The Typewriter Girl by Alison Atlee is a historical debut novel about a young woman in turn-of-the-century England who finds both love and independence while working at a seaside resort.

The book opens with Betsey Dobson working in a typing pool in London. She has plans to move on but her employers are not inclined to provide her with a character reference letter. She ends up being turned out with no letter and no final wages after she injures her supervisor when he made unwanted advances upon her. Luckily ambitious John Jones feels she is perfect for the job at the hotel and hires her. He also comes from humble beginnings and is determined to find a wife that comes from money and will be able to help him further his career. Although he and Betsey are obviously attracted to each other, she has no social standing to speak of. So they spend a lot of time dancing around each other but John continues to look elsewhere for a wife.

Betsey and John are interesting characters, they both have aspirations for a better life and while John is a hard worker and is hoping to find a wife that will help him advance, Betsey plans on relying only upon herself. She lacks refinement and social skills but she is clever and knows how to use the resources that she has. The book is full of period details that actually work to slow down the pace of the story. But I was fine with this as I found I wasn’t as interested in the predictable romance as much as I enjoyed reading the author’s research and colorful descriptions. While I wasn’t totally wowed by The Typewriter Girl, overall I enjoyed the read. ( )

I have mixed feelings about this book. While I really enjoyed the narration by noted narrator, Rosalyn Landor, I found some of the themes in this book to be lacking. For one thing, the main character, Betsey, is trying to make a new start in life, but her past comes back to haunt her. And what is that past? A man...a bad relationship. So what does she do? She gets involved with another man who "rescues her" from said man from the past. It's all very pat. And far be it for me to object to foul language when I have the mouth of a sailor, but I just could not get beside the constant use of the f-bomb. Did they really say it that much during the Victorian era? It just rang false to me.

However, I'm not going to be completely negative in my review. Despite the false feel of the foul language, I do feel that the author captured the era very well. And I do believe that one does not have to be completely in love with the characters to like the book. I was a bit reminded of Michel Faber's Crimson Petal and the White. The characters in that book are not likable, yet it's a terrific book. But in Faber's book, we know why the characters are the way they are. We know what motivates them. In this book, the motivation behind the characters was not so obvious.

I've seen mixed reviews about this book so I'm not going to say don't read it. You just might be one of the people that really likes it.
( )

Betsey leaves her job as a typewriter girl to manage tours and excursions for Idensea Pier.

I did not like Betsey at all. I thought she was flat, one dimensional and only had one or two personality traits, one being anger. The story itself moved along very slowly and seemed a bit trite and predictable. Overall, not a book I can recommend. ( )

From the first moment when we meet Betsey Dobson, we’re drawn into her world and routing for her to get ahead in this hard world.
Back in the days, when women’s choices of professions were so limited, it’s hard to imagine a woman wanting to make their own way. To get ahead meant dealing with the harsh realities of the man’s business world. Women were objectified and looked down upon.
Betsey was offered a way out of a dead in position. Getting to Idensea, and learning all she could along the way with a benefactor that didn’t realize she was what he truly longed for. John Jones was also looking to hitch his wagon to a shining star. At first glance, that star wasn’t Betsey.
It was a short summer with the ups and down of the tourist business at the sea side resort. Betsey ever the challenge, John ever the dreamer, weave a together a romance fit for the ages.
This is a marvelous tale, and as a debut novel it exceeded my expectations. I loved the development of all of the characters, the rogues that you want to smite, to the young lovers you can’t wait for the blindfolds to be removed so they can realize the precious gift before them. The setting is so well described that you can envision every scene as it unfolds before you as you read. As one that normally doesn’t read historical romances, I’m very glad I had the opportunity to read The Typewriter Girl, and will look forward to reading more of Alison Atlee’s books. ( )

I was drawn to this book in an airport bookstore, perhaps because I've worked my share of time as a typewriter girl (aka secretary). In this book, Betsey flees her job as a typist in Victorian-era London in some disgrace, and fears that the job she has lined up managing corporate excursions to a seaside resort is in jeopardy. She lands on her feet and makes good in her new life, but is never quite safe, threatened by a snobby board member who wants her to romantically manipulate an employee, the possibility of her past catching up to her again, and, most importantly, love.

One of the things I liked most about this book was Betsey. She's sensible, stubborn, and not easily intimidated, which is no small thing in this world. In fact, this book really brought home how fragile a single woman's existence was in those times. Her every move must be beyond reproach just so she can hope to continue in a job that pays slave wages, and a man can ruin her livelihood simply by hinting at a scandal, giving that man a bargaining chip with which to get her to do what he wants. It's easy for us to romanticize those times from a distance, but I feel grateful I didn't have to live through them.

I also enjoyed the details of the town, the resort, and the wondrous attractions that John, Betsey's love interest, has designed and built there.

However, there were a few things about the writing style that bothered me. The first was that chapters ended with big, emphatic sentences or situations, leading me to expect a change in time or location upon beginning the next chapter, but it almost always picked up with the very next sentence in the same conversation, which felt very anti-climactic. It was like watching a character in a play make an amazing, witty, and dramatic exit, and then realizing he had just stepped through the doorway but hadn't really left.

Another problem was that there were pages and pages of dialog between Betsey and her love interest in which they both keep inferring the tiniest nuances of what they each said, and when, and how significant it was -- and I could not discern those nuances nor convince myself they were significant. Yes, romances between different socioeconomic groups back then would have been complicated, but the back-and-forth on who was sacrificing what for whom seemed endless at times.

I'm uncertain whether I would read another by this writer, as the authorial tics bothered me quite a bit. But overall I'm glad I read this book. ( )