The Lantern Readalong Part 3

This is the third, and final, part of The Lantern readalong which is being hosted by Carl from Stainless Steel Droppings as part of RIP VI. You can read parts 1 and 2 by clicking on the links below:

Part 1
Part 2

1. Now that it's all said and done; what did you think of the book? Did you see the ending coming?

I liked the book, but didn't love it as much as I hoped to. I kind of thought the end fizzled a little bit. The ties that bound the two stories together, other than the house itself, were a little loose for my liking.

I am not sure what I think about the ending of Benedicte's story. There does seem to be a certain irony in the fact that she was losing her sight, but felt that the condition that she was diagnosed with was too convenient an explanation for the visions that she was having. I was both surprised and not surprised when we found out about her guilty secret that she carried around with her for all those years.

I do really love the idea of gothic novels, especially a modern gothic, and this book is a good example of this style of storytelling.

2. What do you think of the characters? Lawrenson took us on a twisty little ride there, I had trouble deciding who was good and who wasn't for a while there! What do you think of Dom? Of Sabine? Rachel?

I am going to start with the character that I struggled with the most in terms of characterisation and that is Rachel. I was reading the section of the book where we find out exactly what happened and for a little while there was appalled that she was going to be blamed for what happened to her. That isn't what ended up happening at all, but it sure felt like that was what was coming.

As for Dom, I am still undecided about how I feel about him days after I finished the book.We found out why he was so secretive about what happened with Rachel, why he was reluctant to talk to Eve at all but I actually don't feel like we got to know him as a person very much at all, other than the fact that he was rich and musical.

Sabine was quite the piece of work in the end wasn't she. I found her manipulative especially of Eve and to a lesser extent to Rachel, using both of them to try and further her own cause. I was kind of surprised when Eve suggested that they might end up being friends.

Finally...Eve. There were certain parts of the book where I wanted to shout at Eve, particularly  as she accepted the treatment that she was receiving from Dom, including being isolated from her support network etc,  being led around by Sabine etc. I was so pleased when she finally confronted him and showed some gumption, but then she undid that by starting to keep her own secrets too.

3. Pierre was such a conflicted character. In the end, do you think he killed Marthe and Annette, or did the fall to their deaths because of their blindness?

I was disappointed in the one dimensional portrayal of him. I know we had a motivation for why he was as he was once he was older but there didn't seem to be any nuances when it came to him. I guess that there are some people who are nasty kids who grow up into nasty adults, but in some ways he would been a much scarier character if you actually didn't know which Pierre you were getting. Maybe that is what the author was trying to achieve by saying that Marthe hadn't or couldn't see this aspect of Pierre's personality?

I definitely think he killed Annette, and most likely Marthe too, although I am thinking that perhaps Marthe's death was more accidental given her blindness and the empty pool. Maybe she fell, maybe she didn't. At the end of the day I would count Pierre as being accountable for both deaths.

4. The book is being compared to Rebecca and Daphne du Maurier's writing. Do you think the book lives up to that description?

In my experience as soon as those kinds of labels are placed on an authors, there is an almost inevitable raising of expectations on the part of readers and almost as inevitably people may be disappointed. Let's put it this way, I don't think that in fifty years time someone will be saying that a new book is like The Lantern.

That kind of sounds as though I didn't enjoy the book which isn't really the case. There were things that the author did really well - for example, the details which made the book a delight for the senses. The smells, the sights, the taste - all came to life through the words on the page and I would quite happily have read those passages over and over.

I mentioned in a previous post that I think that I would have enjoyed this book so much more if I had of just kept reading and not actually stopped to think about the characters and the plot. It was very readable, and I could quite easily imagine myself there in the Provence countryside.

5. Did you have any problems with the book? Narration? Plot? The back and forth between two different characters and times?

Sometimes it was a little unclear which story we were reading in each new chapters, especially seeing as some times the narrative swapped in every chapter but then there would be several chapters of one narrator.

6. Do you think Lawrenson tied both stories together well in the end? Is there anything she could/should have done differently?

I don't know about could/should have done differently because, after all, this is the author's creative work and so she brings to bear all of her life experiences, all of her agendas and more to create her work.

The house was more than adequate to tie the two stories together but I am not sure about the other symbols such as the lantern itself, and also the other murders that it was inferred were connected to the characters in the book.

I was just struck by the thought that houses bear witness to so much (if an inanimate object can be said to witness anything). Think how many people a house might have living in it over an extended period of time. The joy, the sadness, the laughter and the tears, especially if it is a house like the one in the book that has been home to generations of people over hundreds of years!

I was wondering about Benedicte was going to fit into the modern storyline and thought that the way that particular aim was achieved was actually quite clever in terms of the way she got to tell her story and explained a lot about how the older storyline was being told through out the earlier parts of the story.


7. One problem I had with the novel is the reliability of the narrators. Do you think any of them were telling the truth? Which ones?

Ah, unreliable narrators. Where would this kind of storytelling be without them? It's a bit like all the foreshadowing comments. Both were in place to act as hooks to keep you hoping that you would find out exactly what is going on...eventually.

I think this quote summarised this quite well. Often, as readers, we like things to be linear, to be neat and tidy, but sometimes they just aren't!

All of which goes to show how dangerous it is to assume connections where there are none, to link events that have no link, to want tidy storytelling when real life is not like that, to draw too much on the imagination when it is so often misleading. (Page 381)

I wanted to say a special thanks to Carl for hosting this readalong, and to Kailana and Heather who contributed questions and to Netgalley for provided me with an E-Arc. I started reading that, but ended up also getting the book from the library once I knew that I had to spread the reading out for readalong purposes!.

A modern gothic novel of love, secrets, and murder—set against the lush backdrop of Provence


Meeting Dom was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to me. When Eve falls for the secretive, charming Dom in Switzerland, their whirlwind relationship leads them to Les GenÉvriers, an abandoned house set among the fragrant lavender fields of the South of France. Each enchanting day delivers happy discoveries: hidden chambers, secret vaults, a beautiful wrought-iron lantern. Deeply in love and surrounded by music, books, and the heady summer scents of the French countryside, Eve has never felt more alive.


