Against her Nature (by Elizabeth Buchan)

(Amazon UK link)

'Against her Nature' is the second novel I've read by Elizabeth Buchan. It has an interesting premise: two tall and somewhat feminist girls find themselves kindred spirits, despite very different backgrounds. One is from a privileged wealthy background, the other was abandoned as a baby and brought up by an austere and fanatically religious aunt. Both are interested in finance, and determined not to be caught up in domesticity or parenthood.

But there is also a huge strand to the book related to banking, finance, insurance, and risk in general, which I found confusing and rather dull. The period of the book revolves around a stock market crash, and people suddenly finding themselves responsible for huge debts which they had underwritten.

It was all rather horrendous, and there was way too much banking jargon for me to appreciate these parts of the book. I had to skim sections to get to the people-orientated parts of the novel, which I enjoyed on the whole. However I couldn't really empathise with any of the characters.

I did finish it - I was interested enough to find out what happened. But it felt like rather an effort to keep reading, at times. It would probably be of more interest to someone who is interested in financial institutions and insurance.