by Sarah Waters
Published 2014
Dear Reader,
After reading Tipping the Velvet last year, I decided to give another Sarah Waters book a try and picked up The Paying Guests.
The story is half romance and half crime novel. Frances and her widowed mother, Mrs Wray, are struggling to make ends meet, and decide to take in lodgers. Lilian and Leonard Barber, a young modern couple, take up the offer and the Wrays life in Camberwell is changed completely. As passions and frustrations rise, a crime is committed, and devastation reigns but how far it reaches is the question at hand.
Frances is the main focus of the novel, and she was a well developed character with an interesting back story. Which was nicely revealed slowly through the first half of the book. Lilian by comparison, despite being a big part of the story, felt quite a bit one-dimensional at times. The side characters too, especially the Barber’s families felt a bit flat. But this was less impactful than Lilian, as they were less important to the story.
The writing was, as with Tipping the Velvet, very good. I felt hooked into the story and really wanted to keep reading! This really helps you become immersed in the time period which makes the story all the more compelling.
I will say if you’re expecting this book to be the same as Tipping the Velvet, you will be mildly disappointed. If you’ve read Tipping the Velvet, you’d know it has quite a few 🌶️”spicy”🌶️ scenes. The Paying Guests has a little bit, but is much more focused on the crime rather than the romance part of the story.
Personally I felt the ending was a little disappointing – it felt complete but unsatisfactory. There were a lot of questions I felt were left unanswered, and I wanted to ready more! Never-the-less, the story was fantastic and very enjoyable to read – that’s why I wanted more of it!
I would recommend to fans of historical fiction, and crime dramas (regardless of time period!).
If you’ve read The Paying Guests, what did you think? Do you want me to review Tipping the Velvet?!
Happy Reading! xx
Three Lonely Clouds 
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