This was a fun, roaring 20's historical fiction, complete with scandals, murder, romance, fashion, and court scenes. I like Beatriz's writing--her characters as well as her often poetic descriptions and her command of English in general. I love authors who use words I don't hear every day.
And I loved the quotes she begins her chapters with so much that I had to look up the source, Helen Rowland. I discovered that she was an American journalist and humorist from 1875–1950. Wikipedia has a list of books she'd written, one of which was, "A Guide To Men: Being Encore Reflections of a Bachelor Girl (1922)" I decided that has to be the one the quotes were coming from, so looked it up in Project Gutenberg. And sure enough, the quote from chapter 2, "A fool and her money are soon courted" was located! Now I have to read this book too.
I looked The narrators, Mia Baron as an upper-crust, somewhat mature, socialite, Theresa; Barbara Goodson as a Gossip columnist; and Adrienne Rusk as a young Sophie all seem perfect for their parts. There may have been a times Adrienne read her character's sardonic questioning style, with the innocence of an actual question rather than the mild sarcastic flavor I think the author may have intended, but otherwise, I quite liked her narration. ( )

Did not finish. Second chapter in the f word was prevalent. Not my cup of tea. ( )

Certain Age is fabulous historical fiction with the setting placed in the glamours 1920s. The story is inspired by Der Rosenkavalier and I was totally charmed with this interpretation. For me, was this book extra interesting to read since I have read the other two books that come after A Certain Age, and now I get the full background story to Sophie Fortescue and here sister Virginias life before we once again met Virginia in Cocoa Beach. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is the way Theresa Marshall is written. It was pretty obvious that her young lover, Octavian, become madly in love with Sophie after meeting her, but Theresa who obviously tried to keep her lover never become a villain in this story. To be honest, I liked her. She was the character whose POV I loved the most in the book. I had nothing against Sophie, her POV was also good, but I never truly enjoyed here storyline as much as I enjoyed Theresa's.

The ending is bittersweet and perfect. I truly enjoyed reading this book and it made me eager to someday re-read Cocoa Beach now when I have read this book. ( )

Certain Age is fabulous historical fiction with the setting placed in the glamours 1920s. The story is inspired by Der Rosenkavalier and I was totally charmed with this interpretation. For me, was this book extra interesting to read since I have read the other two books that come after A Certain Age, and now I get the full background story to Sophie Fortescue and here sister Virginias life before we once again met Virginia in Cocoa Beach. One thing I really enjoyed about this book is the way Theresa Marshall is written. It was pretty obvious that her young lover, Octavian, become madly in love with Sophie after meeting her, but Theresa who obviously tried to keep her lover never become a villain in this story. To be honest, I liked her. She was the character whose POV I loved the most in the book. I had nothing against Sophie, her POV was also good, but I never truly enjoyed here storyline as much as I enjoyed Theresa's.

The ending is bittersweet and perfect. I truly enjoyed reading this book and it made me eager to someday re-read Cocoa Beach now when I have read this book. ( )

As a historical fiction fan, and based on the proverbial judging of this book by its beautiful cover, I expected to completely fall in love with this book. I have to say, though, that I did have a bit of trouble getting through it. I’ve thought about the reason why this is the case, in the weeks since I finished the novel, and I’ve concluded that the author simply did TOO good of a job with her characters.

The writing style was excellent, and I’m encouraged to read some others of Ms. Williams’ novels, yet I found I didn’t really care for the main character, Teresa. That said, though, I can’t argue with Williams’ portrayal of this woman of “a certain age” as a bit world-weary and cynical, living a life where her husband has cheated on her from the very outset of their marriage. She can’t help but have a dim outlook on life and relationships, and her submerged bitterness is what got to me and why I didn’t enjoy the novel more. But that’s a case of faulting the book for being excellently written, no?

I also was surprised to find out, in the very first chapter, that a murder mystery is woven throughout the story. This is told through a series of articles in a gossip column called “Tit and Tattle” written by the spunky Patty Cake. It was THESE stories I felt myself drawn to and wanted to know more about, which is ironic, because in the Author’s Note, Williams explains that she added this storyline to give more bulk to the book, as the comedic opera on which the novel was based, “Der Rosenkavalier” did not contain enough material to fill-out a modern style novel.

“A Certain Age” is indeed comedic, or ironic, at its heart. Teresa is interrupted in a tryst with her lover Octavian when her brother Ox bursts in on her to announce his plans to propose marriage to the beautiful “patent princess” Sophie. A man of the old school, Ox wants to send a cavalier to propose Sophie in his place. Teresa, with Octavian on her mind, suggests him as the cavalier. Thus, starts an unexpected chain of events, as Octavian and Sophie hit it off right away, with the resulting love triangle, or quadrangle if you will, in play.

All in all, I did enjoy the book, despite my flagging interest. I may normally give this kind of book four stars for “I really liked it”, but feel compelled, in light of my struggling engagement with the storyline, to give it three stars for “I liked it”.

If you like well-crafted verbiage, believable characters, and especially if you’re a fan of the prohibition-era 1920’s, then you’ll love this book, as Williams is certainly a talented author.

#ACertainAge
#BeatrizWilliams
#WilliamMorrowPublishers ( )