Stevie‘s review of The Importance of Being Alice (A Matchmaker in Wonderland, Book 1) by Katie MacAlister
Contemporary Romance published by Signet 06 Jan 15

Humour is a very subjective matter, romantic comedy perhaps more so than some other forms, since what some regard as romantic, others may regard as irritating. So while I enjoy some romantic comedies, others just leave me cold – even when the basic elements ought to be in line with other plots I’ve found both amusing and heart-warming. There’s also the suspension of disbelief aspect; romantic comedies thrive on unlikely events, but I generally feel that there ought to be a grain of truth at the bottom of each unexpected plot twist, or at least some evidence that the author knows the background to her subject.

Sadly that wasn’t the case here. Elliott, Baron Ainsley, is struggling to pay for the upkeep of his ancestral home – a likely enough scenario – but is thwarted by the combined efforts of his mother and adoptive siblings, the latter seeming to have joined the family in a manner and in numbers more akin to the lifestyles of US Hollywood royalty than the British aristocracy. I’m sure adoption has never worked like that over here, no matter how privileged and influential the would-be parents. Then I almost gave up and threw my e-reader across the room when Elliot mentioned that his estate is entailed – that law was abolished in the 1920s. But I persevered, in the hope that the story might pick up at some point.

All Elliott wants at the beginning of the story is some peace and quiet in which to get the first draft of his novel finished by its deadline. So he snaps up a spare cruise ticket, resulting from his friend Patrick’s latest relationship disaster, assuming that Patrick’s ex-girlfriend, Alice, won’t want to use her half of the ticket. But, of course, she does – and proceeds to interrupt Elliot’s work at every opportunity, which he increasingly lets her get away with. Alice would have driven me up the wall – except she was too bland even for that – and the rest of the cruise ship’s inhabitants were a bunch of forgettable stock characters with personality quirks that other readers might have found amusing but I just found annoying, if not downright offensive.

The story almost picked up towards the end, when Alice came up with an almost sensible idea as to how Elliott could gain a better income from the visitors to his castle without his writing time being any more disturbed than it is already – except that the figures she quoted didn’t add up. Again, a case of me being thrown out of a story because I know the background details of something that other readers might not, but that an author could easily – and really should – research.

All in all, a bit of a disappointment, although not a total failure since I did like one of the few properly developed supporting characters, whom I believe is the hero of the next book in the series. As that one seems to be set back at Elliott’s castle, I don’t think I’ll be reading it, for fear of encountering more inaccuracies that wouldn’t bother other readers.

Grade: D

Read Sandy’s review here.

Summary:

Nothing about Alice Wood’s life is normal right now. Her fiancé, Patrick, called off their wedding and relationship only days before their nonrefundable wedding trip. And though a luxurious European river cruise for one is just what she needs, it’s not what she gets….

Due to a horrible misunderstanding, Alice is now cramped in her “romantic” suite with one of Patrick’s friends. Instead of cruising along the Rhine, Main, and Danube rivers sipping champagne with the love of her life, she’s navigating the waters with a strange—yet mysteriously handsome—British aristocrat.

A baron of dubious wealth—and not-so-dubious debt—Elliot Ainslie is just looking forsome alone time to write the books that keep his large family afloat. But his stodgy, serious self is about to be sidetracked by a woman who seems to have jumped out of the pages of a fairy tale, one who is determined to shake up his life…and include him in her own happily ever after.

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