Sophie WeeksCritiques

I really wanted to like this book as the plot sounded promising but sadly thought it might be better suited to a younger adolescent audience.

I won this book through Early Reviewers, took me a while to get to this book, but I am so glad I did. The book actually has 2 stories in it, both great and well written. I hadn't really heard about this author before, looking forward to reading more from her!

I received this book in exchange for an honest review. This is a collection of 2 full length standalone books. Each book was great with a good plot and story line, I even enjoyed the characters. In each story the character works through some real life issues and comes out on top. I really enjoyed them and look forward to more from this writer.

I have a definite fondness for stories about stories, where the characters have some level of awareness they exist within a story (or within many stories as the case may be). I also enjoy mysteries of the cozy variety. This book scratches both literary itches in quite a delightful way. I would love to see more of Isabella and Holmes, but at the same time I am quite content with the story I have available to me.½

I liked the idea behind this story – characters from one genre interacting with those from another. The details were, on the whole, well worked out but I felt there were some inconsistencies, however I was carried along well enough by the story to be able to shrug aside any problems and nor am I familiar enough with the real Sherlock Holmes stories to be able to nit-pick any differences.

This is a nice story that didn't take too much thinking or have too many characters or places to keep track of. I don't mind cursing, but I think there's was too many curse words for such a short book. The "ghost" aspect was a bit undeveloped for me, and I would have thought it would have been more dominate in the book that it actually was. The writing was just ok. Not very memorable, but I was hooked enough to read on to see how it ends.½

I liked that this story did not follow the standard romance type of thing that I was kind of expecting. But it did dwell too much on the main characters disagreements with the other characters and feelings of inadequacy. It made me wonder why these people loved her. Maybe if the story had shown a little more of a balance in this area, it would have made more sense. I also had trouble following the timeline. I often had no clue how long had gone on between scenes.

I agree with another reviewer that this book seemed geared to a young adult market. Sarah Markham isn't very likeable, and she seems to avoid getting involved with anyone except the ghost of Lucy Larch who died in the '40's and has yet to move on. She haunts the room over the bookshop owned by Samuel who lets Sarah move into it the small room and gives her a job.

Sarah seems to run from any hint of trouble, or tells herself that people don't want her around so she ends up telling her woes to Lucy. But, Lucy also makes herself known to other people, and one of those is an Irishman named Flynn who she convinces to drop into the bookshop to take part in their book club designed by Sarah.

Sarah isn't very likeable, but it is a change from the books where the woman waltzes through with a few complications and has everything turn out great in the end. Sometimes you get the feeling that Sarah just wants to fade into the shelves of books and not be bothered with other humans.

I liked the plot of this book, but I was disappointed in the writing style and the character development. There were times I felt I was reading a young adult book rather than an adult novel. I enjoyed the story, but there were a lot of loose ends left for me, and the characters were weak. I felt like I never really knew what made them tick. This is a good summer beach read, but left me feeling like it was unfinished.

This is a DNF for me. I really wanted to enjoy it because it sounded really good! However, I disliked the writing style as it just felt a bit mediocre. The pacing was also too slow, and I just couldn't relate to the characters. I was also left feeling confused especially at the beginning as there's not enough descriptions of the setting.

(I received this ebook for free through the LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program).

The story revolves around a 16th century young woman living for 400 years in Christmas who has tired of her environment and people and the pages she is characterized. The only way she is able to take time out of her life is to 'live' a new 'genre'. She chooses mystery because she feels her life lacks adventure and passion. To prepare for her vacation in mystery she must learn to think in mystery terms. Therefore she is sent to train with Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson for a some time and learns how to play her part in a mystery. She then is sent into a story book of mystery and finds she enjoys the adventure, however, the mystery goes awry and she seeks Sherlock Holmes to help solve the mystery outside the mystery.
Frankly, I enjoyed the book, although it was a little hard at first to figure out where I was, but once I understood that we were talking about characters in different types of genre and the possibility of their lives living forever because they are part of a published book, it was easier to follow. I think now that I understand the book’s direction more, I shall read it again. Thanks for sharing this fantasy with us Sophie Weeks!

Isabella, who stars in a French Christmas carol, lives in a land of all things Christmas: every song, story, poem, and legend about this holiday coexists in one place. However, after several centuries she's grown tired of her monotonous existence and decides to vacation in the land of Mystery, where she meets the famous Sherlock Holmes. There are some strange philosophical issues raised here, but suffice it to say that these characters know they are characters but they remain fairly autonomous nonetheless. Many writers talking about how their characters often will do things they don't expect, and this sort of takes that to the next level. Sherlock's presence is slightly gratuitous, but it remains a very fun story, especially delightful to anyone who's ever dabbled in writing fiction.

Story synopsis: Isabella has lived in Christmas for more than four hundred years, baking wonderful confections and interacting with Christmas dignitaries from Santa to the Christ Child, and she’s bored. What she’d like is to take a vacation in the genre of Mystery; but to do that, she must be trained. Her training is taken on by none other than Sherlock Holms and John Watson. Isabella takes on her own mystery and is nearly killed as a consequence. Issues of trust are the basis for the solving of the mystery and catching the murder.
Review: What a lovely novella to read! The characterizations give the reader a good look at what makes the characters behave as they do. The setting is crisp; although a bit like Jasper Fforde’s work, it does not weigh the reader down with monsters, materials, and machines that may or may not move the story forward. Sherlock Holms has very nearly the same ‘voice’ as he does in Author Conan Doyle’s works, although Watson’s is a bit shakier. The plot is well worked and the outcome is logical if not expected.½

In Weeks’ mixed genre novel, Isabella has lived in Christmas for four-hundred years. Now she wants a vacation from it all and soon discovers the world outside is far more dangerous than she had ever imagined. When Isabella is granted permission to visit Mystery, she is witness to a shocking crime and must assist Sherlock Holmes and find the murderer before more literary characters are threatened.

