A Study in Scarlet Women - Review

Release Date: October 18, 2016

Author: Sherry Thomas

Series: Lady Sherlock #1

Genre: Mystery 

ARC Received From: Berkley Publishing

With her inquisitive mind, Charlotte Holmes has never felt comfortable with the demureness expected of the fairer sex in upper class society.  But even she never thought that she would become a social pariah, an outcast fending for herself on the mean streets of London. 

I want to start by giving a big thanks to Berkley Publishing for giving me a chance to read A Study in Scarlet Women a few weeks early!  I received this in return for my honest review of Sherry Thomas's newest book, and what follows is just that.

Personally, I feel it's always best to start with parts of the book I did in fact enjoy.  Which I have to say is Charlotte Holmes herself.  She is the main character of A Study in Scarlet Women, and personally I felt like she was wonderful blend of Sherlock and Mycroft Holmes from the Canon.  I was rather taken with her from the first we met her, and honestly did enjoy her throughout the book.  As well as her sister Livia Holmes.  They were probably my favorite characters in the book, and really the reason I made myself keep going to finish the book.

The pace of the book is very quick.  There really wasn't a part where I found the book was really lagging.  The flashbacks were well placed and easy to follow when they happened, and I honestly never had a moment where I wasn't certain of how we ended up somewhere.  Which made the book very easy to read and come back to between work shifts. Something that occasionally with Mystery books I have a trouble with and have to go back a couple of pages to catch back to where I stopped the night before.

Also the writing is very solid and tight.  Sherry Thomas clearly knows how to put together a book.  A Study in Scarlet Women was the first book I've read by Thomas, but it wasn't hard to see why so many people love her books.  Or, even why she's a Bestselling Author.  The book was well put together and flowed wonderfully.  However, I just couldn't get myself excited about once I started it.

I really wanted to enjoy this book. Just the character of Charlotte wanted me to love this book more than I did, because I honestly adore Charlotte Holmes.  However, I just found myself putting this book down more than picking it up.  I kept finding reasons not to pick it up again.  I never really found myself attaching to the mystery of it all.  Never felt overly invested in how it would all end, but I was determined to finish it.

Another thing, and maybe the real reason I couldn't get into it much, was I wasn't a fan of Watson.  Who is my favorite character in the Sherlock Series. I just didn't like this version of the character. Most of the time I find her a waste of a scene and would have rather seen Livia with Charlotte more.

So was it a terrible book?

No, by all means it's a good book.  I can see why a lot of people have enjoyed it given it a much better rating than me.  It just wasn't meant for me.  In fact I have a coworker I think might really enjoy it, and I fully intended to pass this on to her.

I gave it 2 stars because I personally thought it was Okay.  Not bad, but just not for me.

Buy, Borrow, or Skip: Borrow, if your a Sherlock, or a Sherry Thomas fan, definitely pick this one up from the library.