Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - The Secret Book of Flora Lea: A Novel

Very emotional read and I liked how the timeline switched from Hazel’s childhood to the present. The story was a bit too slow for my personal preference but it was still written well just took me a while to get through. I loved the scenes with Hazel and Henry and so happy they

got their happy ending. I feel like the author did really well buttoning up the ending with no questions left. Towards the end it got a bit melodramatic for me but it was still a good book. Just not something I usually gravitate towards.

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kristyvaldez's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.75

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amybartoli29's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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readingonfordearlife's review against another edition

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emotional informative mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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bxnnny's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

i really wanted to like this book and it was something i chose in order to branch out from my normal reading habits of horror and mystery. though this still had an element of mystery, it didn't really hit the mark for me. i found that the constant back-and-forth time jumps made the story feel disjointed and caused me to have a hard time focusing. i understand the point of the time jumps but didn't feel they needed to be as frequent as they were. i also found a lot of parts to be just fluff without any real substance or necessity. wren as a character felt completely unnecessary, i didn't understand barnaby's weird and constant ultimatums and just straight up being an ass about everything, and i even found some parts with harry to be just boring fluff. you probably could have removed all three of these characters and would have ended up with the same story (okay, maybe keep harry, but still). i overall just felt that the author was trying to write a beautiful story with a deep meaning and a thoughtful message but it honestly just felt so surface-level to me. it felt more like a skeleton of a story than a fully flesh-out one. i don't know. it just didn't do it for me, which is unfortunate. (also, take a shot for every time tolkien or the hobbit is referenced lmao)

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jmyodafriend's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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