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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Glamorous Illusions is the first novel in Lisa T. Bergren’s new Grand Tour series. The year is 1913, and Cora Diehl returns from her second year of college to find her father struck down by illness and the crops on the family’s farm failing from drought. It seems unlikely that she will be able to continue her education, and it’s not even certain whether they will be able to hold onto their house and land. Into the midst of this turmoil comes a stranger, Mr. Kensington, with a revelation that will change her life forever.
Cora is stunned to learn that the wealthy copper baron who has arrived at her farm is actually her natural father, and that she was conceived while her mother was a maid in his home. Although a complete stranger to her, he has been keeping track of her through the years and has come now to offer help to her parents and to invite her to join the rest of his children this summer for their European Grand Tour.
Thus begins Cora’s whirlwind adventure, as she is whisked away to the Kensington estate and introduced to her half-siblings, who have only learned of her existence a few days earlier. After being outfitted with an entirely new wardrobe and assigned a maid to help her adjust to her new situation, Cora finds herself on a ship to England as part of a group including her new family as well as their friends, the Morgans, and their paid tour guides, Stuart and his nephew Will.
Glamorous Illusions takes the reader on a journey of cultural discovery against the backdrop of Europe’s historic castles and treasured landmarks while also showing us Cora’s journey to discover who she is and where she belongs. Begren’s writing is fluid and engaging, deftly mixing the subjects of class and status with the interpersonal relationships of the group.
While Cora struggles with these questions of personal identity, she also finds her heart being drawn in almost equal measure to Will, the young tour guide, and Pierre, a charming French nobleman who takes an interest in her. And as much as I enjoyed seeing her find peace within her spirit as she settles into her new identity, I am also looking forward to the next book in this delightful series to find out where her heart will end up.
Cora is stunned to learn that the wealthy copper baron who has arrived at her farm is actually her natural father, and that she was conceived while her mother was a maid in his home. Although a complete stranger to her, he has been keeping track of her through the years and has come now to offer help to her parents and to invite her to join the rest of his children this summer for their European Grand Tour.
Thus begins Cora’s whirlwind adventure, as she is whisked away to the Kensington estate and introduced to her half-siblings, who have only learned of her existence a few days earlier. After being outfitted with an entirely new wardrobe and assigned a maid to help her adjust to her new situation, Cora finds herself on a ship to England as part of a group including her new family as well as their friends, the Morgans, and their paid tour guides, Stuart and his nephew Will.
Glamorous Illusions takes the reader on a journey of cultural discovery against the backdrop of Europe’s historic castles and treasured landmarks while also showing us Cora’s journey to discover who she is and where she belongs. Begren’s writing is fluid and engaging, deftly mixing the subjects of class and status with the interpersonal relationships of the group.
While Cora struggles with these questions of personal identity, she also finds her heart being drawn in almost equal measure to Will, the young tour guide, and Pierre, a charming French nobleman who takes an interest in her. And as much as I enjoyed seeing her find peace within her spirit as she settles into her new identity, I am also looking forward to the next book in this delightful series to find out where her heart will end up.
I didn't like this as well as her other books I've read. I actually found it pretty boring.
Apparently some time around 2012 I added a number of Christian historical romances to my to read list and then promptly forgot I had done so. I had this book marked as "young adult" which I spent the last decade or so sincerely believing it was. I think I was looking for "clean" (low spice) romance books, and these books fit that bill. I am now trying to get through my huge TBR backlist and so am rediscovering these titles.
I read [b:Masquerade|6973760|Masquerade|Nancy Moser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1258612178l/6973760._SY75_.jpg|57958016] earlier this year and quite enjoyed it. This one I enjoyed less, but I can certainly see the appeal of this genre, so long as you appreciate or don't mind books with an emphasis on Christianity.
These books are pure, fluffy wish fulfillment with hardships being overcome by kind dispositions and Providence. In this book, Cora Kensington is the hardworking daughter of simple farm folk who dreams of being a teacher. But when her father gets sick and they are in dire financial straits, her true father swoops in. Her mother was seduced by a powerful Copper King (a wealthy industrialist who made his fortune in copper mines) who treated his illegitimate offspring with benign neglect (he certainly wasn't giving them enough money to keep the farm!). He suddenly decides to take an interest in Cora - by shipping her off with her half-siblings on a Grand Tour of Europe.
