Reviews

The Postcard by Leah Fleming

livres_de_bloss's review against another edition

3.0

This was really good up until the last one hundred pages or so; the Melissa component made it drag as she was surly, combative and one dimensional. This would have been a five star book if it hadn’t had a “modern story”.

drrachrich's review against another edition

2.0

The Postcard seemed designed exactly to appeal to me with everything I love: family secrets, inter-generational stories, wartime romance, international travel, and a nonlinear story structure. The FANY! Female SOE agents! Lena Ashwell’s concert parties! Even the Scottish Women’s Hospitals got a name check. But I was so let down by the writing. I felt like I was reading someone’s first draft (not helped by the numerous typos throughout). The prose was clunky with no style or rhythm. I found the leaps in POV and perspective jarring. The narrative would go from a sweeping style covering a dozen years in one paragraph to describing the minutiae of everyday life in the next with no cues to the reader, which I found disorientating. A lot of the characterization was clumsily done; self-revelations told as internal dialogue with little to no build up. The historical details were obviously well-researched by inserted so artlessly I couldn’t enjoy them. And the love scenes were literally cringe worthy. It took me about 150 pages until I could ignore the style enough to read without constantly rolling my eyes. I found myself skimming over huge chunks just to get to the end, which I did (I give up on books very easily if I’m not enjoying them but I still found the story intriguing enough to want to know what happened), but I’m not sure it was worth it. I was really hoping to find another historical fiction author to enjoy, so I’m hugely disappointed.

hobbes199's review against another edition

4.0

I was originally doubtful about this as romantic/historical family sagas really aren't really my thing, but I was immersed in the World Fleming created.
Full review to follow.

cerim's review

4.0

Ok, so everything came together very well in this novel and there were a lot of coincidences and ‘it just so happens’ but I found myself so drawn in to the world of Phoebe, Callie, Desmond and others that I could overlook the historical inaccuracies and the slightly skewed timeline.

I really enjoyed the different settings and thought the author did well to capture such varying environments around the world.

The one thing that really did annoy me was Jessie referring to Desmond as ‘hen’ - this just wouldn’t happen as he is male, and no one in Scotland refers to boys as ‘hens’. But that’s a very small nitpick!

I enjoyed this family history tale which spanned decades and would definitely read more from the author.

beedee's review

5.0

What a great story through the century and three generations. It starts in 2002, when young Melissa discovers mysterious postcard, many years old, in her deceased fathers things. And then the story takes us back to the 1920s, WWII and until 2002. We travel through UK, Belgium, Egypt, Germany and Australia.
The whole story end peeling off 70 years of family secrets is about choices and consequences. Sometimes we have warnings to which we don’t listen; sometimes we make decisions without knowing what is really going to happen.
Beautifully written characters, very even story telling, not a moment of losing the plot, kept me going from one page to the next.
I am glad I found this author and I am very curious what other her books are bout.