Much Ado About Margaret follows a young woman, Margaret as she tries her best to overcome obstacles such as harsh and uncalled for criticism, an aunt who believes in the ‘right’ way of living one’s life, and her own feminine nature, to become the next great author. Now that last one is obviously a hang up within the strict rules of an unforgiving society, but it is nonetheless an obstacle, preventing Margaret from fulfilling her dreams.
This is the part where I would love to wax poetic about Margaret and her strength in carrying out her dreams despite her obstacles, but unfortunately I cannot. It’s not that she didn’t find a way to achieve her goals, it’s that she was whiny the entire time she was trying. Her constant internal monologue about how difficult her life was started to grind very early on and just kept going full speed to the end.
Margaret’s character was supposed to be balanced by her counterpart and (if using the term very loosely), enemy, Mr Dryden. Dryden is portrayed as a sexist man, only concerned about his own world and his own problems. Somewhere throughout the book, it is supposed to become believable that he simply changed his mind and embraced the work of the opposite sex. Now, that being said, the banter between the two was wonderfully written. It provided the tension needed to believe that the couple could possibly find peace in one another.
Overall, it is a well written story that really puts time and effort into trying to create a three dimensional character with whom the audience could find themselves rooting for. More than anything, this story would have benefitted from even more. More time for the story to breathe instead of feeling rushed instead of feeling effortless, and more backstory on the side characters that played such a large part in forming the main character interactions.
2/5 stars for a book that was fun to read, but left me wanting more
Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for the opportunity to read this eARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Novel Llama 