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'm going to come right out and say that I loved this book. It was well written, meticulously researched, and beautifully brought together at the end with one shock revelation after another. It made many great moral points about social injustice witho...more
'm going to come right out and say that I loved this book. It was well written, meticulously researched, and beautifully brought together at the end with one shock revelation after another. It made many great moral points about social injustice without being either preachy or irrelevant to the modern reader, and it was very satisfying to see some of the more arrogant characters get their comeuppance. I thought the dialogue was especially good, and I warmed to Winnie and Wills from the beginning. I particularly loved the handling of the romance between servants Simon and Anne, and I found myself really liking Genevieve too, despite being convinced that I shouldn't because she was betrothed to Wilfred, our dashing hero. I enjoyed how that little love triangle worked out.
To be completely fair I usually try to find something to criticise in the books I review, but was hard pressed to do so here. I did get confused by the large number of characters and occasionally had to go back and remind myself who some people were, but in any book set in several large households in the early Victorian era (where each character has both a name, a title and a nickname) that's bound to be an issue. I also thought that the ending was just a little too improbable, but I accept that suspension of disbelief is generally a prerequisite for enjoying a good story.
I have also made it something of a personal mission to check books set in Britain but written by Americans to ensure that they don't include such strange alien things as chipmunks (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), rutabagas and acorn squash (English Trifle by Josi Kilpack) or characters who say bad things about the National Health Service (Pursued by Lynn Gardner). I found only one error of this sort in the entire book: a character referred to autumn as "fall". Having said that, although no British person would use the word "fall" to mean the season in modern times, it may be that they did in the nineteenth century.
All in all, the book drew me in, and was a very enjoyable read. Highly recommended.(less)
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I am glad that my honeymoon wasn't like this one. It all started with a couple picking up the wrong luggage at the airport. This was a very good book.
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Honeymoon Heist is the story about a newlywed couple who mistakenly take the wrong bag at the airport on their honeymoon. They are chased by some bad guys, who are trying to get that blue case back. There were a couple of things that made this book...
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Anna Buttimore has a fun, fresh, witty voice. Honeymoon Heist includes a delightful unfolding and exploration of the characters of Claire and Rodney Hewlett. If you've read one too many books with a gorgeous, perfect hero and a gorgeous, perfect h...
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Legacy is a great book, but it is very, very long. Almost 150,000 words, so a real epic to rival War and Peace. It's also a romance - several romances in fact - and I'm really not a fan of that particular genre. I could have done with a whole lot les...more
Legacy is a great book, but it is very, very long. Almost 150,000 words, so a real epic to rival War and Peace. It's also a romance - several romances in fact - and I'm really not a fan of that particular genre. I could have done with a whole lot less of our couple going googly-eyed over each other (and cutting half of the declarations of love and counting of blessings would have shortened it considerably) and rather more actual action and events, but if that's what you enjoy, then this is beautifully done and the characters really are people the reader can love too, and be happy for, if rather jealous of.
Jewel has taken some risks with this book. It's written in the present tense, for one thing, and the narrator changes at intervals from first to third person. And yet she pulls it off perfectly. It comes across as a very artistic book and the present tense has the effect of making everything seem very immediate and personal. It reminded me of the current craze-book, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender, which also throws out the usual conventions of novel writing. Except that this is better.
It follows the life of Cisely, coming in when she is a young adult which, ironically, means that the most dramatic part of her life is skipped over and only referred to in hazy retrospectives later. If I have one criticism, it would be that her life then becomes a little too perfect to be believed. She meets a wealthy woman who not only invites her to come and live with her but gives her a job and even leaves her house and entire fortune to her in her will. Gorgeous rich men fall passionately in love with her, and they are men who are able and ready to declare their love frequently, make her breakfast in bed, and never leave the seat up. She is able to find peace with her past and her parents relatively easily and without any of the usual issues and problems. Not only that, but everyone around her finds love, and she even manages to learn Italian in only three months.