A very entertaining read that mixes mystery and romance freely.

Jasper Fforde meets Jane Austen at 221B Baker Street,

I love the premise of this story which reminds me of Book World in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next novels. Though not as funny as Fforde’s series, Outside the Spotlight shares the idea that literary figures interact in a genre spanning universe and have their own lives, joys, and unique problems. The “not as funny” comment isn’t a criticism. There’s still plenty of humor--Fforde would be hard to beat for funny--and with mystery and romance Outside the Spotlight has its own charms.

Isabella has spent the last 400 years as a sixteenth century milkmaid from a Christmas carol. She has 200 recipes for Christmas pudding, she’s witnessed the birth of the Christ child, and she’s friends with Santa Claus (who drinks too much when he’s off duty), but Isabella is tired of winter weather and longs for the chance to go someplace warm. She applies to take a vacation as a character in a mystery novel, and for that she is trained by none other than Sherlock Holmes. In spite of their disparate backgrounds, there’s mutual respect and a burgeoning attraction between Holmes and Isabella, but--like many characters in Jane Austen novels--neither is the type to blurt out their feelings. Their relationship might have ended with the training except that when the unthinkable happens in the mystery Isabella has a role in she turns to Holmes for help.

As someone who enjoys books about books, I love the cleverness of the cross genre relationships and complications. With convincing characterizations and an entertaining plot, Outside the Spotlight is a fun and satisfying reading pleasure.

Charming in places, but doesn't quite work. Would be better if it had been the first of this sort of idea, but now comes across as derivative. Jasper FForde really got it to work much better. The concepot of characters having lives outside of their won stories in some kind of meta bookworld can be fun, but you need to pay very strict attention to the rules, and it doesn't quite feel like Ms Weeks has done that here.

Our heorine is a housemaid baking cakes for Christmas. Hence she's permenantly stuck in a christmas world, where Santa is disillusioned, and it's always winter. Eventually (a few hundred years late?) she applies for a holiday and thinks a nice cosy mystery would be nice. However she is required to take acting classes before this can be approved, and gets sent to Sherlock to learn how to be a supporting cast. This provides a useful connection when a character is murdered for real in her own holiday book.

However charmingly written it is - and for hte most part it works quite well - it all needs a bit more explanation. Who are the beaurocracy that she has to appeal to? WHy would a no-name bit part character be sent ot Sherlock in the first place. The re-writing of Sherlock's character is also inexcusable. The fact that Laurie King managed to make a convincing case does not excuse the traversty that is taken with Sherlock here. How do characters suffer mortal damage ina book, but not actually get hurt in their bookworld incarnation? It's a key plot point, but never explained. Ditto about the existance of multiple versions of characters, it isn't clear weather that is per volume, per series edition they appear in, per different printed edition or exactly what? The characters do ponder upon their fate should they no longer exist in any books, but again the answers aren't given.

Sort of enjoyable and engaging, for a while. If you don't think to hard about it, and don't care about the complete re-writing of Sherlock's character. But there are plenty of better ways this could have been written.½

A fun novella that may be one of the odder "coming of age" books I've read, since the person moving out of what the family expects/what has always been and becoming "her own self" is more than 400 years old.

In a place where literary tropes are homelands for characters, our heroine is a bit tired of a life defined by an ancient carol. So she seeks a change, and is granted a vacation. Her vacation exposes her to new people, and allows her to explore new skills -- and ideas. The characters are interesting -- and the secret lives of well-known residents shows humor.

The author judged her form well -- there wasn't a full novel here. It's the kind of story I like to carry in my car, to read when I am stuck somewhere -- it caught and held my interest, but if I'd had to put it down and go back to it I would not have been obsessed with the next chapter, and when I went back to it (after having to leave it for a few days), going back a couple of pages reminded me enough to carry the rest of the way. Good job, Sophie (disclaimer: I don't know her, I've known other writers and have an idea how hard it is!).½

A nice light-hearted novella taking place in a literary universe slightly reminiscent of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels. I found the first half worked the best but once Isabella (the main character) went on her vacation it dragged on a bit.½

It was an enjoyable reading. The story starts in Christmas, but not Christmas as a time but as a place. Isabella is living since 400 years in Christmas and would like to have a vacation. Therefore she must fill out a form and go to an interview. She decides to take her holiday in the place called mystery. First she has to undergo an apprenticeship and for this reason she is sent to Sherlock Holmes. He is teaching her how to characterise her person for a mystery. The story he is placing her into is rather modest. After this course of instruction Isabelle is sent to her 'mystery play', where the play is taking another turn that it should have been. I didn't like the plot of this play because it is rather dull. Anyway, because there has been another outcome of this play then it was expected from the script Sherlock Holms reenters the story. Isabella has got strong feelings for him and has been falling in love. As it must be, Sherlock is solving the case and the very end of this story is leaving it open whether there could be continuance or not.½