Harisa
I find it really hard to review 3 starred books.
This book was interesting, that's for sure. I like the small town, the history, the plot-line being tied to ancestors, the imperfect secondary hero, the lore, and world building kept me interesting and obviously took a lot of time.
However: I don't think I liked Rafe, the hero? The entire point of the novel was that because his wife is his soulmate/love/his everything/the entire purpose for his existence he can do whatever he wants even if its morally grey and it's forgiven/okay because he did it to “protect their love.” I am not a soulmate/your partner completes you type of person, so Rafe's actions thoroughly annoyed me.
I will give that Juliet was a strong character, and demanded that he include her in decision making once he came back. That was a nice addition and she pushed even when he ran away. I'm glad for that.
I will probably read the second book because I like Nate but the format and constantly changing POV (there were MANY POV....at least 5???) just added to the already confusing and twisted storyline and was a bit frustrating. Hopefully the next one will be a bit more linear.
Sweden Book around the World.
Slow, but very good. Got to learn a bit about Sweden's justice system too! I don't normally do legal thrillers, but this was more than that. It was an exploration of a family with the legal proceedings in the backdrop. I particularly enjoyed how different all of the perspectives were. Also nice to see true introspection and admitting of wrongs (even to just themselves) from both the daughter AND the PARENTS.
I also think it's important that so many thrillers are exploring the psychology of abusers. It really is a formula they all follow and books like these I think these hopefully will help people recognize the behaviors sooner. Overall, I really enjoyed this.
Algeria Book around the World
So I am incredibly ignorant to this period in history. I am grateful to learn more about the war, The French's involvement in Algeria, and the aftermath. I started the read the world challenge for this very reason, to learn a lot more apart from my own perspective.
However, as a book this was not very good. In the same chapter we got a VARIETY of POVs, all in third person and many different perspectives. Every chapter, right after a “cliffhanger” we went through a VARIETY of time periods back and forth and forward again. This choppy formatting made it very difficult to stay engaged with the characters and very difficult to follow the storyline.
Anna's past with the circus I thought was brought in way too late in the book. By the time we went allll the way back and explored Anna's childhood and her life in the circus I felt like it was a bit too late to get her backstory? Or to care about it?
And finally, I find that almost everytime a male author tries to write a graphic sex scene (or even semi graphic) from the female POV –even in third person!– it is disturbing moreso than sensual or romantic. This really took away from the love story for me and I never really got it.
I kept reading this book for the history, what I was learning, the little boy Jallal.
Woah. After a profound book funk, I am having some good luck with the last few books I've read.
This is my Ireland book around the world.
The prose is so beautiful, so engaging, and so wonderful to read that I thoroughly enjoyed this book just for that. The plot kept me interested and I really enjoyed this book. The end had me re-reading it because my jaw dropped at how it ended. SO. PERFECT.
I cannot wait to dive into Oscar Wilde some more!
I received this ARC for free at a book signing where I had the pleasure of meeting Meg Cabot.
This book is helping me out of my book slump in a big way! Finished it in less than a day!
I am happy to see Meg Cabot starting a new adult series. This had her very clear and distinct writing style and voice but tackled on difficult issues. A deeper RomCom but still discussed in her signature lighter tone. I enjoyed the small town, the island life, and the character and hope to revisit them soon!
I don't know how to rate this.
My Colombia Book Around the World
The plot was...weird. BUT, the writing was strong. And beautiful. This author inspired Isabel Allende—who is perfect. The themes explored of fate and the family you're born into and generational dysfunction is also interesting. His very quick delve into race and ethnicity and how that also may determine your life course at the end also is an interesting statement to explore and I enjoyed that theme. I guess I just didn't really like the method he chose to explore these important themes.... but then again I don't think I'm supposed to :).
My Denmark book around the world.
Probably closer to a 1.5, but I just can't. Full disclosure: I very much skimmed the last 20ish pages. The constant stuff about her being cold and that's supposed to make her deep and unique and the dialogue about her comparing some villain to a hallow teddy bear...I just can't. It was painful and this type of stuff was the focus of too much of this very long novel.
I liked the beginning, exploring her past, and her relationship with her father. I also liked learning about Denmark and Greenland and appreciate the insight into that but overall not the book for me.
This is my Armenia book around the World.
2.5, I'm sorry I was too stupid for this. Was this a metaphor for communism? That's what I got out of it but I didn't get it until the very end and I think this was TOO LONG FOR AN ALLEGORY. An allegory does not have to be 750 pages, thats just my opinion. Much of this went over my head, but if you're smart you may like.
My Greece book around the world.
I REALLY thoroughly enjoyed this. It has the family psychology/dysfunction of an Anne Tyler novel but the prose and sweeping saga that Isabel Allende provides. I wish I could read more by this author, but this is the only book translated to English. I also enjoyed the look into Greek Orthodoxy in their every day lives, the village vs city, and the varying stories we got through all of the sisters. I wish this book was longer because I so enjoyed being in this world.
Also, I used Amazon whispersync to read&listen to this so I was pretty constantly in their world until I finished it, haha.
