Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Secret Book of Flora Lea

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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nataliebootlah's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

Twenty years after the disappearance of her younger sister, Flora, the book of Whisperwood comes across Hazel’s desk at work. Considering the only person who knows about Whisperwood is her long-gone sister, Hazel immediately tries to track down its author, whom she hopes—somehow—is Flora.

Toggling between WWII and the 1960’s, the reader is front row to fourteen year-old Hazel and five-year old Flora as they evacuate war-torn London and adult Hazel as she reels at the possibility of Flora still being alive.

I picked up this book blind and wanted to love it. It’s historical fiction, whimsy, and centers around the magic of storytelling. Despite wanting to know how everything works out, I just wasn’t invested in the characters as much as I expected to be. Perhaps it was because the lead-up was way too slow, or how it felt just a tad too long. Either way, it was a great display of the love between two close-knit sisters, how storytelling can change the trajectory of your life, and reconciling with loss.

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oceanwriter's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.75

I blindly picked up this book only knowing it was historical fiction. I’d read Once Upon A Wardrobe by Patti Callahan Henry a while back and enjoyed it, so when this came up as a Book of the Month pick last year, I selected it without even glancing at the synopsis.

Like many children living in London during World War II, Hazel and Flora are sent to the country away. The girls spend their days lost in stories about the ‘Whisperwood’ to distract themselves from the horrors of war — a secret story only the two of them know. Despite having been taken in by a loving mother and her son, a different tragedy hits their family when Flora disappears.

Years later and into adulthood, Hazel still holds out hope that her little sister will be found. She doesn’t believe her sister drowned as many speculate. When she comes across a book at work depicting the 'Whisperwood', she is certain it will lead her to Flora.

Paired with the rich historical setting, the mystery is one I found myself so invested in that I listened to/read it in one sitting. Despite wanting to know how everything works out immediately, I didn’t find myself wholly invested in the characters. I’m not sure why. They were all likable and even though there were some dark themes running through it, there was ultimately a cozy atmosphere. Whatever the case, it was still a sweet book.

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kdonovan's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.75

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eviemayhem's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

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terrirankl's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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laurenabeth's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed this one. It starts just a tiny bit slow, but picks up pretty quickly and is engaging throughout. The one thing that didn’t land for me was the side story about the Americans. I felt they were included just to emphasize how stories evolve and travel over time, but it seemed almost as though those characters were written as an afterthought. I wasn’t especially interested or concerned in the few chapters that focused on them, and in fact, I’d argue that those chapters were disruptive considering how small a part they played in the overall conclusion of the story. Still, I found this to be great historical fiction about a very particular but rarely discussed tragedy of the war - lost children. I’m fascinated by the idea of crime taking place during and being ultimately overshadowed by world events (think a kidnapping on the morning of 9/11), and Flora Lea captures the urgency and helplessness of those situations well. The characters are believable and endearing, and while I don’t love how frequently the chapters jumped back and forth between 1940 and 1960, the tales ultimately wrap together fittingly and make this a satisfying whodunit of sorts. This is truly a book about the power of fairytales, the love of sisters and mothers, and finding the many truths of yourself.

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markedwithanm's review

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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