about her at www.laurenbaratzlogsted.com or follow her @LaurenBaratzL on Twitter.

Giveaway: 

Author Bio:

Lauren Baratz-Logsted is the author of over 25 books for adults, teens (including The Twin’s Daughter and Little Women and Me), and children (The Sisters 8, a nine-book series she created with her husband and daughter). Before becoming an author, Lauren was an independent bookseller, freelance editor, Publishers Weekly reviewer, sort-of librarian and window washer. She lives with her family in Danbury, CT.

To connect with the author online:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

This book makes me want to drink.

I am really starting to think there is something wrong with me.  The last three reads have been DNF’s.  And I HATE DNFing, especially where the premises of the book seems to indicate that I should really like this book.

I didn’t though.

The main female character was just hideous.

Remember Rachel Berry in the first season of Glee and Tracey Flick in Election, this MC is even moreEXTREME than they were.

Yeah, I couldn’t stomach her point of view that was probably the biggest reason I DNF’d it.

Technically speaking, the book was readable enough if you could get past how unrealistic Katie and to a lesser extent Drew were.

I guess I should talk about the elephant (ha, ha, political pun) in the room: Katie.

As I said before, completely ridiculous from her copy-cat Jackie O infamous pink suits, to claiming she looks like Christmas with her green eyes and red suits.  I wanted to roll my eyes.  Does that mean I look like Christmas too anytime I wear red since I have green eyes too?

Please.

Half of the shit she gets herself into wouldn’t happen in real life because the campaign would have a PR person on staff to tell her it’s not a good idea to wear an imitation of the outfit that Jacqueline Kennedy wore when her husband was killed-especially when you’re a Republican.  Or for that matter, a replica of the suit that Nancy Reagan wore.  Then again, look at some of the stupid things that have been going on this election cycle-see Donald Trump and Ben Carson.

So maybe Katie is a realistic spawn of a GOP candidate.

Okay, probably not.

I couldn’t handle it.  Maybe her behavior would be explained by the end, but I really doubt it.

Drew on the other hand is the stereotypical My-Parents-Are-Ruining-My-Life teen.  He’s not that bad, but I rolled my eyes when he started ranting about being rich.  BUT at the same time, I could see a kid whose parents are involved in politics acting like him instead of Katie.

God, Katie.

SMH.

The plot itself didn’t seem bad.  The If Only series has simple little rom com plots, and this book falls into the series premises perfectly.  The problem is that it falls into a lot of pitfalls that a lot of these books do-half baked Disney Chanel like romances.

Unless Drew was the boy at the beginning of the book (which my Book Psychic senses are telling me he was), I didn’t see them interact.  I didn’t want to because I already had an inkling how squirm inducing it was going to be since Katie’s one other interaction with a guy was embarrassing at best.

Socially awkward characters can be good, but squirm inducing socially awkward characters aren’t so good.  If Katie made Katie Couric cry I can only bet it was because Couric felt sad at how hopeless this MC was.

Overall Rating: A DNF a total and complete fail on the part of the leading lady.  Shame.  If you’re interested in a YA book about politics try The Wrong Side of Right by Jen Marie Thorne, The Fixer by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, or All American Girl by Meg Cabot.  Do not read this one, unless irrational main characters don’t bother you.