pacavegano reviewed The golden nineties by Lisa Mason
None
3 stars
I read [b:Summer of Love|324845|Summer of Love|Lisa Mason|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1310657727s/324845.jpg|1160808] six years ago, and loved it. I have been keeping an eye open for this, its sequel, ever since. I happened to spot a copy at a library book sale recently and snatched it up. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I loved this book. My somewhat dim memory of why I liked Summer of Love so much is that I really enjoyed the characters, and was impressed by the historical detail.
When I first started reading The Golden Nineties, I thought that it had one of those same qualities going for it: Mason had obviously done her research and was imbuing this book, too, with historical detail. Alas, for me, I think this ended up being part of why I did not enjoy reading this book. There may have been fine and wonderful things about San Francisco in the 1890s, but if …
I read [b:Summer of Love|324845|Summer of Love|Lisa Mason|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1310657727s/324845.jpg|1160808] six years ago, and loved it. I have been keeping an eye open for this, its sequel, ever since. I happened to spot a copy at a library book sale recently and snatched it up. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I loved this book. My somewhat dim memory of why I liked Summer of Love so much is that I really enjoyed the characters, and was impressed by the historical detail.
When I first started reading The Golden Nineties, I thought that it had one of those same qualities going for it: Mason had obviously done her research and was imbuing this book, too, with historical detail. Alas, for me, I think this ended up being part of why I did not enjoy reading this book. There may have been fine and wonderful things about San Francisco in the 1890s, but if so, Mason glossed over those features in favor of highlighting all that was unjust, ignoble and downright ugly about this period. Even that would not necessarily have sunk the book for me. What did was the fact that I really did not like any character in the book.
The plot was curious enough to make me want to finish the book to see how it ended, and although the ending was not entirely satisfying, the last portion of the book was my favorite part of it.
I would wholeheartedly recommend [b:Summer of Love|324845|Summer of Love|Lisa Mason|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1310657727s/324845.jpg|1160808]. I would advise those who seek out this book after reading that one, however, that this is a very different, and much darker, story.