I am currently trying out Amazon’s new lending library as they have a free trial for Canada at the moment. I have a hard time finding anything good on the site as those I knew were good were ones I had already read. So I went back to a golden oldie, Georgette Heyer and a three book set starting with ‘The Miracle at St. Bruno’s’. Now this was, is and probably always will be a mainstream book and in just about every library, etc.

What really stood out was how styles and pacing have really changed over the years since I last read this book. At the time it was classed as adult. Well, to be fair, there were only two categories: adult and children’s. Now I would put it in the YA section. What caught me first was the pacing, which was slow, so very slow. Yes, this is an historical romance with a thriller twist but it plods pedantically over many pages littered with extraneous fluff a writer would never get by an editor in this century. Another thing that jumped out at me was the multiple instances of ‘talking heads’; two characters in a room discussing something to the exclusion of everything else so the reader’s attention is focussed on the words of the dialogue and everything else that should be around is a nebulous grey color.

Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying the book and it is perfect for night time reading after I go to bed as it has a pleasantly lulling effect. I did enjoy the book enormously when I first came across it way back when. I love the historical elements, which are brilliant and I love the plot twists. It is just fascinating to see the evolution in the writing style from the then to the now.

Will I continue with the Amazon library? Nope. I can’t find anything I would get that would equal more than the $9 a month it would cost me. For my money, I would like a free choice from all of the books available, not just those solely locked into the Amazons platform.