While on the Tour, Cora develops feelings for both their handsome young tour guide, Will (known as a "Bear" ), and a dashing French aristocrat. She is also for some reason the target of a violent kidnapping plot for ransom, which I'm pretty sure is not something that happened on the Grand Tour - the characters act like it is expected that the children of the wealthy would be ransom targets, which makes sense, but people would not be sending their daughters on a Grand Tour if that had really happened. I confess that I was tuning in and out of the middle of this book - it was a pleasant audiobook but not something I paid keen attention to - so maybe the kidnapping plot was better explained but it felt like the tour group was swanning around Western Europe enjoying themselves and then all of a sudden had to fight off kidnappers.
I enjoyed Masquerade more because there was better character growth. Cora felt like an early Victorian morality tale heroine like Heidi or Pollyanna - a sweet girl who with the power of goodness and faith succeeds (she easily convinces her Copper King father to give his employees $1 more an hour - I highly doubt a 19th century industrialist could be swayed by a young girl's gumption into giving up any more money than he had to. This was the era where Copper Kings hired the Pinkertons to beat their miners to death for demanding fair wages). It makes the book cozy and pleasant, but not particularly interesting to me.
I read [b:Masquerade|6973760|Masquerade|Nancy Moser|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1258612178l/6973760._SY75_.jpg|57958016] earlier this year and quite enjoyed it. This one I enjoyed less, but I can certainly see the appeal of this genre, so long as you appreciate or don't mind books with an emphasis on Christianity.
These books are pure, fluffy wish fulfillment with hardships being overcome by kind dispositions and Providence. In this book, Cora Kensington is the hardworking daughter of simple farm folk who dreams of being a teacher. But when her father gets sick and they are in dire financial straits, her true father swoops in. Her mother was seduced by a powerful Copper King (a wealthy industrialist who made his fortune in copper mines) who treated his illegitimate offspring with benign neglect (he certainly wasn't giving them enough money to keep the farm!). He suddenly decides to take an interest in Cora - by shipping her off with her half-siblings on a Grand Tour of Europe.
While on the Tour, Cora develops feelings for both their handsome young tour guide, Will (known as a "Bear" ), and a dashing French aristocrat. She is also for some reason the target of a violent kidnapping plot for ransom, which I'm pretty sure is not something that happened on the Grand Tour - the characters act like it is expected that the children of the wealthy would be ransom targets, which makes sense, but people would not be sending their daughters on a Grand Tour if that had really happened. I confess that I was tuning in and out of the middle of this book - it was a pleasant audiobook but not something I paid keen attention to - so maybe the kidnapping plot was better explained but it felt like the tour group was swanning around Western Europe enjoying themselves and then all of a sudden had to fight off kidnappers.
I enjoyed Masquerade more because there was better character growth. Cora felt like an early Victorian morality tale heroine like Heidi or Pollyanna - a sweet girl who with the power of goodness and faith succeeds (she easily convinces her Copper King father to give his employees $1 more an hour - I highly doubt a 19th century industrialist could be swayed by a young girl's gumption into giving up any more money than he had to. This was the era where Copper Kings hired the Pinkertons to beat their miners to death for demanding fair wages). It makes the book cozy and pleasant, but not particularly interesting to me.
adventurous
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Moved REALLY slows. It’s a fine story, but thought it was TO SLOW! Took, what felt like, forever to finish.
Oh my gosh this was so good! I couldn't put it down! I was lucky to get this for free on amazon. We start with Cora who just returned from school to see her parents only to discover that she is an illegitimate daughter of a copper king and was given an opportunity to go a Grand Tour with her siblings. Is she lucky or what??? I adored Cora character and how she dealt with all the gossip and talks about her among the rich society. She is so strong and it was nice to see a character like her in a book. I like it how she dealt with her snobby half-sisters not through anger but kindness. I didn't realize it was a Christian book which it is totally fine since I am a Christian and it's do hard to find good ones among the shelves. And romance it was a nice clean one which it is refreshing from the other romances I've been reading it was great to see that it started out slow and developing throughout the novel I'm in love with Will he is so caring and sweet!!! I'm so glad it's a series because I cannot wait to read and I'm definitly going to check out the River of Times series!!!!
On the positive side, this book's (main) characters had depth to them and were multidimensional. I especially liked Cora's thoughts during the first few chapters when she is faced with the truth of her past and the unwelcome opportunities it presents to her. For the most part, Cora's emotional struggles seem very realistic. However, as the book wore on, I felt like Cora kept going through the same thought processes- I can't recall how many times she says she's had some great revelation about how to face her half-siblings and what she wants out of the trip, only to somehow forget and then come to the same conclusion again.
