深深覺得我有一種被華老師迫害妄想症，尤其是我已熟悉她所有作品。依照往例，我不可以相信主角表白的「我愛你」。在這本書裡，「我愛你」有種奇特的驗證方式，已經不是「是,不是」的層面，而是「那又如何」。要說是愛情浪漫故事，實在殘忍至極，後半段我被壓得喘不過氣。
華老師除了第一本書之外，從不偏愛快樂結局。Fingersmith雖然團圓，卻是傷痕累累。這本書結局有點開放式，相信很多人會想接手寫fan fiction.但其傷痕累累更甚Fingersmith. 唉.
2014/9/9更新兩則書評小段
這篇是負評，不過這不是我會在意的事情。其中有一段提到莉莉安的心理轉變，正如我預料，很容易引起討論。
Yet the love story’s progression – to say more would give too much away – is not entirely convincing by the end. While Frances’s passion and later, pain, is entirely believable – and here, Waters excels at presenting the raw interiority of a quietly heroic woman, slightly too ahead of her time – there is something under-investigated about Lilian’s “turning”, especially over the question of going public.
The ambition that drives Len and Lil never turns into parody – in fact she looks pained when I say I didn’t like or trust Lillian at first. “Oh no, didn’t you?” she exclaims, as if I had just slighted a child. “Oh, I grew to really like her,” I reply quickly, and she looks relieved.華老師的確打算把莉莉安寫得堅貞不移，但是大部份人和我一樣總是心存懷疑。看來華老師會面對許多讀者同樣的疑問。
Frances’ and Lillian’s love affair is at the heart of The Paying Guests. Lesbians are central to all her novels, apart from the last, the Booker-shortlisted The Little Stranger. Was the decision to return to a lesbian relationship conscious? “It sort of was, because I missed it,” answers the author noted for creating scenes electric1 with passion. “I missed writing about love. Once I realised that, at its heart, I was writing a love story, I was very excited, because I have never really written a love story before.” Before I pick up on the comment, she explains that the book is grand love story rather than sexy romp (Tipping the Velvet) or doomed passion (The Night Watch).華老師作了產品定位分析，The Paying Guests是部充滿愛情的故事。
2014/9/7更新BBC訪問及圖片
華老師出來信心喊話：這本小說有拉子讀者期望的愛情故事。
華老師的小說一向具有很濃的歷史氛圍，時間背景在1922年，一次大戰結束後，城市上班族興起的年代。看著書中的生活描述，決定找出當時的紀錄片，營造臨場感。
