The Fair Fight

I am feeling a bit let down with this one. I went into this thinking from the summary it was going to be mostly interactions between Ruth and Charlotte with lots of awesome female boxing. But truthfully it wasn't until about 65% of the way through the novel that Ruth and Charlotte even met. The female boxing was virtually non-existent. I'd not hesitate to say there wasn't a whole heap of male boxing either although the focus was more on that. There was also a lot of relationship drama. It should be noted that the GLBT in this novel is the relationship between George and Perry, not Ruth and Charlotte. I mention this as comparisons were made to Sarah Waters novels, and I was expecting to see some lady romance between Ruth and Charlotte, but there was none.

For most of the book, I didn't find most of the characters likable at all. The differing points of view helped a little with deciphering motives, but it sometimes felt like I was reading the same things twice. I found it dragged it a little in the middle.

As a historical novel, it was probably a somewhat accurate picture of life for women in that period. If you like historical novels, you will likely enjoy this for what it is. But if you're expecting non-stop boxing action at all - especially women boxing, then this is probably not the book for you.