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January reads
Feb. 1st, 2013 12:09 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
birdienl.livejournal.comThe Lightkeeper's Bride - Colleen Coble 2/5
Katie Russel's family presses for an engagement to wealthy bachelor Mr. Foster, but she does not love him. When her work as a telephone operator leads her to become entangled in a murder case, it is the new lightkeeper Will Jesperson who helps her investigate and who stirs her heart.
I rather enjoyed Coble's previous book in this series, The Lightkeeper's Daughter. But that book's weaknesses seemed to be doubled in this second part. An unrealistic mystery, a love story developing too fast and flat characters, this was a book I could not wait to finish and not for good reasons! One of it's worst fault I found that the characterization of Katie Russel's family (especially her mother) did not seem to match with their appearance in The Lightkeeper's Daughter. If you are to write a series with recurring characters, at least make sure you mind consistency!
The Taste of Sorrow - Jude Morgan 4/5
The story of the Brontë sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne and their journey to become the famous Victorian novelists.
Reading this book is like sitting at the breakfast table in Haworth parsonage and seeing the life of the Brontë family happening before your eyes. Jude Morgan has managed to come very close to the talented Brontë sisters, their father and their brother Branwell in this novel. The prose is beautiful and often resembles the style of the 'classics'. The story is a sad one, which is unavoidable, as the life of Charlotte, Emily and Anne was hard and sad. A real treat for fans of the Brontë novels (as I am), you feel like you know them and understand their work better after reading this.
Eight cousins - Louisa May Alcott 4/5
Rose Campbell has recently been orphaned and resides with her maiden aunts. When her guardian Uncle Alec returns from sea and she meets her seven boy-cousins, her life is turned around.
What a sweet book! Reading an Alcott novel can sometimes feel more like reading a book of moral lessons than a story, and Eight cousins also has her fair share of this problem. This can grate the nerves of the 21st century reader, but despite this, I still loved it. Alcott just puts such joy of the little things in life in her work: good food, making new friends, a lovely summer day, you cannot help but feel happy when you read one of her novels. Rose Campbell is an endearing character and so is her energetic uncle Alec and bookish cousin Mac. I'm definitely going to find and read the sequel; Rose in bloom.
A tailor-made bride - Karen Witemeyer 3/5
When dressmaker Hannah Richards, who loves beautiful things, opens up a new shop in the small town of Coventry, Texas, she crosses paths with liveryman J.T. Tucker, who condems vanity and sparks begin to fly!
A sweet and fun read, but.... This book suffers a little from the same problems many Christian historical fiction seems to suffer from these days: unrealistic romances and the hero and heroine swooning over each other from page 5. Hannah and J.T. are interesting characters with promise, but the story would have been better if more time/pages were devoted to their character's back story and development in stead of their romance. I'm absolutely a romantic, but this works best between two fully realized characters. I would for example have been interested in a little more description of Hannah's work as a dressmaker and J.T.'s position in the town of Coventry.
Books in January: 4
Books in 2013: 4
Katie Russel's family presses for an engagement to wealthy bachelor Mr. Foster, but she does not love him. When her work as a telephone operator leads her to become entangled in a murder case, it is the new lightkeeper Will Jesperson who helps her investigate and who stirs her heart.
I rather enjoyed Coble's previous book in this series, The Lightkeeper's Daughter. But that book's weaknesses seemed to be doubled in this second part. An unrealistic mystery, a love story developing too fast and flat characters, this was a book I could not wait to finish and not for good reasons! One of it's worst fault I found that the characterization of Katie Russel's family (especially her mother) did not seem to match with their appearance in The Lightkeeper's Daughter. If you are to write a series with recurring characters, at least make sure you mind consistency!
The Taste of Sorrow - Jude Morgan 4/5
The story of the Brontë sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne and their journey to become the famous Victorian novelists.
Reading this book is like sitting at the breakfast table in Haworth parsonage and seeing the life of the Brontë family happening before your eyes. Jude Morgan has managed to come very close to the talented Brontë sisters, their father and their brother Branwell in this novel. The prose is beautiful and often resembles the style of the 'classics'. The story is a sad one, which is unavoidable, as the life of Charlotte, Emily and Anne was hard and sad. A real treat for fans of the Brontë novels (as I am), you feel like you know them and understand their work better after reading this.
Eight cousins - Louisa May Alcott 4/5
Rose Campbell has recently been orphaned and resides with her maiden aunts. When her guardian Uncle Alec returns from sea and she meets her seven boy-cousins, her life is turned around.
What a sweet book! Reading an Alcott novel can sometimes feel more like reading a book of moral lessons than a story, and Eight cousins also has her fair share of this problem. This can grate the nerves of the 21st century reader, but despite this, I still loved it. Alcott just puts such joy of the little things in life in her work: good food, making new friends, a lovely summer day, you cannot help but feel happy when you read one of her novels. Rose Campbell is an endearing character and so is her energetic uncle Alec and bookish cousin Mac. I'm definitely going to find and read the sequel; Rose in bloom.
A tailor-made bride - Karen Witemeyer 3/5
When dressmaker Hannah Richards, who loves beautiful things, opens up a new shop in the small town of Coventry, Texas, she crosses paths with liveryman J.T. Tucker, who condems vanity and sparks begin to fly!
A sweet and fun read, but.... This book suffers a little from the same problems many Christian historical fiction seems to suffer from these days: unrealistic romances and the hero and heroine swooning over each other from page 5. Hannah and J.T. are interesting characters with promise, but the story would have been better if more time/pages were devoted to their character's back story and development in stead of their romance. I'm absolutely a romantic, but this works best between two fully realized characters. I would for example have been interested in a little more description of Hannah's work as a dressmaker and J.T.'s position in the town of Coventry.
Books in January: 4
Books in 2013: 4
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