Emily
In the author's own words, the funniest, laugh-out-loud “bullshit” I've read, possibly ever.
An unabashedly honest look into the life of a ‘regular immigrant family' that will feel deeply and intricately familiar to many.
Incredibly, there is a not a single sympathetic character in this novel. I don't know, is that the point?
Interesting concept. Slow to start and character development is weak, but the action picks up in the second half and ultimately +1 star for enticing the reader to continue on to the second book.
I adore Daniel Silva and his artistic manifestation Gabriel, but the summer novels like clockwork have become noticeably cookie cutter. The biggest thrill The Heist has brought is the matter-of-fact education on Syrian affairs, which coincided nicely with my viewing of Tyrant this season. Aside from that, I swear I've read these exact passages and phrasing a dozen times.
Excellent and concise exploration of one of the lesser researched founding fathers. Better than Ron Chernow.
Confusing and convoluted... did not inspire connection with nor sympathy for the characters. A far cry from her debut adult novel The Casual Vacancy. I could barely make it to the end, and must confess I skimmed the last 1/3 in a desperate attempt to find out the great “mystery” with my remaining ounce of fast-deteriorating attention. I'm not sure why I bothered. The revelation was like something out of bad tween movie.
An innovative world the author has spun his hero's journey within. The middle is a little bit hard to get through, and the main character loses rather a lot of his core personality halfway through and turns into someone unrecognizable up until that point, but the ending has the sought-after hook to lead you into the second book.
A touching story and a potential page-turner that was unfortunately bogged down in the flowery and metaphor laden language that made the author seem too much of a literary try-hard. The best part of the book was the delivery of the emotions from character to audience, although the decision making by some of the characters was quite maddening at times. Overall, a strong recommendation for a strong emotional, deep, and thought-provoking read, but look elsewhere if you like your books with humor - not an ounce of laughter to be found here in the slightest.
You'd think being written in the exact same formula as all the rest of Judith McNaught's books would give it some kind of standardization, but unfortunately this rendition fell quite short. No character description felt the least bit genuine or realistic - the girl had no consistency to her personality, the main man (an earl), was quite repetitive in his dialogue (“she has spirit”, “such spirit”, “her wonderful spirit”, and so on. You get the point.) Having read Whitney, My Love, which shares the same main character pool, I can also attest that those characters have all suddenly lost any semblance to their former selves - Whitney, Claymore, et al.- and in this book are cardboard cutouts of kind, benevolent, and wise do-gooders that push the main couple together. Unless I read a completely different novel from Whitney, My Love, those words would never be used to describe Claymore. In fact, Nick DuVille was the most interesting and animated of them all, and all he did the entire book was stand next to pillars and smirk. I would say you're much better off reading “Almost Heaven”, which is far and away the best of McNaught's novels.
An interesting point of view into the War of the Roses from a generally overlooked character... However, characterization was hazy and important relationships were not fully understood nor the ending properly explained (Richard and Elizabeth of York's???). Enjoyed the fresh characterization of the much-maligned Richard III as an all-around good guy here, reminiscent of The Sunne in Splendor. Looking forward to The White Princess for further plot.