Book Review: The Davenports

lapetitepritt

Mar 25

Hello, bookworms!

Happy Saturday, today is a very special day for me: I am going to get my first ever tattoo, and I am going to do that with three of my closest friends. Each of us is going to get a different one, it's not a matching tattoo kind of situation, but I am happy to share this moment with the three of them. I am going to tell you what I am getting in the next article, but if you want to guess, I'll give you three hints: bookish, drawing, favourite. Feel free to comment!

Excitement aside, today I am here to talk about a book I've read in February and I'd forgotten to review. I was convinced to have already written and posted this article, but apparently I hadn't done either of the two, so here we are, almost a month later. The book in question is The Davenports by Krystal Marquis, a YA historical romance I'd requested on Netgalley on a whim, because it sounded like 1910s Bridgerton but Black and YA.

But without any further ado, let's get this review started.

Disclaimer
I received an e-ARC of this book (which is now available in its final and corrected form) from the publisher in exchange for an honest review via Netgalley; this does not affect my rating nor my opinions in any way. Everything you'll find in this review is what I actually think and it wasn't influenced by anyone. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this book.

About the book
Title: The Davenports
Series: The Davenports #1
Author: Krystal Marquis
Publisher: Dial Books
Publication date: January 31, 2023
Pages: 380

Plot, as stated on Goodreads
The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Olivia, the beautiful eldest Davenport daughter, is ready to do her duty and marry… until charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight sweeps into town and sparks fly. Her younger sister, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love-unless it's with her sister's betrothed. Amy-Rose, childhood-friend-turned-maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business-and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen's brother, John. But Olivia's best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can't seem to keep his interest… until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers. Inspired by the real-life story of the Patterson family, The Davenports follows four determined and passionate young Black women as they discover the courage to steer their own path in life-and love.

My rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Review
I want to start with the things I did not enjoy, so we can move on to what I instead liked and end on a happy note, shall we? First of all, I think there were too many POVs. Before starting the book, I thought each of the main characters was going to have their own book, seeing as this is listed and marketed as the first book in a series, but apparently not.

It was too much in too little pages, and it ended up ruining the book for me. I understand that all the POVs are interconnected, and I can see why the author decided to write this story as she did. Unfortunately, for me, it only meant that the characters were a bit surface level, and I did not get attached to any of them, which is already bad in general, but even more so in a romance, in which if you don't care for the characters, you soon find yourself bored.

In fact, I didn't care enough about the individual characters to care for their romance and drama, which is a shame, because this book had so much potential, in my opinion. First of all, I would have made the whole thing adult, honestly, and then I would have devoted each book to a maximum of two of the characters at a time, to make it more engaging.

The pacing was weird, at times I felt like it was a struggle just to pick up my Kindle to read this book, which is why it took me so long to finish it, despite being quite a standard length novel. I found myself drifting off and falling asleep as well, which is never a good sign.

There was also something in the writing style that did not work well for me, but I couldn't pinpoint what it was, and still haven't figured that out. Maybe it was the fact that, as I mentioned, I would have made this an adult romance, and in my head the YA writing style did not work, but I am not sure, and in any case it's just a me thing, not a book thing.

What I actually did enjoy, was the historical part. You could see the author knew her history, and that she was passionate about showing it to people who might not know anything about Black history in the United States in the early 1900s. It is always nice when historical romance are indeed historical, and the period setting is not only used for the aesthetics. It's actually my favourite thing about reading historical romances, getting to know more about different time periods, especially small or lesser known facts that I would not have studied.

Overall, while this was not a book for me and I am not going to read the sequels, I would still recommend this to its intended audience, as it is a different voice in the YA romance department — which is very lacking in historical romance, let alone by BIPOC authors — and I think younger fans of Bridgerton could really enjoy this one more than I did.