Review: Scarlet

Scarlet by Genevieve Cogman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Three and a half stars.

Eleanor was a maid servant in the house of Lady Sophie, a vampire, until her mistress gave her to Sir Percy Blakeney and his wife. Little does she know that she bears a striking resemblance to the former Queen of France, Marie-Antionette, and Sir Percy and his League of the Scarlet Pimpernel intend to use that resemblance to rescue the Queen and the Dauphin from prison and the Guillotine.

So its like The Scarlet Pimpernel but for a YA/NA audience, with vampires, and sorcerers.

I can't believe I started reading this nine months ago. I got to about 22% and was just meh. Last night I decided to read to 25% and then DNF - instead I finished the book! Just goes to show that sometimes its not the book its the time that makes you lose interest.

I requested this because I absolutely adored The Scarlet Pimpernel as a teenager, I also loved the film version starring Anthony Andrews and Jane Seymour, but of course treading in the footsteps of your heroes is a dangerous game. Genevieve Cogman does it well, but this is for a YA/NA audience and not for die-hard fans of Sir Percy. Although thinking about it, in the books Sir Percy always appears without warning in some brilliant disguise, its just this time he rarely saves the day ... that is left for Eleanor.

Overall, I liked it but I didn't love it, also acknowledging that I am not the target audience.

I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

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