But with autumn’s arrival the days begin to cool, and so, too, does Dom. Though Eve knows he bears the emotional scars of a failed marriage—one he refuses to talk about—his silence arouses suspicion and uncertainty. The more reticent Dom is to explain, the more Eve becomes obsessed with finding answers—and with unraveling the mystery of his absent, beautiful ex-wife, Rachel.

Like its owner, Les Genevriers is also changing. Bright, warm rooms have turned cold and uninviting; shadows now fall unexpectedly; and Eve senses a presence moving through the garden. Is it a ghost from the past or a manifestation of her current troubles with Dom? Can she trust Dom, or could her life be in danger?


Eve does not know that Les Genevriers has been haunted before. Benedicte Lincel, the house’s former owner, thrived as a young girl within the rich elements of the landscape: the violets hidden in the woodland, the warm wind through the almond trees. She knew the bitter taste of heartbreak and tragedy—long-buried family secrets and evil deeds that, once unearthed, will hold shocking and unexpected consequences for Eve.

Until There Was You by Kristan Higgins

Posey Osterhagen can't complain. She owns a successful architectural salvaging company, she's surrounded by her lovable, if off-center, family and she has a boyfriend—sort of. Still, something's missing. Something tall, brooding and criminally good-looking…something like Liam Murphy.


When Posey was sixteen, the bad boy of Bellsford, New Hampshire, broke her heart. But now he's back, sending Posey's traitorous schoolgirl heart into overdrive once again. She should be giving him a wide berth, but it seems fate has other ideas….

2011 has been the year of reading short stories for me and it has also been the year that I started reading contemporary romances. In the past I only read a couple of authors, but this year I have been reading quite a few. One of the new to me authors I have started reading is Kristan Higgins. Reading her backlist has been a bit hit or miss (Just One of the Guys = hit, Fools Rush In = big miss). This is the first time I have read a Higgins book as it was released.

This book was somewhere in the middle for me - not a complete miss, but I did have some issues with it!

First of all, this book is different from her previous books in that, finally, we get to hear from the male character. In the past the point of view was limited to the thoughts of the heroine and in a way there was a disconnect to the hero, but this time we hear from both Posey and Liam and I must say I liked it!

Posey Osterhagen was in love with Liam Murphy in high school. He was the local bad boy, complete with motorcycle and a bad attitude and he broke her heart on prom night in high school. While he knew that Posey existed, he only had eyes for Emma the local sweetheart. Liam and Emma moved away, had a daughter and went on with life. Posey is still single (mostly) and is running a business that she loves (as an architectural salvager which sounds very cool) and has a full life with her friends and family.

I loved most of the secondary characters in this book! There is Posey's brother Henry and his partner, Jon, her best friend who has boundary issues with her teenage son, her coworkers, her parents. Have to say I didn't think much of her cousin Gretchen who has returned home and is causing issues within the family and .

Also returned home to Bellsford is Liam. He is now a widower and he has changed from the ultimate bad boy into the ultimate over protective father! The interactions between Liam and his teenage daughter Nicole were so much fun!

"Well, listen, sweetheart. Boys only want one thing, of course, and guess what that means for you? Heartbreak. Pregnancy. Chlamydia, herpes, syphilis, crabs.”

That’s beautiful, Dad. You should set it to music."

Liam is dealing with being a single dad, overbearing grandparents and his own feelings of guilt, inadequacy and mortality which all build up to OCD and panic attacks. I really loved reading Liam and his struggles. As written he seemed really hot, and really human.

The bad boy returning home is a common trope as is the bad boy turned good by the love of a good woman. I really appreciated that in this book Liam had transformed his life, but that it wasn't transformed by the heroine. He had left his past long behind him with the help of his wife and daughter and he was ready to show that to the town when he came back even if the town wasn't quite ready to accept that he had changed.

I wasn't quite so fond of Posey for a number of reasons. The major reason was her tendency to replace curse words and phrases with cutesy phrases - for example Holy Elvis or using the word Bieber as an explanation! Drove me crazy! Fun for a little while but when it goes through the entire book.....step away from the gimmick.

It is always interesting to me to read about the prom scenes in romances. We had school dances but it just wasn't the huge coming of age deal that it seems to be in America as we see in novels and movies. The thing is though that there just don't seem to be that many great proms written in romances. Posey had had a terrible prom experience and so she shied away from even being a chaperone at the event because of the bad memories. I can understand there being a redo moment for her but I don't necessarily feel as though this scene really worked all that well.

I didn't necessarily feel the connection between Posey and Liam and felt the resolution scene came a little bit out of left field. Still, I was emotionally involved with the characters, I laughed and I cried so on that level the book worked for me.

I wouldn't start with this book if you are new to Higgins, but it wasn't a bad read. It just wasn't a great read. The book is available in stores on 25 October.

Rating 4/5

Thanks to Netgalley. Please note that all quotes from the egalley and therefore may be different in the final version of the book

Fragile Things Readalong Week 7

Another week, another story that isn't included in my edition of this book! Despite that, this has probably been one of the better weeks of the readalong as I really liked two of the three stories that I read in this section.

It's interesting as the way the book has been compiled has definitely been a change in the type of stories we are reading. More aliens and space stories than the spooky reads that we have had in previous weeks, although the second story I talk about (Pages...) does not have that setting.

In the End is the story that isn't in my edition of this book.

Goliath - Is it possible for just the last line to make a short story? I hope so because that is exactly what happened to me. I loved this story which tells the story of a man who is destined to save the world - there is humour, poignancy, twists and turns, and then a kicker of an ending line that I can share here without really even spoiling the story:

I'll die soon. But the last twenty minutes have been the best years of my life.

In the introduction, Gaiman tells us that this story was written to go on the website for the film The Matrix - a movie I have never seen. I therefore don't know what this story added to the movie, or indeed gained from the movie, but it works well for me as a standalone entity anyway!

Pages from a Journal Found in a Shoebox Left in a Greyhound Bus Somewhere Between Tulsa, Oklahoma and Louisville, Kentucky - Phew....just the title is long enough to be a short story. Apparently this is another story that was written to accompany an album by Tori Amos (as was Strange Little Girls). Of these two stories, Pages (did you really think I was going to retype the whole title every time I mentioned it?) worked better for me. Our main character is chasing after Scarlet, and he follows her from one side of the USA to the other trying to catch up with her. We don't really know why, or why Scarlet keeps moving around, but she always manages to stay one step ahead.

