Hunting Unicorns

 Book 32 of my 2021 Reading Challenge

Hunting Unicorns

by Bella Pollen

Summary (via the book jacket)

published 2003

Adrift in a rapidly changing world, the Bevan family cling to tradition while wrestling with taxes, tree blight and the need to keep the family skeleton firmly in the cupboard.

The Earl and Countess of Bevan - charming, mad and emotionally abbreviated.

Daniel, their eldest son - funny, intelligent, but a hopeless alcoholic.

Rory, his younger brother - sometimes moody, often cross, but mostly furious.

Enter Maggie, an opinionated and occasionally ferocious American journalist for CBS's hard-hitting current affairs show Newsline. Far happier sending back dispatches from the trenches of war-torn anywhere, Maggie is none too pleased at being forced to research a documentary on the decline and fall of England's upper classes.

When these two worlds collide no one is prepared for the fallout.

First Impressions/Judging a Book by Its Cover

I received this book as part of my "book and chocolate" subscription.  The book arrived with a bookmark, Chocolate and Love hazelnut milk chocolate, Prestige speculoos, and VanHouten hot chocolate.

Based on the description I'm expecting a family drama but it appears there could be a little tongue-in-cheek aspect as well since the blurbs include "romantic comedy" but also "brooding".  The cover art of an old-time photo of two boys with an added halo over one of them adds to my assumption that there will be a "good son/black sheep" dynamic.

My Opinion

2 stars

My assumption of the cover art was correct about the "dutiful son/black sheep" brother dynamic but after reading the book there is also an extra layer to the halo.  One of the brothers is deceased (but has sections of the book from the afterlife so this is not a spoiler).

I didn't really like this book so I'm giving it 2 stars but I could see why someone else might like it and I didn't rage-hate it (which is my criteria for 1 star).  I'm not very familiar with lineage of aristocrats so I know I didn't get all the references and that's not the author's fault.  However, my main issue with the book was the overall mocking tone.  I don't like it when the people being made fun of aren't in on the joke, especially when the subjects are older people being derided for their difficulty to adapt.  It was disrespectful and not funny when they were in people's homes ruining their stuff and going places they weren't supposed to.  And the reveal of the big family secret was weird.  It's either so big a secret that it's a big deal or it's so small a secret that nothing changed when it was revealed, it can't be both in the same story.

So this book wasn't for me but I'm going to donate it in the hopes that someone else will find it and enjoy it more.