The Davenports

I'm definitely reading the next one, but I'm pulling my hair out at this cliffhanger. Even though so many characters got their own POV, I didn't think I was missing or needing more input from any one character. It had a good pace that kept me interested and engaged.

I did enjoy the seeing the 1910s from another perspective than a rich white damsel in distress, and yet it felt a bit messy with the sheer number of characters that the book focused on. There were four main POVs, each with their own love/hate messy love interest, which ended up being a little tiring to follow through.
And then the ending, it was left so open that it made me want to eat the damn book (alas it was an ebook). 

Thanks to @hearourvoicestours for the finished copy and selecting me for this tour! I waited waaayyy too long to jump on The Davenports train!!! 💛    This was a great YA historical romance, and I believe is my very first historical romance read.    It took me a bit to get into the flow of this book with the back and forth between our main FMCs. As we get really get into the defining feats of each character the story begins to pick up!    I did grow a slight (very slight) ick to Ruby in the beginning, but I did grow to appreciate her.    Olivia definitely surprised me with the activism route, but truly loved how she stuck to it. She definitely had her doubts, and her worries about how this would reflect on her family.    Helen and Amy Rose were my absolute faves and I did find myself kinda rushing past the other characters chapters to get to theirs because of how much I loved them and their story line.    The romance for me didn't hit like I thought it would, but only because at the end of the day I wanted to see all these girls succeed! Don't get me wrong the romance was cute and sweet, BUT I wanted Olivia to build up her community and fight for equal rights! I want Amy-Rose to continue to fight for her dreams of owning a salon. I want Helen to fight for her place among her father's company with her innovative ideas. Shoot even though Ruby was not my favorite I wanted her to stand up to her parents, and choose a path in life that was best for her.   The Davenports did end on a cliffhanger, but we are getting a sequel! I'm excited to see how the story progresses with all of the girls. 

Pretty typical historical romance, with etiquette and wealth and lineage concerns. The setting makes it interesting. Jim Crow laws blanket the south and threaten to move into Chicago. The parents generation and older includes former slaves. Two characters are half white. It all adds weight to a story that would be middling if set in Regency or Victorian times.

3.5 stars.

2.5 rounded up. The stories had too many parallels where I felt I was reading the same story just from a different POV. I wish this had a bit more differences in each story. I also was not rooting for each love story and wanted more of these girls being built up on their own. I'll be interested to see where the next book goes but not fully sure I'll read it.

3.5 stars: the writing dragged at times and the characters were well written but I felt no connection for any of them.

There were so many things I liked about it. Young women figuring out what they want, lush ballroom scenes, romance, family drama, and stunning historical detail. I also felt like it was missing something. I liked the 4 main girls, but jumping around between them all sometimes left me a little in the lurch. After such lengthy build-ups of their romantic relationships (and problems) the ending felt really rushed and then ended before any real resolutions. That's the sequel I suppose! Overall, an enjoyable piece of historical fiction that brings a romantic eye to an oft-overlooked piece of Black American history.

Cute and sweet!

This was a perfectly cromulent piece of YA historical fiction, hitting a lot of the marks you would expect (upstairs/downstairs romance, love triangle, girl wanting to do boy things, dress descriptions galore, infodump about the era's issues) but being about a wealthy Black family added some new levels to it. So, I'm glad to have it in the collection and glad it's out there! Also for a debut novel, it's strong–looking forward to seeing what Marquis writes next! (Presumably...Davenports #2?)

 
 
~WRITING - PLOT - PACE~
Sigh...this was yet another book that had the potential to be much better but was brought down by the continuous unnecessary repetition about how much of a player the hero was. If I have said this once I have said this a million times I DO NOT need to be reminded ad nauseam that a hero is a player. You can tell me ONCE and I can retain that information. The constant mentions of, and the comparisons to OW really took SO much away from what was a pretty damn good story. Aside from that issue, I found the writing to be quite good. It was a fairly quick book. This author has a nice flow to her writing style. The pace was very good. The plot was engaging as well. Last, it was all wrapped up in a decent ending.


~HERO~
OSCAR...I really didn't like Oscar for the first half of this book. I'm chalking that up to the author's incessant need to remind us over and over and over again about his player ways. Then he had an AH-HA moment and became much more likable. Well, that is until the phone conversation with his Mother at 70% and the dismissive way he thought about Grace. Then I went back to not liking him much. I think he had the potential to be a really good hero. He seemed like a decent guy. He was sweet. He had a good heart. Loved his family. Unfortunately, the author placed WAY too much focus on his whoring ways and that ultimately took away from his character A LOT.


~HEROINE~
GRACE... Honestly, I liked Grace a lot for most of the book but then near the end, she started to get wiggy and even at 94% when the couple should be on solid ground she was thinking the following when Oscar mentions marriage “Would he still feel the same way in six months—a year? Given his track record, she doubted it. Honestly, at that point, I was done with her. She started out being a strong and feisty heroine but as the book went on, she got more judgy and insecure. Ugh...it drove me NUTS.


 


~SECONDARY CHARACTERS~
This book has some good secondary characters. I really liked Spider (I hope he gets a book of his own). I also like Oscar's brother TJ (who IS getting a book of his own). Terry and Louise were also nice additions and all of them added extra layers to the overall story.


~HEAT LEVEL~
LOW. This was a bit of a slow burn in my opinion. We don't get any sex until 70% in, but the scenes we do get were suitably hot. I'll be honest, I am not sure I felt this couple had great on page chemistry. It was OK but could have been better.


~ANGST LEVEL~
LOW. I didn't find this one particularly angsty. As I mentioned earlier, it had A LOT of unnecessary OW stuff. Twice we have to read about our hero making plans to have sex with some random after meeting the heroine (he doesn't ever go through with it, but it was still a turnoff for me.) On top of that, we get oodles of mentions of his past manho ways. At one point he admits one of the goals he set for himself was to “get laid every day.” Charming...isn't that?? There was no OM drama.


~IN THE END~
I liked a lot about this book. The writing. The plot. The secondary characters. The heroine (mostly). But it unfortunately, suffered from one of my biggest pet peeves (I don't think I need to repeat AGAIN what that was lol) and because of that I just couldn't connect with the hero. I didn't fall in love with him. I wanted to. I really did, but too much focus was spent on his past when it would have been better spent building the connection between him and the heroine. That said, I may still give the next book a read as I am really curious about TJ. Therefore yours truly is going to give this one a solid thumbs up and say I think a lot of people will really like this one.