My favourite line in this story was when he "spoke to a woman I used to love today, in a cafe in the desert."

"I thought I was your destination," she told me. "Looks like I was just another stop on the line."

I could just feel the long ago heartbreak in her voice, the one that is only mostly healed, but not completely!

How to Talk to Girls At Parties - this is one of the Gaiman short stories that I had heard of before I started reading this anthology. I had heard so many good things, and I wasn't disappointed! I actually loved the story of how this story came to be as related in the introduction. The idea of being so nettled that another author could come up with a good short story in 24 hours that he had to go and sit down and write a story in a short time too! Who know that writing was competitive in this fashion!

The story itself is about two young boys who crash a party, but it isn't the party they think it is. Enn is shy and finds it difficult to talk to girls unlike his somewhat brash friend Vic who seems to be much more successful with the young ladies.

You have to wonder if Vic will be in such a hurry to be quite such a player after the events at the party!

I have actually had quite a busy Gaiman week. Earlier in the week I rewatched Stardust (the movie version) and loved it all over again, and then just like last week, I did find another Neil Gaiman short story to listen to. In fact, it is fair to say that one thing that this readalong has done is made me even more aware of his name when skimming through posts.

The short story that I listened to was called The Thing About Cassandra and it was podcast on an NPR show called Selected Shorts on October 16. It was performed in front of a live audience and I have to say that really added some ambiance to the telling. It was also a really fabulous story, perhaps even one of my favourite Gaiman short stories....so far.

Next week is the last week of the readalong and while I will be glad to get to the end of the book, I might also have to go and borrow some other short story collections to take my time reading through!

Weekend Cooking: Memorable Meals - Budapest

We are very much experiencing the change of seasons at the moment.

Just this week we have warm days and a warm night, but today when I got up it was grey and overcast. After the little chef's game of cricket was washed out, it was time to think about what to have for dinner, and it seemed somewhat fitting to think of something that was almost a bit wintery. After searching for some inspiration I found it!

Not only did I find inspiration but I also bought back memories of when I was travelling around Europe many, many years ago!

When I was touring around Europe, we spent a couple a couple of days in Hungary, spending the night in Budapest. To be honest I was glad to go there but it wasn't one of my must see destinations on the tour so I wasn't really sure what to expect but I enjoyed wandering through the city, cruising along the Danube, walking in the Castle Hill area and viewing the Parliament building which gives Westminster a run for its money in terms of grandeur.

We stayed in a relatively modern hotel, from memory in the Pest side of the river but I could be wrong there (it's been a long time!). At dinner, we were served Goulash which may have been something of a cliche but tasted really yummy, and then a lovely chocolate cake for dessert. What really made this meal memorable though was that the next morning along with the other standard continental breakfast options like bread rolls we also could have goulash and chocolate cake! Goulash for breakfast!

The other really memorable thing about Hungary was actually leaving the country. This was in the days before open borders, and when we got to the border with Austria (I think) there was a huge line of buses waiting to be processed. Our bus driver thought he might try and take a shortcut through an unofficial border crossing into Slovakia (a country that none of us had visas for) and then on into Austria but the border officers didn't like that idea so at one point there was a big tourist bus being chased along a country road by a carful of border officials. In the end we had to turn around and go to the end of the queue. The tour guide and bus driver nearly got into a lot of trouble, but for those of us on board it actually makes for a great story to look back on!

Gulyas (goulash)

1.5kg beef chuck steak, cut into 3cm pieces 

2 tbs olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 large green capsicum, halved, deseeded, cut into 1cm-thick slices
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 1/2 tbs sweet paprika
500g Baby Coliban (Chat) potatoes, quartered
125ml (1/2 cup) white wine
1 x 400g can diced tomatoes
375ml (11/2 cups) beef stock
Sour cream, to serve
Chopped fresh continental parsley, to serve

• Season the beef with salt and pepper. Heat half the oil in a large saucepan or flameproof casserole dish over medium-high heat. Add one-third of beef. Cook, turning occasionally, for 3-4 minutes or until browned. Transfer to a plate. Repeat, in 2 more batches, with remaining beef, reheating the pan between batches.
• Heat remaining oil in the pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and capsicum and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until golden. Add the garlic and caraway seeds, and cook for 1 minute or until aromatic. Remove from heat. Add the paprika and stir for 1 minute to combine. Place over medium-high heat. Add the potato and stir to coat. 
• Add the beef, wine, tomato and stock to the pan. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 2 hours or until the beef is tender. Taste and season with salt and pepper. 
• Divide among serving dishes. Top with sour cream and parsley to serve.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Foal's Bread Readalong - Chapters 14 to 19

What a difference a week makes!

I am not sure if it is something in the book, or if it was just that once I had vented last week about my feelings in relation to Noah I was freer to read, but this week the reading was much easier and much more enjoyable.

It was a very eventful section of the book! The war ends but at One Tree Farm life is getting harder as Roley's illness continued to get worse, Noah has to take on more and more of the farm tasks, but on the good side of the coin Lainey finally got her chance to shine.

I did think that the way that the author described the worsening of Roley's still unnamed illness was exceptional. From what I gather from the few news articles there are around, the author may have been through similar health experiences and that would certainly give her first hand experience of the various symptoms.

I was so pleased with the chapters that dealt with Lainey's performance in the show! It had that sort of feeling to it of the triumph of the underdog - at one point I was reminded of the scenes towards the end of Strictly Ballroom, with the crowd going wild and the winning couple all triumphant. I loved this quote from page 281:

So that on this day, even if never again, she'd know that the impossible becomes possible when the valley inside your belly lays itself open, running as if with deep rivers and trees so steep and green it must be how One Tree Farm and others looked before the hills were cleared.

She would cherish the quality of a showground forever, its circle so calmly fenced. She would remember how an announcer's voice could take on the quality of a prophet. How for a moment after landing it was as though streams of sunlight, not old leather reins at all, were connecting her hands to Landwind's mouth.

You will notice I haven't said much at all about Noah so far. She is certainly the character that I react most vividly to but not in a good way. When Lainey came home, I just wanted to slap her for the way that she destroyed her daughter's happiness, especially given how much Lainey looked up to her;

All her life up until then, Lainey Nancarrow had watched her mother, copied her mother, and just when she'd succeeded behind her wildest imaginings, just when their Chalcedite foal, their Landwind, had really jumped - oh, like a bird, everybody had kept on saying - too late Lainey realised she'd gone too far.

