⭐️2/5 stars
📖 Length: 208 pages
📱 Format: Immersive – Kindle & Audio
⏳ Read Time: 3 days
Synopsis
Kate Battista feels stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but their parents don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.
Dr. Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr, all would be lost.
When Dr. Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to bring her around?
What I thought
I read Vinegar Girl as part of the Goodreads Winter Challenge – Tale Spinners. It’s a modern retelling of The Taming of the Shrew, which sounded promising because I do actually like Shakespeare… even though I’m not really a rom-com kinda gal. Make it make sense?
I didn’t read the synopsis beforehand. I just saw the low page count (end-of-month stats were looming 👀) and thought, “That’ll do.”
Spoiler: it did not, in fact, “do”.
I read this immersively through Kindle and audiobook, and honestly, I think that’s the only reason I managed to finish it. If it had been just one or the other, I probably would’ve given up. Somehow it managed to feel both rushed and painfully slow at the same time. Like climbing a massive mountain made up of tiny, awkward steps.
I didn’t warm to a single character. Not one. The story felt flat, and at times like a half-arsed attempt at getting words on a page, rather than a proper retelling of a Shakespeare play.
I’ve never actually read The Taming of the Shrew, so I can’t compare them, but if anything, this has slightly put me off trying it. Which probably isn’t what a Shakespeare retelling should achieve.
I gave it 2 stars, and if I’m being honest, that was me being kind.
I probably should’ve picked a better book from the challenge list.
Overall
Overall, Vinegar Girl proved that short books can still feel long. It wasn’t awful, but it wasn’t good either, just painfully bland. For a Shakespeare-inspired retelling, it lacked everything that makes Shakespeare memorable. Lesson learned: research, research, research.
Interested in picking this up? You can get copies below.
On Amazon – here
Bookshop.Org – here
Until next time… I’ll be buried in better books🖤
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