Really enjoyed this book. Great plot and engaging, believe characters. I was drawn right into the story. Would definitely recommend.

A great historical mystery and one that I was pleasantly pleased with as I expected something different. The Parlor Girl's Guide is one I highly recommend.

Seriously- an adult read. But entertaining enough for a summer vacation read! Lots of action and interesting characters. The feisty heroine of the story is going to have you cheering! Fun, easy read.

This book is the perfect example, how you can not judge the book by it’s cover. The Mucha’s work on the front and interesting synopsis in back does not guarantee that the story inside is just as compelling.

I did not find anything mystical in here, nor was there any guidance how to be a parlor girl. It’s a story about a young girl, who is sent to work in bordello, to pay of his father’s debts. In bordello she is hooked on narcotics, her maidenhead is sold repeatedly and then she flees. Her destiny is to flee with a gambler. And even if they try to flee also their demons, the demons will not let them go and their fall is even deeper. It’s a story of two moths at the moment when their wings are bright with light from the fire, just moments before they fly into the fire.

It’s readable, but not my book.

Brutal but elegant… A Fantastic , beautifully crafted Historical Fiction that has authenticity, excitement and is a darn good read…

The author did a brilliant job of capturing the time period in this novel. The characters and plot were also well written. This was a great piece of historical fiction!

I read this book until the end, hoping that something would save it, but like other reviewers have said, this was just horribly done.

I did not know how old Molly was until I was 58% into the book. She is between 16 or 17. I thought she was 11 or 13 at the max. Either way, I saw themes in this book that made me believe this was a book for pedophiles. A girl was trafficked, stolen from her family to work as a prostitute in a brothel. Due to all of the relentless sexual acts and auctioning off of Molly's virginity multiple times (and I had no clue how old she was through all of this), it just appeared to be a sex based fantasy for pedophiles.

Even for Molly to be 16 or 17 years old, still...this is a book for pedophiles.

Molly's character was just completely unbelievable. Even exposed to other women of the night, I highly doubt a child would have as much cunning as she had in such a short amount of time. She had not been exposed to the elements that would teach her how to become that cunning. I don't see in the story where she was learning to make any of the decisions she would end up making later on her road trip.

I also did not pick up on the 'supernatural' part of the story until I saw it pop up in a few reviews. As I kept reading and noticing these 'supernatural' dreams, I failed to see how it related to the story. Maybe the story could have done without these dreams, because I did not see how the author was connecting her dreams to the story. He did not spell it out or develop it accurately. Then again, her dreams as 'premonitions' or whatever this supernatural element was showed to me that the author has no clue how this works. Talk to women who actually have premonitions.

This part is for the author. I rarely if ever give negative reviews. This book came across to me as a book for pedophiles. I could add misogyny, white supremacy, racism and a whole bunch of other negative themes that came out of this book. As a woman, this is not the type of book I would recommend to other women. We are not the market for this. Pedophiles, yes. Everyone else, hell no. I would not want to encourage anything that came from this book.

It takes a few books to get down the right formula to understand how to create a story that people want to read. Molly should have been a heroine in this story. How could she become that and influence other women in a positive light? There are girls that are trafficked and sold into the sex slave trade in America today. How could Molly's story help the girls today? Run away with a guy two times her age who trafficks her from State to State? She's not escaping anything. She's not rising above. She is still a slave.

Also, don't link people elsewhere when they're reading your book. If you want them to know more about those things...you have a book. You're writing it. Share your knowledge of those things within your story so that the reader can learn those things too. See "Where the Crawdads Sing" as a perfect example of how the author incorporates her knowledge of the marshlands into her story to teach the reader about nature. Or "The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane." The author is teaching her reader about the sacred tea leaves of China.

I really wish I could have given this book a better review. To me, I believe this book should be rewritten. This book could be so much better. I see this as a framework of a good story that needs to be retooled and developed more. In its current state, it just isn't ready for the world.

The Parlor Girl’s Guide by Steve McCondichie

Disturbing tale of a young girl taken from her home to pay a debt her father, a sharecropper, owed. Her life had been miserable but something she knew well until she found herself in a house of ill repute and then much indeed changed. With drugs on board, entertaining to be done, people holding power over her and little say in her own life she was making the best of things until one day she had enough. Molly Lingo and Cotton Arnold met at where she worked and hit the road together after an altercation. Their experiences once they left were interesting and yet uncomfortable to read at times. Set in Alabama in the 1920’s this story told of poor people preyed upon and landholders who did the preying. I found it a bit difficult to read as it jumped around at times and I often wanted more information about the characters...and especially about what Molly and Cotton did after the book ended...I felt the story had stopped but it had not ended with a known future for the two of them.

