Lucky Bunny by Jill Dawson
October 30, 2012 by Harper Perennial
Paperback, 384 Pages
Review Copy

Crime's a man's business. So they say. Who was that small figure then, slender enough to trot along the moonlit track, swift and low, virtually invisible? Who was it that covered the green signal with a glove to stop the train, while the two others took care of the driver and his mate? Could it have been one Queenie Dove, survivor of the Depression and the Blitz, not to mention any number of scrapes with the law?' Queenie Dove is a self-proclaimed genius when it comes to thieving and escape. Daring, clever and sexy, she ducked and dived through the streets of London from the East End through Soho to Mayfair, graduating from childhood shop-lifting to more glamorous crimes in the post-war decades. So was she wicked through and through, or more sinned against than sinning? Here she tells a vivacious tale of trickery and adventure, but one with more pain and heartbreak than its heroine cares to admit. Yes, luck often favored her, but that is only part of the story.

Review

What can I say about Lucky Bunny? Well first off the cover, I adored it and it was one of the reasons the book caught my eye. It certainly sets the tone for the era, the atmosphere and Queenie herself, the woman that introduces this mad world of crime, love and hardship to the reader.

Outside of cover love though, Im splitting hairs trying to muster up a review on a book I had a really hard time getting through. The concept, story-line and setting really were great and I was looking forward to a nail cruncher considering that the novel had to do with petty criminals, man-beaters, generational crime women...I mean that just sounds awesome.

Unfortunately awesome flew out the window when at 115 pages later the book still wasn't moving. I found the pacing monstrously long and the story never ending, towards the end even when things picked up overall, I found the reading tedious. I tried to get on board with Queenie, as the entire novel is told through her perspective, from her troublesome childhood, her horrible taste in men, all the things trying to connect me to her world, overall just distanced me from the novel as a whole. I admired Queenie's honestly and her rich detail to the historical setting around her, but her integrity and moral character were extremely lacking, and for that reason whether it was the characters themselves or the style of writing, Lucky Bunny for me did not work.

That said, I believe there is an audience out there for Lucky Bunny, lovers of historical fiction, women's fiction, especially those that feature a difficult character study will appreciate Dawson's vibrant, yet sad portrayal of a woman who wants us to believe in her, even though her life is one less to be desired.

2/5- Women's Historical
Thanks to TLC Book Tours and Harper for Review Copy