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3.52 AVERAGE
3.52 AVERAGE
I have been waiting for Eleanor Brown's next book, and this did not disappoint. It does that thing where the story has two plot lines alternating between 1999 and 1919, but it's made clear from the beginning that there is an important plot/character connection between the two lines. Madeleine (1999) is unhappy and disconnected from her true self, caught up in trying to please her mother and her husband. The 1999 story is set both in Chicago and in Magnolia, a small charming Southern town. Margie (1919) is waiting for her life to begin after her debut into Washington D.C. society, and seizes her chance to broaden her experience by chaperoning her wild younger cousin on a trip to Europe. The 1999 story is set in Washington D.C., on the ocean liner, and in Paris. This is a story about women finding themselves. I really enjoyed it.
I wanted to like this book much better than I did. It is two parallel stories of woman and her grandmother one modern and one set in Paris in the 1920s. It is a literacy structure I enjoy but it fell flat here. I liked the grandmother's story. The character seemed believable and the writing vibrant. The granddaughter however seemed contrived and weak. Even her redemption seems unimpressive.
a fun, feel-good story, but a bit predictable. switches between paris in the 1920s (grandma) and chicago/magnolia in the 1990s (granddaughter.)
kind of similar to "the wicked city" by beatriz williams which i read earlier this year. i think i'm already mixing them up in my head a bit.
kind of similar to "the wicked city" by beatriz williams which i read earlier this year. i think i'm already mixing them up in my head a bit.
adventurous
emotional
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
Madeleine is not like other girls. Other girls are happy in their lives of being rich and privileged--not Madeleine! Madeleine thinks having a big condo is a drag and would rather have a small apartment. The feeling of having to have housekeepers is just dreadful!
Seeeeriously, how does this MC keep getting written? Madeleine is rich and hates it because she doesn't fit in with her horrible husband's rich-people atmosphere and her horrible mom is disappointed in her slobbiness and both the horrible husband and horrible mom think that Madeleine is horribly fat. And then we have the dual perspective of the exact same thing happening with Madeleine's grandmother. A different spin on rich girl can't rich girl well enough.
I'm only a quarter of the way through, but so far this is a boring book with dismal characters, blanketed in a thick layer of fatphobia. So much focus on what this poor girl is eating. And everyone around her is just blithely happy, like this girl thinks she's the only person with depth in the whole world. Please. Someone. Anyone. Give me characters (plural) with complexity. Anyone????
Edit: I'm now done with this book and it did not get any better. First of all, the opening of the book with Madeleine and that teacher really gave off some sapphic vibes and I'm disappointed that this book had no sapphic behavior whatsoever. Madeleine's husband continued to not have any depth and, in fact, only became less interesting and more awful in the end. And Madeleine continued to just be a coming-of-age 16yo in a 30yo's body. And look, I love coming-of-age stuff for adults; people never stop growing. But the fact that it's, like, 85% of the way through the book, she's dealing with her husband and she realizes that he has a whole inner life in the same way she does??? Uh, yeahhh??? It was obvious through the whole book that she had no concept of other people being 3d aside from herself and, I mean, all the characters were written totally 2d, so sure, of course she was confused.
Yeah, it just sucked. If I read about another rich person wishing to be poor I'll universe-cross and rob them myself. It only gets 2 stars because I guess the writing style was fine...maybe I should give it 1 star XD
Seeeeriously, how does this MC keep getting written? Madeleine is rich and hates it because she doesn't fit in with her horrible husband's rich-people atmosphere and her horrible mom is disappointed in her slobbiness and both the horrible husband and horrible mom think that Madeleine is horribly fat. And then we have the dual perspective of the exact same thing happening with Madeleine's grandmother. A different spin on rich girl can't rich girl well enough.
I'm only a quarter of the way through, but so far this is a boring book with dismal characters, blanketed in a thick layer of fatphobia. So much focus on what this poor girl is eating. And everyone around her is just blithely happy, like this girl thinks she's the only person with depth in the whole world. Please. Someone. Anyone. Give me characters (plural) with complexity. Anyone????
Edit: I'm now done with this book and it did not get any better. First of all, the opening of the book with Madeleine and that teacher really gave off some sapphic vibes and I'm disappointed that this book had no sapphic behavior whatsoever. Madeleine's husband continued to not have any depth and, in fact, only became less interesting and more awful in the end. And Madeleine continued to just be a coming-of-age 16yo in a 30yo's body. And look, I love coming-of-age stuff for adults; people never stop growing. But the fact that it's, like, 85% of the way through the book, she's dealing with her husband and she realizes that he has a whole inner life in the same way she does??? Uh, yeahhh??? It was obvious through the whole book that she had no concept of other people being 3d aside from herself and, I mean, all the characters were written totally 2d, so sure, of course she was confused.
Yeah, it just sucked. If I read about another rich person wishing to be poor I'll universe-cross and rob them myself. It only gets 2 stars because I guess the writing style was fine...maybe I should give it 1 star XD
You know, the ending really redeemed this book. A little bit. The middle part was tough to get through. Yikes. My thoughts about the characters really reversed by the last chapter which isn’t great. And not even in the morally grey way. They just were horrible people.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was so disappointed with this one. I feel like I'm officially in a reading slump. It could be because I'm sick. I'm not completely sure but I'm not loving anything that I thought I would. This one included. I just didn't connect with the writing style. I couldn't care at all for the characters. And the plot was just meh for me. As I said, I am in a reading slump and sick, so that is most likely effecting my reading, but I just didn't love this one.
This wasn't really good or bad, it just was. I liked some parts and it was a quick read, but overall I didn't love it.