Sophia

When Sophia Spencer is caught sleeping in Alexander Huntley’s room during a ball, her Aunt Nora insists Sophia must be married to the gentleman. On the day of her hasty wedding, Sophia flees. She stays with her friends, the Fitzgeralds, while her aunt demands she return and marry or her reputation will be ruined. Alexander Huntley attempts to win Sophia over to preserve his own honor.

Sophia’s story is straightforward and simply told. I wondered about what would happen to Sophia and Alexander, but nothing about the story made me deeply invested. Sophia was naive and too good. She behaved like a Disney princess: genuine, but bubbly, vapid, indecisive and insecure. The main conflict of the book occurred because she allowed her aunt to walk all over her.

The narrative of Sophia is cold and unfeeling. At first I mistook it for intuitive characters, but the book tells too much, rather than showing characters’ reactions and emotions. The disorienting story lacks sufficient setting depictions, and the characters lack passion and warmth. With a bland, uncreative and humorless voice, Sophia is a story best left on the shelf.