Witty Little Knitter

To sum it up: yes but.There were some really good things about this book. Abby was quite kick-ass and the finale was just awesome. Like really awesome. Really really awesome. OK, I think I made my point.Overall Abby is your typical 'I am so feminist and modern and don't care about the conventions of my time'-heroine but at least we do get a reason for it. Abby's mother was already a really independent spirit and ran away from home with a random Frenchman, as a result her conservative mother cut off all contact with her. Mother got pregnant, French guy died, had to bring up daugghter on her own and of course brought her up as a "free spirit", too. Then the mother died and now Abby's grandmother has decided to take care of her. To thank her for it Abby whines constantly about her grandmother being to strict and not allowing her anything - except that she doesn't. There is no point in the book where she says "No I won't let you go there/do this." She doesn't hide her dissaproval but she always lets Abby have her way. Abby even realises why it is like this: her grandmother did love her mother and regrets not making up with her before her death and now doesn't want to loose her granddaughter, too. Does Abby ever feel bad about guilt-tripping her gran into allowing her things? Does she try to talk to her like one adult to another? No she's all "Buhuhuuuu she frowned disapprovingly when I told her that I want to work at night in the London East-End!1!! That's sooooo mean!!!" Oh grow up girl.Then there's William her love-interest and of course he acts like a jerk at the beginning. Just once I'd love to read a romance with a couple that starts of simply co-existing for a while and then realising that they have some things in common and growing fond of each other...or anything but "Insulting you means I actually love you". There's also a badly written love-triangle but nobody believes for a second that Abby could go for anybody but William (when other guy makes advances, she straight-off tells him no...what was the point of that?). Like in many romances the author here also seems to think that it's only worth telling about the times when the main-character and the love-interest are together or she's at least thinking about him. So Abby keeps runníng into William and if he's not around it's suddenly "Three weeks later". Yes, I know romance...but since when does that mean that they can't have independent lives?Apart from Abby and William the characters stay all a bit colourless, which is a shame because Mariah and Simon could have been quite really interesting but remained mainly decorative.The author has done some research on Jack the Ripper but overall it doesn't go very deep and especially concerning Mary Kelly there is some artistic license. Well it is a YA-romance and not a factual account so I don't mind but I am annoyed about one thing: Abby gets to now Mary Kelly before the murders and befriends her (she also meets Liz Stride and Catherine Eddows but only for a paragraph or so, Kelly has a larger speaking-role). At the end they pull the same stunt as in From Hell, i.e. Hey it wasn't actually her that was murdered it was here roommate! Because this is YA and we can't kill too many characters of the reader has gotten to knowAt the end it all felt suddenly a bit rushed and I'm not quite sure how they made some connections that quickly but as mentioned: the finale was awesome and eventually rescued the book from 2something to 3 stars.