Noah seems to be heading into full on alcoholism and becoming hard and bitter, and for me, it is painful to watch. As the child of an alcoholic, it is hard to watch Noah unraveling through the pages of the book.

This week, we finish off the book, and I hope to see good things for Lainey, but I suspect we have some more hard yards to work through first, because that just seems to be the way this book is.

For other thoughts about this week's section head over to the other readalong participants:

The Book Nerd Club
The Talking Teacup
My Journal of Becoming a Writer
Fantasy vs Reality
Slightly Addicted to Fiction
The Book Nook

The Lantern Readalong Part 2

After only posting my thoughts on part 1 of this book yesterday, I have continued reading and now have composed my thoughts on the second part.  Please bear in mind that this post is about the middle of the book and there are therefore SPOILERS ahead!

1. The title of this book is The Lantern, and a lantern makes an appearance in both of the stories. In Benedicte’s past, it had a meaning, but what do you think the lantern signifies in her future and in Eve’s story?

Oh  dear! A hard question to start with.

Actually, I think that there are two roles that the lantern is fulfilling. The first is a mechanism for tying the two stories together and maybe it is a symbol for both Benedict and Eve of shining a light on the past.

For Benedicte it is a sign of love with Andre, but also for her in later life it seems to also be symbolic of revealing exactly what went on!

2. Carl mentioned scents in last weeks questions, but they have been addressed even more in these sections. What significance do you think scents have in this story overall?

As I was reading this section I was very much reminded of a book I read earlier this year called The Various Flavours of Coffee by Anthony Capella. In that case the main character has a strongly defined sense of taste which he uses to identify all the different notes of various coffee beans! In this section Marthe is divining scents for perfume rather than coffee but the sense of appreciation was paralleled.

I find the idea that some people have better noses than other people to be totally fascinating and enjoyed reading the parts about Marthe.

Marthe's career as a perfumer has also reminded me of the visit I made to a French perfume factory many years ago.

3. What do you think of the combining storyline of Marthe? She connects Benedicte, Eve, and Rachel. What do you think will be revealed about this connection in the next sections?

Like I just mentioned I am enjoying reading Marthe's story. I am not sure that I feel that the connection between the other four characters is really strong enough, but it is moving the story forward which is the purpose I guess.

4. Now that things are beginning to move along, what do you think of the characters? Are any standing out for you? Do you particularly like any? Dislike any?

I am going to start with a secondary character - can I just say I don't really like Sabine. It is like she is a puppeteer manipulating the events that are happening and the actions of Eve in particular.

I am hard pressed to choose a character that I really, really like! Benedicte is okay as is Marthe, but I find Eve to be far too accepting and passive, particularly in respect of her relationship with Dom and his refusal to talk about anything. As for Dom, I don't distrust him quite as much as I did, but I think that he really needs to answer some questions and start actually communicating with this woman that he professes to love!

I said in my previous post that I found Philippe to be a one dimensional character and I don't think we have seen anything to find out why he was the way he was and to give him any depth. The reader is not meant to like him or to empathise with him in any way shape or form, and I don't so that appears to be right then!

Provence is synonymous with sunflowers and now  lavender to me

5. What do you think really happened to Marthe and Annette? What do you think the significance of the bones in the pool are to the story? Especially now that it has been revealed that Rachel is also dead.

I think Marthe and Annette are dead and that Pierre killed them. The bones in the pool are there to move both aspects of the story ahead and also to cast more doubt on Dom and what exactly happened to Rachel. I must confess that at one point I did wonder if perhaps Rachel had died of natural causes and Dom had chosen to bury her and so came back to the house so that he could be close to her even in death but I am changing my mind about that theory at the moment.

6. Do you have any other things you think are significant to talk about? Are there any other predictions to be made for the last two sections of the book?

No predictions, I just want to keep reading because even though I am still finding holes in terms of characterisations and plot I am still finding the book immensely readable.

7. Lastly, what do you think of this book overall? Other than for the read-along, why are you reading it? Is it meeting your expectations?

I would have read the book eventually as I do enjoy a good gothic type read and also have had an obsession with all things French over the past few months so this ticks boxes for me!

And now I am all caught up on the posts and can post about the final section of the book on Monday, and now that I have posted about this section I can go and finish reading it! Seems like a good way to spend a rainy Friday night!

Three things that make me happy

Aussie author Belinda Alexandra has a new book out and I was really pleased when I saw it in the shops! I really loved Silver Wattle and liked Wild Lavender a lot. I also have a couple of her other books on my shelf (White Gardenia and Tuscan Rose).

She also finally has a web presence with a Twitter account, a Tumblr page and a Facebook page.

You can get a taste of the first 30 pages of Golden Earrings by going to her Facebook page and sharing it! I was certainly ready to read more when I did so!

Kudos to Tammy from Under a Blood Red Sky who posted this! I do love some Keith Urban!







I have been listening to this song over and over and over and I can't see that changing any time soon!

The Lantern Readalong Part 1

I'm late! I'm late! I'm late!

So, yeah! It may be 10 days late, but here are my thoughts on the first part of the readalong of The Lantern which is being hosted by Carl at Stainless Steel Droppings as part of RIP VI.

I haven't had time to read the book before now but today I had a space in my schedule so I picked this up and have been sucked right into the world! More than anything I want to share my thoughts for my own records!

1. This may seem like an obvious opening question, but what do you think of The Lantern thus far?

I feel bad that I am so far behind because what I have read of the book is quite good. I do wonder if it is trying too hard to be …. gothic …. for want of a better description though.

2. The book appears to be following the experiences of two different women, alternating back and forth between their stories. Are you more fond of our main protagonist's story or of Benedicte's or are you enjoying them both equally?

I think I am enjoying the modern storyline more than the past, which is something that I find quite interesting because whenever I read these kinds of books I tend to like the historical story a lot more! Maybe part of the reason for that is that in my usual reads of this nature the two strands tend to be a bit further apart than they are in this book and therefore the two eras aren’t distinct enough in my mind.

3. The Lantern is a book filled with descriptions of scents. How are you liking (or disliking) that aspect of the book? How do you feel about the lavish description of scents? How are the short chapters working for you?

