There was a lot of hype around Landry Park by Bethany Hagen, especially when it was described as Downton Abbey meets The Selection. While I partially saw this description, it was pretty much not at all what the book was like. There was no Selection situation in the book, just debuting with a boy, but whatever.

Likes:
The storyline was original, it was dystopian in genre, but nothing like what I have read before. The world reverted back to the 1900s, the upper class and Rootless. People living in mansions and debuting their daughters, trying to keep their bloodlines pure. The major difference is that they are using nuclear power to run electricity and power their houses
Madeline was an interesting main character, she was a smart girl who grew up in the family line that created the nuclear power. She wants to go to college but her father insists that she must stay at Landry Park to manage the estate
The romance in the story is actually pretty interesting, Madeline falls for David fairly quickly, but the plot of the story allows for a slow burn, almost no burn, situation
The caste system is really interesting with the back story and the fact that the Rootless are pretty much kept alive to bare the devastating effects radiation poisoning

Gripes:
Jude, I didn't really understand why he needed to be in the story. It just felt so disconnected. I am sure there needed to be some odd love triangle situation but I didn't need Jude.
The writing sometimes was disconnected and odd. I couldn't figure out why the odd jumps, it was like the typical methods of separating chapters or scene changed were missed in the final production.
The book definitely leads up to the second book in the series, so we don't get a lot of closer. I am trying to write this without any spoilers, but I just wish the way the Rootless leader came to be would have been different. The uprising would have been more like a revolution, at least I believe, without the leader being who he is.

For more reviews visist
A Flurry of Ponderings