"Ingenue" Book Review

Ingenue by Jillian Larkin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"Power . . . love . . . scandal . . .

"There’s never enough to go around.

"In the city that never sleeps, Lorraine Dyer is wide awake. Ever since she exposed Clara Knowles for the tramp she was—and lost her closest confidante in the process—Lorraine has spent every second scheming to make her selfish, lovesick ex–best friend pay for what she did. No one crosses Lorraine. Not even Gloria.

"True love conquers everything—or so Gloria Carmody crazily believed. She and Jerome Johnson can barely scrape together cash for their rent, let alone have a moment to whisper sweet nothings in the dark. And if they thought escaping Chicago meant they’d get away with murder . . . they were dead wrong.

"Clara was sure that once handsome, charming Marcus Eastman discovered her shameful secret, he’d drop her like a bad habit. Instead, he swept her off her feet and whisked her away to New York. Being with Marcus is a breath of fresh air—and a chance for Clara to leave her wild flapper ways firmly in the past. Except the dazzling parties and bright lights won’t stop whispering her name. . . .

"INGENUE is the second novel in the sexy, dangerous, and ridiculously romantic Flappers series set in the Roaring Twenties . . . where revenge is a dish best served cold."

I had a hard time rating this one. While I enjoyed it, it wasn't as good as the first one. So my rating is actually a 3.5 but I put it as 4 stars.

It was pretty good, I felt so much sympathy for many of the characters. Excepting maybe the mob bosses. I even felt sympathy for Lorraine - she really is a dumb duck.

I liked seeing things from Vera's point of view, the first book just made her look like a bitch. I missed Marcus though - his romantic gestures filled me with hope in the last book.

Also the humor that was in the last book wasn't here in this one. It's understandable though, because people are starving and other people plan on killing other people. This book made the actions of the characters have much more serious consequences.

It was very cathartic to go from those rich houses in the first book to the almost starving Gloria and Jerome and kind of normal Clara and Lorraine's apartments. I felt slightly closer to the characters in that way. I find it slightly ironic that the dresses were still awesome, even though everyone was poor.

*SPOILERS*

We finally meet Gloria's dad, who turns out to be the jerk we always knew him to be.

The ending was good, but I would've liked the assassin to have been someone we already met. That part felt really odd.

Still gonna read the third one though.


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