I would definitely describe as a sensual read. The author takes great pains to describe the smell, taste, sight and feel of various events. There were lots of passages where I literally stopped just to appreciate the description or to imagine the smell or taste or sights.

Here is an example of a passage that I read a number of times as it really caught my attention from page 60:

We shared a capacity to stay very still and just look, and touch, and smell. Toward the end of summer, we would lie facedown in the courtyard. After the brief, hard rainstorms of late August, the earth was caramel-sweet and spicy, and the warm, smitten flesh of fruit gave off a smoke of incense. I may be imagining this of course. Perhaps memory has rendered these interludes larger-than-life, but it's true we did spend hours simply looking and inhaling, feeling life slowly in close-up, burrowing into our surroundings, eating vanilla pastries with dirt on our fingers.

Marthe loved to talk about the scents and smells of the farm. My sixth sense was never as acute as hers (as I said earlier, my imagination has always been poor, which leads me to worry that the present situation is indeed precisely as I fear) but I could almost always smell what she smelled. Perhaps there was a family nose we both inherited that enabled us to read aromas, some small quirk of nasal membrane or nerve setting that provided an extra sensitivity.

4. How would you describe the atmosphere of Parts 1 and 2 of The Lantern?

Brooding, foreboding. Definitely oh-my-goodness something bad has either happened or is going to happen soon!

5. Has anything surprised you to this point? Anything stand out?

To be honest, I am a little bit surprised at some of the reactions I am having after I stop to think about the book. I am totally engrossed in it as I am reading it, even though I know that I am being led along by the foreshadowing and the hooks that are embedded in the end of a lot of the chapters, designed specifically to keep you reading. When I stop and think about it, I am not as hooked as I thought I was!

As an example of a keep-you-reading hook, I was surprised by Marthe's proclamation in the last of Benedicte's chapters in this section. Marthe is Benedicte's sister.

6. What are your feelings about Dom in these first two sections of the story?

I think we are deliberately being lead to believe that Dom has huge secrets and with the foreshadowing that is being used expected to think the worst of Dom. To be honest though, I think I will be a bit disappointed if the secrets are so obvious as we are being led to believe as there might be a lack of subtlety if that is the case.

In a way, the characters that we are supposed to not like (Dom and Philippe) actually feel a bit cliched to me.

Bonus question: Did anyone else hear "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" ringing in their ears through the first sections of the book?

To me it seems that the author is making a conscious effort to evoke the book Rebecca, to the point of the protagonist that we don’t know the real name of, the use of one of du Maurier’s heroine’s name as the name of the ex wife, especially in the use of isolation – the husband who on the one hand is all encompassing but on the other is emotionally isolated whenever the subject of his ex wife comes up, the way they are pretty isolated as a couple with few visitors, the locale of the house being isolated from the village.



I also wanted to mention that I am a sucker for a story within a story and so loved the use of the fairy tale and also the article as part of the narrative!

I have now finished part 3 and will try to read part 4 tomorrow so that I can be all caught up in time for the end of the readalong! Maybe anyway!

Library Loot: October 19 to 26

Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you’d like to participate, just write up your post-feel free to steal the button-and link it using the Mr. Linky any time during the week. And of course check out what other participants are getting from their libraries!

Whew. What a day....I am glad to be home and actually sharing my loot! We did have a really summer like day which was awesome, or at least it would have been if I had of made it out of the office at lunch time!

Before I share my loot for this week, here is Mr Linky for you to add your link to your Library Loot post. Can't wait to see what everyone got this week.




Here's my loot for this week:

The Personal History of Rachel Dupree by Ann Weisgarber - for a blog tour in a few weeks time.

Monsters of Men by Patrick Ness- This is reloot. I have seen a few reviews recently of Patrick Ness's latest book which reminded me that I still haven't finished the Chaos Walking trilogy!

The Return of Captain John Emmett by Elizabeth Speller - A mystery set just after the end of World War I sounds like something I will really enjoy.

Hands All Over by Maroon 5 - I recently posted that one of my favourite recent songs is Moves Like Jagger but I realised that I actually hadn't listened to much Maroon 5 so I thought I would give them a go. It is of course a perfect opportunity to post Moves Like Jagger again.

Teaser Tuesday: The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Every now and again I start a book that makes me regret the fact that I need to sleep, and where the day job gets in the way of my reading time. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson is one of those books! I had previously only read one book by her, but I am quite prepared to declare that I am heading towards fandom with this book!

My teaser comes from page 188

Boo walked me to the door and out into the hall while Stephen got his coat and keys.

"I'm not one hundred percent sure that was a good idea," I heard Callum say.

Please note that this selection comes from a galley version of the book and therefore may be changed in the final version.

Teaser Tuesday is hosted by Miz B at Should Be Reading. Head on over to find out all about it, and how to join in!

Read more...

Imperial Highness by Evelyn Anthony

Imperial Highness is set in eighteenth-century imperial Russia and centres around the life of Catherine the Great and her Romanov descendants. Against this Czarist background, Evelyn Anthony vividly recreates the deformed and immature figure of Grand Duke Peter, to whom Catherine was first betrothed as a young German princess. And to whom she became a wife in name only. Alongside him, the dazzling person of Catherine herself is made  to live again: a woman who dreamed of leaving her name in the annals of world history even as a child.Whether as wife, mother, lover or future Empress of Russia, the role of Catherine Alexeievna is never without colour. And in Imperial Highness, Evelyn Anthony captures the personal fascination of her subject while also telling the story of Catherine's adulterous love affairs, and the struggle for the imperial throne.

Some times when I look at the recent and upcoming historical fiction releases I scan through looking for something other than yet another Tudor book, or this year in particular another book about Eleanor of Aquitaine and I wonder why there aren't books about some of the other fascinating characters in history. For example, I cannot for the life of me figure out why there are so few books around about the life of Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.

Here we have a strong, beautiful, charming and beautiful ruler clad in fabulous clothes and jewellery who ruled her land for many years- everything that a queen is supposed to be really. She lived a very dramatic life filled with tension, conflict, lovers and scandal, led her country into a period of learning and culture and so much more.

