From the Bookshelf of Mostly Sapphic…

The Paying Guests

Sarah Waters

Start date: December 7, 2014

Finish date: January 17, 2015

Discussion: Buddy Reads

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Buddy Reads

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What Members Thought

May 15, 2015 T.B. Markinson rated it really liked it

Shelves: lesbian-romance, glbt-lesbian, historical-fiction

I loved Tipping the Velvet and Fingersmith and when I heard about The Paying Guests, I was thrilled. While I enjoyed this story, I did feel at times, it was a bit slow and a little too descriptive. Saying that, it's still one of the better books I've read in months, but it didn't wow me like the other two.

Real rating is 3.5. ...more

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Jan 09, 2023 Malola rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: lit, audio, death, q, 2023-book-chal

Lillian was sooo annoying. Geezus, woman... STOP WHINING.

That said, I gotta say I enjoyed this book quite a lot. I was easy for me to follow it, despite the fact it is in audio form. Juliet Stevenson made a GREAT job narrating it, with the presentation of accents, stuttering, different intonations and so on... She clearly is a well trained, very talented voice actress.
Waters clearly has a eye for descriptions (psychological ones and of matters/state of affairs) and indeed, she can write beautifu ...more

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Nov 09, 2014 Stephanie rated it it was amazing

I was so glad to read this awesome book by Sarah Waters. She is one of my all time fave authors. Tipping the velvet being one of my ALL TIME fave reads. Her last work The Little Stranger, was a difficult read for me...I must say I was disappointed in it. So, it was with trepidation , I read The Paying Guests.
It is very typical Sarah Waters. Beautiful, flowing Victorian prose. The kind I love. The kind that makes the scene before you come alive and the characters become real people that make you ...more

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Sep 21, 2025 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, romance, stand-alone, from-my-shelf, 2025, 4-and-a-half-stars, fantastic-heroine, f-f, sapphic-favorites, sapphic-favorites-silver

4.5 stars. Stressed. That’s what I’m feeling right now. Absolutely stressed. And tired. Sarah Waters really put me through it with this one because holy wow Lilian and Frances get into some serious trouble and things get intense and stressful but luckily for me (and my heart) the ending wasn’t a tragedy. I wouldn’t have been able to handle that.

The only reason that this isn’t a full five stars is because the first 150 or so pages were rough going for me. I wasn’t feeling it at first but this is ...more

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Nov 15, 2015 genia added it

i gave up on page 566. It got really draggy and I'll admit it took me two months to get that far. I was really excited when I saw this book at my local bookstore so I was really disappointed with the way it turned out. ...more

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