Name: The Corset Diaries
ISBN: 9780451411129

Katie MacAlister

In desperate need of money, Tessa agrees to appear on a reality TV show called A Month in the Life of a Victorian Duke, where she must live on an English estate cicra 1879, wear corsets, and pretend to be married to a real-life duke who unexpectedly steals her heart. Original.

The Corset Diaries

Colleen

2.5 Stars
 
I enjoyed MacAlister’s Aisling Grey series so I thought I would check out some of her other work. But the Aisling Grey series was definitely better than this book. The Corset Diaries did have some funny moments, but all of the humor was based on awkward and embarrassing situation which were sometimes more uncomfortable than they were funny.
 
Through some contrived circumstances, Tessa ends up on a reality tv show where people have to pretend to live in Victorian times. Luckily, she gets to play the part of Duchess. And of course, the guy playing her Duke is ridiculously perfect, and she gets a huge case of instalust for him. The story is told in diary format as Tessa journals about her experiences on the show. It was a cute story though definitely more generic than some of her other work.
 
The main problem I have with The Corset Diaries is that Tessa has insurmountable body image issues. She sees herself as fat and is constantly embarrassed and self-derogatory about it. All of the obsessive weight shaming was like Bridget Jones's Diary and constantly put a negative cloud over the story. The steamy scenes were all ruined because Tessa literally could not engage in any physical contact without freaking out about her body. Even late in the story she was still continuously comparing her body to other women’s and expecting rejection because of her body shape. And she stonewalled any attempt at reassurances. It might have been ok if Tessa had had any sort of self-actualization moment of acceptance. But you know what? She never really did. She just kind of decreased the amount of time talking about her insecurities. But she never overcame them. So while some of the story was entertaining, the whole thing was tainted by her demoralizing body image. Her identity was too tied up in those doubts to allow her personality to show through. So despite the typical Chick Lit happy ending, the overall message of the story was extremely negative, and I just cannot rate this book higher.


RATING FACTORS:
Ease of Reading: 4 Stars
Writing Style: 2 Stars
Characters and Character Development: 2 Stars
Plot Structure and Development: 3 Stars
Level of Captivation: 3 Stars
Originality: 2 Stars

Amy Vicknair

Awful! So boring, predictable and completely unbelievable. Couldn't even finish it

Danielle Crain

Karie MacAlister never fails to please me. I found this book to be an entertaining read filled with romance, passion and slapstick comedy. I had no trouble at all relating to the heroine Tessa. I found myself laughing throughout the whole thing, especially when it came time for her to put on her period dress. Her love interest Max is the typical male romance character that you want to just shake some sense into. All in all a great light read that is on my permanent shelf.

My Ratings:

5*****I loved this book, consider it an all time favorite
4**** Thoroughly enjoyed the book and will recommend it
3*** I liked it well enough,
2** Brain Candy - It was okay. Writing mediocre, will
keep/re-read if part of a series
1* didn't like/possibly not finished. (less)