I was glad to see that next year there is going to be a new book on Catherine, but in the mean time I was even happier to see someone reference this book on Goodreads. My own library doesn't have this book but fortunately I was able to borrow it through inter library loan. If you don't read any further in this review, the fact that I have already requested the next book in the trilogy, also through ILL, should tell you that I enjoyed this first book very much.

Young Princess Augusta Frederica was from a very noble, but very poor family in what is now modern day Poland. When she is summoned by the Empress Elizabeth of Russia everyone knows that it will likely lead to marriage, but for the young princess it is also a potential way out from underneath the harsh control of her mother and her very pious father.

Upon arrival in Russia, the young princess takes the court by storm, with one exception. Her future husband Peter, nephew and heir of the Empress Elizabeth, takes an instant dislike to the newcomer, and so a relationship that will be the source of much scandal over the years to come is formed. The Peter portrayed in the book is maniacal, immature, ill-formed and basically unsuitable for his future role as Emperor of Russia, particularly because of his very Prussian views and loyalties. For Elizabeth though, she sees no choice but to keep him as her heir, and initially she see the young princess that she has named Catherine as a possible positive influence on Peter. She could hardly have been more wrong.

However the Empress also had a somewhat changeable nature and it doesn't take much to upset her, so Catherine goes from being in favour to very much out of favour, especially given that the marriage between Catherine and Peter does not and can not provide the one thing that Elizabeth desperately needs from them - a legitimate heir.

One of the questions that I have thought about off and on over the years is one related to time travel - Where and when would you like to travel to if you could? While I always struggle to the where, I always know what I wouldn't want to be - a noble. Being highly born seems to have been quite treacherous in many countries and the imperial court of Russia was no exception. When there was no baby forthcoming, the Empress Elizabeth had the couple basically locked up together for years in the misguided hope that there may at last be a child. Time and again Catherine was bought before the aging Empress and feared for her life having offended the ruler in some way or another. Then again, I wouldn't really have wanted to end up as a serf either, so maybe I will just stay in the comfortable surroundings of here and now.

Years later, when finally freed from captivity, we see a much harder, much wiser Catherine, but also a woman who knows what she wants, and this includes various lovers! Catherine had used her time in captivity to educate herself and emerged having studied many of the great minds of the age. She was still young, still beautiful, intelligent and above all ambitious! And with her husband seemingly barely capable of controlling himself let alone an entire empire, the Catherine that we know from history emerges to take control. The book closes with Catherine coming to the throne, ably assisted by those loyal to her including her powerful lover who orchestrates the bloodless coup.

I wouldn't say that I am particularly knowledgeable about the life and times of Catherine the Great. Even just a quick look at a few websites after finishing the book seems to indicate that there are some discrepancies between the history portrayed in this book and what actually happened, but when all is said and done, this was a really entertaining read full of dramatic moments, court intrigue, passion and ambition, and this reader was left wanting more!

Please note that this book was also published under the title Rebel Princess, and is the first book in the Romanov trilogy.

Rating 4.5/5

Cross posted at Historical Tapestry

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen

Some time ago I started reading Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen for the Classics Circuit. I never quite got around to finishing the book, but as a result of Jane Austen Week over at Historical Tapestry I decided that it was time that I finished off those last pages of this book, and I did!

I posted about my initial reactions to the book, but now I thought I would just post something more because I feel quite accomplished that I have finally finished an Austen novel!

My favourite scenes in the later part of the book included where Marianne confesses that she should have been modelling her behaviour on that of Elinor and also this passage:

Elinor made no answer. Her thoughts were silently fixed on the irreparable injury which too early an independence and its consequent habits of idleness, dissipation, and luxury, had made in the mind, the character, the happiness, of a man who, to every advantage of person and talents, united a disposition naturally open and honest, and a feeling, affectionate temper. The world had made him extravagant and vain - Extravagance and vanity had made him cold-hearted and selfish. Vanity, while seeking its own guilty triumph at the expense of another, had involved him in a real attachment, which extravagance, or at least its offspring, necessity, had required to be sacrificed. Each faulty propensity in leading him to evil, had led him likewise to punishment. The attachment, from which against honour, against feeling, against every better interest he had outwardly torn himself, now, when no longer allowable, governed every thought; and the connection for the sake of which he had, with little scruple, left her sister to misery, was likely to prove a source of unhappiness to himself of a far more incurable nature.

One of the things that you hear about Jane Austen's writing is that she is excellent at writing the human condition, but that she has not lost relevance in these modern times. I have to say that when I read the first part of this passage it was very reminiscent of the constant comments that you hear about "kids today"!

I am so glad that I finished the book eventually. Now I need to decide which of her books to read next. I am leading towards Persuasion, but if you strongly recommend another read let me know in the comments.

Rating 4/5

We still have some Jane Austen Week giveaways happening over at Historical Tapestry so head on over for your chance to win!

Fragile Things Readalong - Week 6

This week is another where not all the short stories are in the edition of the book that I have. This is the third week in a row! Last week, I didn't really worry too much about it, mainly because I was running very late with my reading. This week I tried to find it but couldn't! One day I might try and get hold of Smoke and Mirrors which apparently does have the missing story in as long as I get the UK version and not the US one.

My Life - This story made me laugh, mainly because it reminded me of someone I know, and I am sure that lots of other people know people like this too! If you say that you had a car accident and had to get your door replaced, they not only had an accident where they broken bones, but every door in the car had to be replaced and the accident happened because a plane fell from the sky. And if you say that you were on a plane that fell from the sky, they were on a plane that did that but they crashed because it was hit by space junk burning up on reentry. It doesn't matter how out there the story you tell is, they always have experienced more, hurt more, felt more....always just more!

Fifteen Painted Cards from a Vampire Tarot - This is the story that I couldn't find for this week's reading. To be honest, I am a bit disappointed because it sounds like fun.

Feeders and Eaters - The motif of someone maintaining their youth by taking it from another is quite common in stories. Gaiman takes this and starts out with a quite harmless take on it. A man visits a cafe where  someone he knows recognises him. But the Eddie Barrow who our storyteller meets that night doesn't look anything like the Eddie Barrow that he used to know. When Eddie tells his story, we are back in the macabre imagination of Neil Gaiman, a world where once fresh meat would do to maintain the body of an old woman, but gradually it is nowhere near enough. Only really fresh will do.