Lovers of the saccharine will revel in this book and probably find it inspiring and satisfying. I found it so cheesy I was tempted to slice it and serve it with crackers, but I was nevertheless able to recognise it as a well-written tome.(less)
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Like many mothers, I spend a lot of time waiting around. Waiting for ballet or riding lessons to end, waiting to see teachers, or waiting for the middle daughter to make up her mind what she wants for breakfast. It’s often helpful to have a book hand...more
Like many mothers, I spend a lot of time waiting around. Waiting for ballet or riding lessons to end, waiting to see teachers, or waiting for the middle daughter to make up her mind what she wants for breakfast. It’s often helpful to have a book handy to while away those dull minutes but, I have learned recently, it’s very important to have the right book handy. Not this one. Because you won't be able to stop reading and you'll be late meeting the children after those ballet or riding lessons as a result.
Methods of Madness won the 2009 Whitney Award for the best thriller by an LDS author, and it’s easy to see why. There is a full cast of well-developed characters, any one of which (including the heroine herself) could have “dunnit”. And there were three whole mysteries going on at once. Where did Ryan Tanner go? Who is sending the photographs? And who killed- no, sorry, no spoilers. Because the victim is very much alive at the beginning of the book, and a fully rounded and relevant character.
One of the things I like about LDS fiction is it doesn’t get bogged down in clever rhetoric or overblown prose. The writing is straightforward and simple and, in Stephanie’s case, deceptively good yet still easy to read. Other LDS authors I have read have an even more basic style, sometime verging on the amateurish, but Stephanie really is a good writer. I think she is capable of writing in an even more complex and atmospheric style than she does, but why would she? Her audience don’t demand subtlety or multifaceted dialogue.
I think Stephanie Black has firmly established herself as the premier writer of women’s LDS thrillers. If you should find yourself in an LDS bookstore with money to spare and a Stephanie Black book on the shelf in front of you, go ahead and buy it. Just don’t think you can dip into it in your downtime.(less)
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I've read all of Stephanie's books, and even though this was her first it was just as good as the others. When did she learn and hone her craft? It seems Stephanie just exploded onto the LDS literary scene fully developed and with as much talent as m...more
I've read all of Stephanie's books, and even though this was her first it was just as good as the others. When did she learn and hone her craft? It seems Stephanie just exploded onto the LDS literary scene fully developed and with as much talent as many writers who have spent years improving book-by-book.
The Believer is set in a dystopian society, "New America", set up three generations ago by revered men of high ideals and great ambition. Those who have to live in the society they created strive to be "patriotic" even if this means shunning anyone who has fallen even slightly below the required standard, not making a fuss when your mother is euthanised because the state doesn't have the resources to treat her illness, or even turning over your family for torture, imprisonment and execution for the crime of believing in God.
Stephanie creates a very effective and disturbing atmosphere, partly by having the protagonist, Ian Roshek, someone very ordinary and easy to identify with, and partly through little clues in the text. Whilst it isn't stated outright, it seems everyone lives in strictly-monitored tiny apartments. I found it telling that all the towns and landmarks are named after the man who founded New America, his family and closest associates, but you have to be paying fairly close attention to notice. Little clues like this really help build a picture of New America and what life there might be like.
I suspect there is a political warning message in there somewhere too, but being British it was completely lost on me. Not that that stopped me enjoying the book.
I liked the fact that it is completely unpredictable too. Four pages from the end I still had no idea what would happen. All the way through I expected a romance which never happened (although in my head it does after the book ends) and I was delighted that the book ended on a cliffhanger. All too often it seems that editors and publishers want everything tidied up nicely at the end (I speak from bitter experience, having recently had to rewrite the ending of one of my books), but life isn't like that. Good for Stephanie for leaving the reader to reach their own conclusion about what happens next. I am not going to clamour for a sequel just in case the happy ending (complete with romance) in my head isn't what Stephanie chooses to write.(less)
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