Another positive of the book is that while it is about a religious person using religion to help navigate their life, it is not a book that preaches at the reader.
There were long stretches of the book that I found boring. In part this might be because the book is generally realistic, with little in terms of the fighting and world-saving found in many novels, but I usually enjoy the occasional realistic novel. Whenever some dramatic event did happen in the book, it seemed forced and sometimes just plain ridiculous. For instance, during a storm, it felt very cliched that two love interests just happened to be rocked into a compromising position. The final scenes are full of action, but felt entirely out of place, like some medieval spy novel's chapters had been accidentally slipped in.
I considered giving this book 3 stars because its characters are a lot fuller than usual in a novel of this kind, but for some reason the story just did not click with me and I struggled through many sections.
Another positive of the book is that while it is about a religious person using religion to help navigate their life, it is not a book that preaches at the reader.
There were long stretches of the book that I found boring. In part this might be because the book is generally realistic, with little in terms of the fighting and world-saving found in many novels, but I usually enjoy the occasional realistic novel. Whenever some dramatic event did happen in the book, it seemed forced and sometimes just plain ridiculous. For instance, during a storm, it felt very cliched that two love interests just happened to be rocked into a compromising position. The final scenes are full of action, but felt entirely out of place, like some medieval spy novel's chapters had been accidentally slipped in.
I considered giving this book 3 stars because its characters are a lot fuller than usual in a novel of this kind, but for some reason the story just did not click with me and I struggled through many sections.
I'll admit, sometimes I judge a book by its cover. In my defense, you can tell a lot about a book by its cover, such as who the author is.. which, for me at least, goes a long way in convincing me as to whether or not I'll read the book! But I really love the cover of this book, but that's about it when it came to Glamorous Illusions.
Its not that I didn't like the book, but I didn't realize when it said that this book was part of a series, that you would be left hanging. I don't mind series books, I like them, but I also like to have a complete story.
In a nut shell, the main character Cora Kensington finds out she's the child of a copper tycoon, and in order to save her mother and the man she's called father she must leave all she's ever known and go and live with her biological father and his two other children. I'm sure you can imagine everyone was thrilled at this prospect and lived happily ever after.
Nope.
Not was she to leave all she'd ever known, but she was to go "Grand Tour" of Europe with people she'd never met before. People who really could have cared less if they'd never seen them at all.
Ms. Bergren sweeps you along in a whirlwind of emotions as Cora's father (wrongly in my opinion) thrusts her into these very awkward situations and then backs out to let her handle the backlash. Honestly, he acts like he's doing the best thing for her, but it was his lack of control that got everyone too this point, the least you'd think he'd do is at least take some of the heat himself!?
Anyway, despite having to wait until, God knows when, for the next book, I enjoyed getting to know Cora and Company and will more than likely be reading the next book in this series.
This review copy was received for free in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.com
http://mynameis-erin.blogspot.com/
Its not that I didn't like the book, but I didn't realize when it said that this book was part of a series, that you would be left hanging. I don't mind series books, I like them, but I also like to have a complete story.
In a nut shell, the main character Cora Kensington finds out she's the child of a copper tycoon, and in order to save her mother and the man she's called father she must leave all she's ever known and go and live with her biological father and his two other children. I'm sure you can imagine everyone was thrilled at this prospect and lived happily ever after.
Nope.
Not was she to leave all she'd ever known, but she was to go "Grand Tour" of Europe with people she'd never met before. People who really could have cared less if they'd never seen them at all.
Ms. Bergren sweeps you along in a whirlwind of emotions as Cora's father (wrongly in my opinion) thrusts her into these very awkward situations and then backs out to let her handle the backlash. Honestly, he acts like he's doing the best thing for her, but it was his lack of control that got everyone too this point, the least you'd think he'd do is at least take some of the heat himself!?
Anyway, despite having to wait until, God knows when, for the next book, I enjoyed getting to know Cora and Company and will more than likely be reading the next book in this series.
This review copy was received for free in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.com
http://mynameis-erin.blogspot.com/
I would have probably given this one 4 or even 5 stars if it wasn't for the fact that Kora was constantly being described as every man's dream. We get it. All other girls are evil step sisters, and she is the innocent, beautiful MC.
Also, the phrase "only friends and nothing more" was probably used 100 times.
Also, the phrase "only friends and nothing more" was probably used 100 times.