It is hard for me to say if I liked this story or not. It was gripping, and I had to keep turning the pages to see what happened. The pacing was excellent with just enough details revealed until the moment when you realised where the story was going, but yes, gruesome!

Disease Makers Croup - I tried to read this on Friday night. It was late, I was tired, and I have no idea what was going on. I reread the introduction on Saturday and wasn't much more enlightened. I suspect that because it was written to match a specific theme for a specific collection it loses something when you take it out of that context.

This week I thought that I would share a bonus Neil Gaiman story that was on last week's episode on the This American Life podcast. The theme for the week was Adventure, and as I have now come to expect from Neil Gaiman, he turned the theme on it's head a little and came up with something different to the other authors!

If you want to listen to the stories that all five contributor's came up with, then just click on the following link. The other authors who have written a short story are Dave Eggers, Jeanne Darst, Wendy McClure and Fiona Maazel

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/play_full.php?play=448&act=2

Neil Gaiman's story begins at around just after 53.45 if you just want to listen to that one.

Sunday Salon: Movie watching experiences

Last night I took my son and his friend to the drive-in to see Real Steel, starring Hugh Jackman.  It wasn't the most ideal night for it given that it rained a bit so we had to keep on putting the windscreen wipers to clear the screen but it was still fun.

We used to live about 10 minutes from the drive-in and so we went all the time, but now it is a bit of a drive to get there. It was also much cheaper than going to the cinema but now that the little chef has turned 13 I have to pay concession prices rather than get him in free and so it isn't much cheaper anymore, so it may well be that our days of watching movies there may be numbered.

Part of the reason why I enjoy going to the drive in is that you are enclosed in your own space so if you want to talk, or rustle lolly bags or whatever the only people you are disturbing are the people that you came with and not everyone else in the cinema. You can stock up with your own choice of snacks and drinks and spend a couple of hours being entertained.

I have actually been known to read at the drive-in! There have been a couple of movies that I had no interest in watching that the boy wanted to see so I climbed in the back and read my e-reader. The noise can be a bit distracting but in those cases it was better than watching the actual movies!

Every time we go to the drive-in it is inevitable that I will think of this song (dodgy choreography and all):







There are a couple of other songs that use a drive-in as a backdrop that I can think of - And We Danced by The Hooters (one of my favourite songs of all time) and Blaze of Glory by Jon Bon Jovi come to mind. Then my thoughts turned to fiction and I could only think of one book that I have read recently that featured a drive-in scene and that was in one of Linda Lael Miller's recent books. The scene was incredibly romantic (a full on gourmet dinner at a disused drive-in that he owned but he had fixed up for just that night, with the only people being the couple concerned), until the hero unknowingly messed up and it turned out to be a disaster!

I actually am not sure that I can go back to the normal cinemas just yet though. Last weekend I went to see The Help with my sister and her friend (really enjoyed the movie and thought it was a good adaptation of the book!) but rather than going to our local multiplex type set up we travelled a little bit further afield and went to an older style cinema about half an hour away.

The Sun Theatre in Yarraville was originally opened in 1938 and at one stage held more than 1000 people in the single screen theatre! After the theatre fell into serious decline and after a refurbishment back to the Art Deco glory of it's heyday, there are now 6 small theatres. The seats are spacious and very comfy and there are even little tables in between each set of two seats to put your cups on. They show a mix of mainstream films and operas and theatre on film

We went for dinner beforehand but the service was a bit slow in the restaurant and so we didn't have time to have dessert. Instead we went to the cafe next door to the theatre and bought something to eat in the cinema.

I have to tell you that eating baked cheesecake whilst watching a movie is far more civilised than popcorn!

Currently Reading

I am glad that yesterday I picked up my glasses from being repaired as my eyes were really hurting using my old ones!

The books I currently have on the go are Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart, Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, The Lantern by Deborah Lawrenson, Jane Austen Made Me Do It anthology, Foal's Bread by Gillian Mears, How to Eat A Cupcake by Meg Donahue

Reading Next

To Darkness and To Death by Julia Spencer-Fleming

Weekend Cooking: In praise of crackling

Without placing too implicit faith in the account above given, it must be agreed that is a worthy pretext for so dangerous an experiment as setting houses on fire (especially in these days) could be assigned in favour of any culinary object, that pretext and excuse might be found in ROAST PIG.


Of all the delicacies in the whole mundus edibles, I will maintain it to be the most delicate - princeps obsoniorum.


I speak not of your grown porkers - things between pig and pork - those hobbydehoys - but a young and tender suckling - under a moon old - guiltless as yet of the sty - with no original speck of the amor immunditice, the hereditary failing of the first parent, yet manifest - his voice as yet not broken, but something between a childish treble and a grumble - the mild forerunner or praeludium of a grunt.


He must be roasted. I am not ignorant that our ancestors ate them seethed or boiled - but what a sacrifice of the exterior tegument!


There is no flavour comparable, I will contend, to that of the crisp, tawny, well-watched, not over-roasted, crackling, as it is well called - the very teeth are invited to their share of the pleasure at this banquet in overcoming the coy, brittle resistance - with the adhesive oleaginous - O call it not fat! but an indefinable sweetness growing up to it - the tender blossoming of fat - fat cropping in the bud - taken in the shoot - in the first innocence - the cream and quintessence of the child-pig's yet pure food - the lean, no lean, but a kind of animal manna - or , rather, fat and lean (if it must be so) so blended and running into each other, that both together make but one ambrosian result or common substance.

From A Dissertation upon Roast Pig and Other Essays by Charles Lamb*


I am attempting to make crackling on roast pork for the first time! I can smell something cooking as I type this up! Hopefully it will turn out to be as rapturously good as the description above!

*This is one of the recently released Penguin Great Food series which I have previously posted about .


Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads and is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

Foal's Bread Readalong - Chapters 7 to 13

I sat down this morning and read this week's chapters 7 through 12 while my son was playing cricket. It is probably some kind of reflection of how much I am struggling with this book that I gave a sigh of dejection when I realised that I should have read one more chapter.

I am not really sure what it is that isn't working for me in relation to this book. The language is challenging, the tone of the book is kind of dense. The characters have hope but as a reader you can't help but feel that hope is misplaced, certainly in the first half of the book.

In last week's post I tried to tip toe around this but I don't think I can do that this week.

