Schurfranz' shortcomings have been enumerated by other reviewers on the internets, but one that I have yet to come across is the woman's tendency to have her heroines smile. Like, all the time! They smile at the slightest excuse, often "flitting across her lips" as she thinks about her siblings, her parents, Boyfriend #1, Boyfriend #2, a funny thing anyone says, looking at her reflection in a mirror, walking to work, breathing... A Schurfranz heroine smiles A LOT! And thus I want to slap it off her flawlessly beautiful face all the more. Mouths also "tug upward" or "pull downward" at the corners, what you and I would call a "smile" or a "frown." But it does wonders for word count.
As for this specific book, the only redeeming thing about it would be as a history lesson about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire for one ignorant about it. But everyone else, you know the ship sinks, er, the factory burns, hundreds of women die, and a nation is horrified. (And it's more historically accurate than that 80s TV movie about it with Captain Janeway watching CHARLIE CHAPLIN movies in 1910. Hello! 4 years early! She'd more likely be mooning over Arthur Johnson or Owen Moore without knowing their names since the Biograph Company didn't identify their actors. Doesn't make for a cute scene, but facts can be pesky that way.)
If you have a girl who hates history, some of these books are fast and relatively well-researched stories about important events. And if she calls BS on the idiotic romantic construct that Schurfranz repeats in every single book, pat her on the head and tell her you're proud.
As for this specific book, the only redeeming thing about it would be as a history lesson about the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire for one ignorant about it. But everyone else, you know the ship sinks, er, the factory burns, hundreds of women die, and a nation is horrified. (And it's more historically accurate than that 80s TV movie about it with Captain Janeway watching CHARLIE CHAPLIN movies in 1910. Hello! 4 years early! She'd more likely be mooning over Arthur Johnson or Owen Moore without knowing their names since the Biograph Company didn't identify their actors. Doesn't make for a cute scene, but facts can be pesky that way.)
If you have a girl who hates history, some of these books are fast and relatively well-researched stories about important events. And if she calls BS on the idiotic romantic construct that Schurfranz repeats in every single book, pat her on the head and tell her you're proud.
