The Season

The Seasonby Sarah MacLean

Seventeen-year-old Lady Alexandra Stafford doesn’t fit into the world of Regency London — she’s strong-willed, sharp-tongued, and she absolutely loathes dress fittings. Unfortunately, her mother has been waiting for years for Alex to be old enough to take part in the social whirlwind of a London Season so she can be married off to someone safe, respectable, wealthy, and almost certainly boring. But Alex is much more interested in adventure than romance.Between sumptuous balls, lavish dinner parties and country weekends, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get entangled in her biggest scrape yet. When the Earl of Blackmoor is killed in a puzzling accident, Alex decides to help his son, the brooding and devilishly handsome Gavin, uncover the truth. It’s a mystery brimming with espionage, murder, and suspicion. As she and Gavin grow closer, will Alex’s heart be stolen in the process?Romance and danger fill the air, as this year’s Season begins! (goodreads.com)

I am not tall, skinny or seventeen, but I can grow and dye my hair auburn... because if they ever make this book into a movie I want to play Alex so that I can fall in love with Gavin. Unlike many others, I do not get crushes on characters in books, but this time around? I adore Gavin. I might be in love with him, but you can't tell my husband.The Season originally came out in March 2009 in hard cover. Normally I wouldn't even have paid it much attention because I do not really like historical fiction or realistic fiction and whatnot, but something about it made me read a couple of reviews and all of them agreed that this was an excellent book and funny and they would be looking forward to more Sarah MacLean in the future. I put it on my wishlist and didn't really think much about it at the time. It was stupidly priced in Canada and I figured I would make the decision to pick it up after it came out in paperback - depending on the price.See, I wasn't completely convinced I would like it, so I didn't relish (or mustard or ketchup) the thoughts of dropping cash I didn't really have on a book I was on the fence about.With the rave reviews of Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake that started surfacing earlier in the year my curiosity was once more revived and pointed towards Sarah MacLean's name. Not only was that adult romance it was also historical fiction, but people with whom I share many literary likes were enamoured by the novel and said time and time again how funny it was. Bonus - it was mass market so it was only $8. I picked it up. I didn't put it down until it was finished.That's when I KNEW I had to pick up The Season when it hit the shelves in paperback.I did not laugh out loud as much with MacLean's YA novel as I did with her adult one, but I smirked a lot and I was completely sucked in by the espionage plot. See, I am also enamoured by Lauren Willig's Pink Carnation series, which is sort of like a grown up The Season where the characters are from the same time period AND involved with the British/French spy stuff. The writing is not as humourous as MacLean's but Willig has very engaging characters and many of the books in that series did indeed make me laugh out loud. I would highly recommend that series to any of you who loved The Season and would like more historical novels from this time frame that deal with similar issues and have great characters.But back to this book - I loved Alex as a protagonist. The relationship she had with her parents and brothers was just delightful to read, as well as her friendships with Ella and Vivi. I could almost see this entire story play out as a movie in my head. Everything about the book was enjoyable - the dialogue, the mystery, the relationships, all fantastic!This book is very worthy of all 5 full stars that I gave it on Goodreads and LibraryThing. There were no half stars involved in the rating of this novel. Sarah MacLean is one of the most fun writers I have read in a long time. I am even a little sorry I didn't rush right out and pick up this novel when it came out in hard cover. Yes, I couldn't really afford it at the time. but I could have been bathing in the awesomness that was this book for a much longer period. This will be a reread book for me in the future I am sure. Alex and her friends felt like my own best friends. I want to be a part of their group, although I wouldn't be so keen on the corsets and coming out season thing. I tend to agree with the sentiment in the book that states women are paraded around like cattle to be sold to the highest bidder. I didn't even have my first boyfriend by the age of seventeen! Imagine being married off and expected to have children with some old man at that age! Ick! Blech! *shudder* I am so happy we've come a long ways from that method of courting.Bottom line? Go read this book if you have not already.And look out for more awesome by Sarah MacLean this October with Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord. (Good golly that's a horrid title!) You bet your bippy I'll be picking that one up (while wearing sunglasses and a fedora so no one I know will see me buying a romance novel with a cover like that!) and then reading it where no one can see me. ha!