I do know what one factor I am struggling with is but it is something that I can't talk about at length without kind of spoiling. I say kind of because this is revealed in the very beginning chapter of the book so it can't be a huge spoiler, but it does or rather, it should influence the characters for the rest of the book!

*****SPOILER WARNING*****

The main female character is Noah, and we learn very early on in the book that she was sexually abused by her uncle and had a baby as a result. We are left to assume what happens to the baby, as is Noah, and that aspect works okay for me in terms of her wondering about the child and feeling guilty about abandoning her child. Where it isn't working for me in terms of Noah's emotional reactions to being sexually abused.

Now, to be fair, sexual abuse is a hot button issue for me and so it does have to be very well written for me to read it, but having the choice to read or not read a book featuring these themes I would choose not to. There was nothing in any of the promotional material that I have seen that indicated that these are the types of issues that feature and in a way I feel kind of ambushed by it.

I guess the thing is that the character's emotional journey doesn't feel real to me, bearing in mind that we obviously don't see every waking moment of every day. Noah seems to have transitioned from young girl to teen to wife to mother with barely a nod to the emotional upheaval that each of these events would necessarily have to someone with that background.

Let me give you an example. One of the major issues in the story is the onset of a mysterious illness to Rowley who is Noah's husband. It is only as Rowley starts to get sick that we start to see the emotional effects on Noah - a volcanic tempo, drinking etc and to me they seem to be more of a reaction to those events rather than to her past. To be honest, I was a little relieved to see any reaction at that point.

Rowley is gradually losing feeling in his limbs and has lost sexual functionality as well. Noah is quite rightly feeling neglected in this area and so she tries to raise some interest. When that fails she basically thinks to herself  that at least my uncle wouldn't have let my effort go to waste.

I can only reflect on the stories that I know from various survivor's account, but I am pretty sure that none of the adult survivors of abuse that I know would have that thought pattern. When that happened, and it happened more than once, I actually felt physically sick.

I know that every survivor's story and reactions are different so maybe there are some who do have these thought patterns, but I can tell you right now that even after being by myself for more than nine years there is not one night that I lay in bed and think something like that about the man that abused me.

*****END SPOILER*****

It feels as though the focus of the book is about to shift from Noah and Rowley to their daughter Lainey, so I will keep reading, but at this stage I can't see this being a book that I will be able to say I enjoyed.  Then again, it may well be a book that keeps me thinking for a long time - hopefully not in a bad way.

To see what the other bloggers participating in the readalong thought visit the following links:

The Book Nerd Club
The Talking Teacup
My Journal of Becoming a Writer
Fantasy vs Reality
Slightly Addicted to Fiction
The Book Nook

My Husband's Sweethearts by Bridget Asher

When Lucy Shoreman discovered that her charming, cheating husband was dying, she came home, opened up his little black book, and decided she wasn’t going through this alone. After all, Artie’s sweethearts were there for the good times—is it fair that Lucy should have to manage the hard times herself? But when she dials up the women in Artie's black book and invites them for one last visit, the last thing she expects is that any actually show up. 

But one by one, they do show up: The one who hate him. The one who owes her life to him. The one he turned into a lesbian, and the one he taught to dance. And among them is a visitor with the strangest story of all: the young man who may or may not be Artie’s long-lost son.

For Lucy, the jaw-dropping procession of women is an education in the man she can't forgive and couldn't leave . And as the women find themselves sharing secrets and sharing tears, they start to discover kindred spirits - and even something that's a lot like family. But Lucy knows one thing for certain: the biggest surprises are yet to come.

Filled with heart, humor, and wisdom, Bridget Asher’s unforgettable novel turns a fresh eye on the joys and catastrophes of marriage, family, kindred friendships between women—and the sort of forgiveness that can change one’s entire life in the most unexpected and extraordinary ways.

Lucy Shoreman had a perfect romance with the perfect man - or so she thought until she found out that Artie had cheated on her with more than one woman during their marriage. She is determined to leave him behind and reclaim her life until she finds out that he is dying. He is determined to win her back and set about wooing her despite the fact that he is very ill. Unable to face the thought of caring for the man that she both loves and hates by herself she calls in backup - by drunk dialling some of the names in his little black book. She has no idea that some of them will actually turn up!

Lucy decides that Artie still needs to learn his lesson before he dies and she lets all of them loose at him. The ones who still think he is a good guy, the ones who loathe him, the ones that he has made a positive difference to - all of them. Amongst all the women who come to see Artie are Elspa and Eleanor. Elspa is a former drug addict who insists that Artie saved her life. Eleanor's motivations for sticking around aren't quite so clear. They do both however agree to stick around and help Lucy care for him in his final days, along with Lucy's oft-married mother!

The women are not the only secret that Artie has kept from Lucy - he has a grown son who he has never actually met. When Lucy decides that this is another area of his life that needs to be fixed before he dies, she orchestrates a meeting between Artie and his son John especially seeing as Artie has said in his will that she must be the one who decides exactly how much of his fortune John deserves.

Gradually the focus shifts a little from just being about Artie and Lucy to also encompass the issues that everyone has, and the newly formed group begin to bond and form a strong friendship. As well as looking at the most obvious themes of mortality and grieving, the book also examines how family can be formed by groups of people who aren't related at all and about people being able to change when someone has a little belief in them.

The reason why I initially borrowed this book was because I had heard of the author's latest book The Provence Cure for the Broken Hearted but my library didn't have that book on the catalogue yet so I thought I would start with her backlist. A quote from Marisa de los Santos on the cover was also another draw card for me.

I quite liked the writing and characters but must confess that I struggled a little with the premise of the book and also with the character of Artie. Even in his dressing gown in his deathbed I found him to be quite smarmy and yet I still found myself charmed and amused by all the little cards that he sent to Lucy. Was Artie a cheating bastard,was he misunderstood or perhaps both? I wavered backwards and forwards in my reaction throughout the book.

The story line was also interesting, if not a little predictable, but I was also a bit uncomfortable with the direction of the story at the end of the novel, particularly in relation to John.

All in all this was a fun and easy read that you could knock over easily in a few hours, but it is not without its flaws. I am still tempted at the thought of reading Provence, possibly because of my continuing infatuation with all things French, but also because I do see some potential in the writing.

Rating 3.5/5