3.5 stars rounded up.

I first read this one years ago, and the story has stuck with me since. Its not at all what you expect when you first go into it. I was expecting historical fiction but its pretty high drama. So then I kind of shuffled it into the historical romance shelf of my brain, but the level of detail and research for the era and the romance plot being only one of many makes me think it actually sits somewhere between the two. For a romance novel, its actually pretty feminist too which helps me love it. Heartbroken and destroyed, single woman moves countries and builds a career an a fortune? SOLD.

I do love this book, and likely I will read it again in years to come. I relate so hard to the character of Fiona, her story and her passions. It helps that I also love tea, pretty things and am obsessed with food.

That part of me, the girly romantic part who loves pretty things, is the one who loves this book. The author writes wonderful descriptions that bring up the exotic scent of tea wafting up from a tin, the heartiness and comfort of a good hot meat pie, and the bustling activity on the teeming streets of London. This book makes me homesick for my days living in London, so many of the places described in the book still exist today and this makes the story live for me.

There are some pretty major flaws for the part of me that prefers heavy literary fiction though.

* The story is melodramatic with predictable plot twists.
* Every character is exists in a binary of good or evil. There is no in between, no gradient of goodness. In life, most people are inherently good and just sometime make mistakes or do bad things. That doesn't make them evil. It would have been good to see this reflected in the "evil" characters in this book.
* The Jack the Ripper subplot is superfluous, as are some of the secondary characters and details. A good edit could have chopped at least 100 pages from it, but then it maybe wouldn't have been as entertaining as it is.
* Too many deaths for it to be realistic. I understand why its needed for the story, but its just a LOT. This isn't Game of Thrones. Calm. Down.
* There are too many instances of telling us things about a character rather than showing them.

I really liked the descriptiveness of the author's writing, particularly in regards to London and the day to day life of the working class. I am disappointed that an author who writes so well in that regard settles for such sketchy characterizations and overly dramatic plots. Every character is incredibly likable but none of them are very deep, and they all behave in ways that are far too erratic to be realistic.

When I first read this novel I was so entertained that I couldn't put it down. This time around it has been a welcome breather from the very heavy non-fiction an lit fic I have been reading all year. If you love a good British soap, then you'll love this. Think Coronation St or East Enders, but Victorian.