EricaO

What the hell, me? You just barely finished [b:The Paris Wife|8683812|The Paris Wife|Paula McLain|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1320545874s/8683812.jpg|13556031] and got all fed up with it and then you move straight on to this? Really? What were you thinking?

Ok, to be fair, I had forgotten I'd put this book on hold at the library. It just happened to become available for my reading pleasure two days after I finished with the Hemingways. This was not an intentional reading of one biographical fiction after another.

I don't remember putting this on hold nor do I know why I did but when I got the book, I figured it couldn't be too bad. Whereas I've never liked Hemingway, I've always liked Poe. I have a thing for the mentally unstable, which is obvious if you just look at the bulk of my relationships throughout my life thus far. I think I know maybe two "normal" (as in, not deranged) people? I'm not one of them. So I'd like this book, too, right?

No.
I couldn't finish it. I got eight chapters in and was fed up with the lack of luster shown in Frances. Wasn't she supposed to have been a flirty, delightful, coquettish charmer? Wasn't she essentially the adopted daughter of high society and a shining star in literary circles? Not with this personality, she wouldn't have been. Mostly, the Mrs. Frances Locke Osgood character in this book was vapid, useless, and boring up through the first eight chapters.
And Poe. Oh, poor Poe. I'd never heard him described as handsome prior to this book but I had heard him described as magnetic when not being an asshole. I didn't really see that coming across here.

You know what? It was like reading Edward and Bella all over again but set in a different time period in a different place and instead of Jacob, we have the consumptive Mrs. Virginia Poe, who, in this story, seemed a bit tetched, herself. Ed-gar/ward was handsome all the time, pretty much to the point of sparkling and he didn't have much of importance to say on the pages. Frances/Bella just repeated everything anyone else said and had very few strong opinions of her own, other than she had to get to know Mr. Poe and had to figure out a way to write just like he does.

Whereas this all may have changed later in the book and maybe the story became absolutely riveting, I just couldn't make myself continue...I gave up and turned the book back in. DoneOver.