TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Uninvited Guests

Author:Sadie Jones 
Title:The Uninvited Guests
Publisher: Harper
Publish Date: May 1, 2012
Buy: Amazon
Review Copy Provided By: TLC Book Tours and the publisher
Book Blurb: One late spring evening in 1912, in the kitchens at Sterne, preparations begin for an elegant supper party in honor of Emerald Torrington's twentieth birthday. But only a few miles away, a dreadful accident propels a crowd of mysterious and not altogether savory survivors to seek shelter at the ramshackle manor—and the household is thrown into confusion and mischief.

The cook toils over mock turtle soup and a chocolate cake covered with green sugar roses, which the hungry band of visitors is not invited to taste. But nothing, it seems, will go according to plan. As the passengers wearily search for rest, the house undergoes a strange transformation. One of their number (who is most definitely not a gentleman) makes it his business to join the birthday revels.

Evening turns to stormy night, and a most unpleasant parlor game threatens to blow respectability to smithereens: Smudge Torrington, the wayward youngest daughter of the house, decides that this is the perfect moment for her Great Undertaking.

Review: This book is not what I expected, and I mean that in an absolutely good way. I've never enjoyed a book that was so full of characters that you can't like. The Torringtons' are getting ready for a birthday supper for Emerald when things start falling apart. They've actually been falling apart for awhile, but the events that follow really get things crashing. (Literally)

A train accident is the cause of the upheaval in their lives.

Sterne is apparently the only house for miles and when the accident occurs, many of the passengers are sent there until they can continue on their journey. You would think this would cause these people to be filled with compassion!

HA!

I couldn't believe how they treated them. It really left me flummoxed!  They were so incredibly rude. They put them away like something to be hidden and went on with the planned birthday party! They didn't even offer the victims refreshment! They were in a train accident!!!!!

Then there was the man from Charlotte's past. And he reveals a secret that no one could have expected!

For all intents and purposes I shouldn't have liked this book, but I did. The only character that I really liked was Smudge, and her peculiar Great Undertaking!

I loved the time period that this book was set in (the early 1900s in Britain). Such snobbery, even when funds are low. Oh how they soldier on! And like all the well to do there are secrets that really make an unusual story even greater.

If you are looking for a little something different/unexpected to read. This is your book!

Rating 4 flowers