I could hardly wait to finish Mount so I could read this thread and see what other people thought!
I agree with everything that's been said - LOVED reading about the familiar characters/settings again and her descriptions of nature and the seasons are beautiful but the rest was dreadful.
Awful, unappealing characters and way too many of them - agree wet Etta and Freddie Valent could have been written out and what was the point of the one in the red trousers and his stupid wife? Or the bitchy groom (except they're now called lasses) Sauvignon. Or Geoffrey's owners?
Old characters are pulled in but hardly get more than a name checkand most of the new ones are just rehashes eg Lark/Harmony = Kitty. Gala is a grade A bitch and Gav is sweet but basically Ricky FL without the good storyline. Too many animals with confusing punny names as well.
There are too many storylines that never get developed or are forgotten about half way through, more details about racing than was interesting or relevant and sloppy, repetitive writing with great chunks basically copied from earlier books eg Cosmo's orgy (TMWMHJ), the fancy dress party (Polo). The supposed main storyline (Leading Sire) never gets properly resolved and the ending is just a shit set-up for her next book. Loads of things don't add up like Gala fainting when she (massive and unbelievable coincidence) sees Mr Wang then after that she's absolutely fine around him.
I used to adore the way JC wrote but she is like a caricature of herself now - no subtlety or sympathy just terrible cliches and irritating bits like Jan calling Taggie 'mam', the ridiculous protest against poor old Bao (one of the only good characters despite his stereotyping) and of course the less said about buttercunt the better.