Official Review: In The Soup by Michael Norman Wilton

LinaMueller · Post by **LinaMueller** » 26 Nov 2019, 07:55

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "In The Soup" by Michael Norman Wilton.]

3 out of 4 stars

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In The Soup by Michael N. Wilton is the second book in the William Bridge Mysteries Series. "Romance" is a narrow term, most often associated with stories that follow a particular general structure. In the Soup might be better described as a "British romantic comedy." The plot is quite simple: a fake sultan and his cronies pretend to be royalty and try to fool a very wealthy English family to make a lot of money.

Sir Henry, an English finance mogul, is married to Lady Courtney, a shallow and self-interested woman. William Bridge (the protagonist) is like Nick Carraway from The Great Gatsby: he is not very comfortable with high society but is bound to go through all that to win the love of his beloved Sally(Henry's daughter). Lady Courtney doesn't like William very much because of his humble origins. By her criteria, he's not a worthy husband to Sally. The other members of the upper classes, however, have great sympathy for the protagonist of the story.

The description of how upper classes care about appearances is hilarious. When Sir Henry is faced with the possibility of having a child out of wedlock, his first concern is to avoid scandal so that his wife doesn' find out. The well-being of his new "son" is of secondary importance; what matters is to avoid a scandal that could prevent his son Lancelot from marrying the daughter of a wealthy American. This kind of refined British humor is what I liked the most about the book. Some dialogues are pure gold.

Few people can deny that the fast-paced rhythm of the book is its biggest flaw. Many times I had to stop and reread the text to understand better what was happening. The amount of characters for such a small book is incredible, and the psychological development (even of the main characters) is almost nil. I understand that the book is designed to be funny. Lady Courtney is so futile and empty that one cannot describe her inner feelings. The fact that she is so superficial is one of the most amusing aspects of the book. Some characters (William and even the antagonists), however, should be better developed.

So after evaluating everything, I rate In The Soup 3 out of 4 stars. It's catchy, addictive, and I love the fact that British humor is more satirical and expresses the absurdity of daily life. The author should have better explained the context and what happens in the first book of the series. The editing is also flawed. Hard-to-read sentences, unnecessary ellipsis, independent clauses improperly joined with a comma, and missing articles are the most common errors. That's why I couldn't give it a perfect score.

I would recommend it to anyone who loves British humor. There is no profanity, violent, or sexual scenes. It's a book suitable for people of any religion, sexuality, and race.

******
In The Soup
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Kanda_theGreat · Post by **Kanda_theGreat** » 17 Dec 2019, 06:27

British humor, more often than not, is always built on the basis of satire. I think this is basically what distinguishes British humor from those of other nations.
Thanks for this review.

Miller56 · Post by **Miller56** » 17 Dec 2019, 12:04

Thanks for the review. It sounds like this a great book to read if you enjoy British satire. I think I will wait to read this one until it has gone through a series of editing.

LinaMueller · Post by **LinaMueller** » 19 Dec 2019, 19:26

Kanda_theGreat wrote: ↑17 Dec 2019, 06:27 British humor, more often than not, is always built on the basis of satire. I think this is basically what distinguishes British humor from those of other nations.
Thanks for this review.

Nailed it. In The Soup is definitely a satire. Thanks for your post.

LinaMueller · Post by **LinaMueller** » 19 Dec 2019, 19:29

Miller56 wrote: ↑17 Dec 2019, 12:04 Thanks for the review. It sounds like this a great book to read if you enjoy British satire. I think I will wait to read this one until it has gone through a series of editing.

When you have time, be sure to read it. The book is easy-to-read. You can finish it in a day. Thanks for passing by, Miller56.

Nisha Ward · Post by **Nisha Ward** » 21 Jan 2020, 05:41

It feels as if there's something to shallow characters that make for great humour, I think. However, there's a line between comedy here with Lady Courtney and just caring more about the con than actual characters. Still, I can appreciate a good plot over characters any day. Thanks for this!