Lucky Bunny by Jill Dawson
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 349 (Paperback)
Source: TLC Book Tours
Author's Website
Buy it: Amazon | Kindle | B&N | Book Depo
Description:
'Crime's a man's business. So they say. Who was that small figure then, slender enough to trot along the moonlit track, swift and low, virtually invisible? Who was it that covered the green signal with a glove to stop the train, while the two others took care of the driver and his mate? Could it have been one Queenie Dove, survivor of the Depression and the Blitz, not to mention any number of scrapes with the law?'My Rating:
Queenie Dove is a self-proclaimed genius when it comes to thieving and escape. Daring, clever and sexy, she ducked and dived through the streets of London from the East End through Soho to Mayfair, graduating from childhood shop-lifting to more glamorous crimes in the post-war decades. So was she wicked through and through, or more sinned against than sinning? Here she tells a vivacious tale of trickery and adventure, but one with more pain and heartbreak than its heroine cares to admit. Yes, luck often favoured her, but that is only part of the story.
My Review: Lucky Bunny is a such a difficult book to review because it is quite different. It doesn't seem right to summarize the plot when this book isn't about the plot. It is more of an experience. In Lucky Bunny we experience Queenie, a feisty girl who knows nothing but a life of crime. Her loved ones have been taken away from her one by one. Some return and others remain ghosts that haunt and shape her choices as she grows older. Queenie makes friends and falls in love but live isn't easy for her. The setting is more than a backdrop, it is part of the experience. Set during and after World War II, Ms. Dawson takes real life events and adds them to the story creating an intriguing look into a world often overlooked.
The premise, setting, and writing in Lucky Bunny was great. The writing especially made this a very authentic read. The world and the characters felt so real. I love when I get a book where the writing makes me stop and take notice. I was inspired. Unfortunately though, I had a very hard time getting through this book. The pacing was just off for me. As I was reading, I could never quite understand the point of where everything was going. It's kind of hard to describe but I'll try. The story is told from Queenie's perspective. All of the events have already occurred and she's looking back and retelling it as she remembers. But before each new event, she foreshadows how things will turn out by pretty much saying how it will turn out. It wasn't annoying or bothersome but it took away the drive to keep reading. There was nothing pushing me forward. I pretty much knew how everything would turn out. If I put the book down, I pretty much had to force myself to pick it up and keep reading. Once I got back into things, it was okay.
Overall, I think the writing might be good enough to at least give this one a try despite the pacing issue I described. I can see many people loving it. Just a heads up, Queenie's in an abusive relationship so there is quite a bit of domestic violence in this one.