Thank you to NetGalley and Southern Fried Karma for the ARC – this is my honest review

3-4 Stars

This is incorrectly described as a coming of age story. The writer also practically begs the reader to read something else by providing links to other materials at the end of the very first chapter. I'm sure they can do better but this was not as described and still didn't come off as a pleasant surprise.

The Parlor Girl's Guide had a very intriguing premise, but unfortunately this just fell short for me. I couldn't connect with the characters and found myself lacking interest in the story.

I'm going to be very honest. I received a copy of this book for an honest review, so here goes.

Firstly, this was strictly a cover buy. I adore that artwork on the cover, which is why I requested it when I saw it on Netgalley. The interior does not give credit to Alphonse Mucha, the artist, as it should. It simply said "Cover Art ******". Bad mistake.

Secondly, I was all set to read this book straight through from the first four chapters. I hated the characters, but it was probably an accurate description of the time period in the sharecropper south.

Then, I hit the fifth chapter at about 16% and the whole thing just went off the rails for me. I've read many, many dual- and multi-perspective books in my day and I am a fan of the format. The more complicated, the better.

This, though, was, too much. That fifth chapter introduced another character, which was fine, but the character then proceeded to reference about 30 other people in a short span, none of whom the reader has any clue about. No descriptive writing past the point where the guy pees on a statue. I think he then went into an alley to have sex, but I couldn't tell where he was, just a lot of people were there. He mentioned a "darkie", which while being historically accurate, didn't explain if he was talking about himself or a different character. It was all jumbled together.

Aside from the confusion, this was crudely written. Accurate for the South at the time, maybe. Sex and profanity don't generally bother me but this was a lot given the short bit I read.

All in all, while intrigued by the storyline initially, it just wasn't executed in a cohesive enough fashion to keep me going and the "shock writing" was too much too early.

Sorry.

Actual Rating: 2 (DNF's usually get 1 star from me, but the first four chapters had me planning to continue)
Format: Kindle eARC
Source: Netgalley
Current ebook price: Not available for purchase
Opinion of Price: N/A
My Cost: $0.00

This novel started strong and the synopsis was interesting (and I love the cover), but the characters were very shallow and I was indifferent to their plights. I was confused about the plot by the time I reached the end--though I was unsure if clumsy storytelling or my boredom was to blame.

Started off quite strong, but became more and more muddled as it went forward. I usually like a duel perspective novel, but this would have been better if it were only from Molly’s POV. Cotton’s voice didn’t add much.

Loved the cover which initially drew my attention to this book. I have read a few historical fiction books where brothels have been part of a story, so didn't hesitate when i read the synopsis. I am not quite sure what to say about this book. Lets say it was an ok read, but found a part that was a little too graphic for my liking.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.

The Parlor Girl's Guide sounded interesting. Unfortunately, the story fell short in so many ways. The plot seemed off somehow, like the individual parts didn't equal a whole coherent story. The characters were flat and lacking much development at all. I didn't connect with the story in any way. It's not for me. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

DNF @ 40%. Story line didn’t captivate me and was very reminiscent of the Hulu series “Harlots”. Didn’t feel like the story really flowed well together and there were a lot of characters named but not necessarily important to plot. Not much imagery description made it hard to really visualize. I will not be posting a review on goodreads or Instagram as I did not finish the book.

DNF @ 24%. The book probably isn't for me and doesn't hook me. The content is much more open than I expected, so I find myself not wanting to pick it back up when I've put it down.
Won't be posting a review to Goodreads as I don't think I can do the book justice at 24% and I can't really make myself read on.

Two Story line converge. Molly is young and witnesses a tragic event and finds herself captive to a world of a brothel. Cotton is a roving salesman similar to Harold Hill in the Music Man. The presentation with these two story lines did not endear either character nor did its narrative. "A copy of this book was provided by Southern Fried Karma Press via Netgalley with no requirements for a review. Comments here are my honest opinion."