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A review by ozgirl63
The Garden of Letters by Alyson Richman
3.0
Here’s the thing. There is some lovely writing in this book, I mean, really lovely, and that is why I’m annoyed at the problems the editors should have sent back to the author for simple revision and this would have been a great book. Some beautiful plot and character construction, yes, brilliant historical facts woven through the story, and I wanted to just love those parts of it and ignore the problems: we were bashed with just a bit too many of the “superpower looks” all-meaning glances, etc., there were things that just didn’t add up. For example, throughout the book, we are shown that Elodie has learned to put a façade on her fear, to move invisible through the streets of danger, and yet when she arrives in Portofino, still with her façade in place, she is picked out by the doctor because she is the one wearing the most fear! Which is it?
And a few things were just annoying. SPOILER: Would a trained, seasoned resistance fighter who is hiding and seeking in the woods, surrounded by the enemy, miraculously find all the things needed give his love a bath, including a handy spring of fresh water, and then light a fire to heat that water? Light a fire as a signal to the enemy where they are, really? I also thought it might have been a stretch that the beloved cello would appear just a couple of months from the time of its loss, to the convenient den of the German commander in a village of little action. We have a few problems with when the baby was created and how far along she felt it “kicking,” but, most of all, the ending was really unbelievable based on what we have been told the character of the characters was! She tells him her name, he tells her his history, and then immediately they are making love on the sofa and the sister is making wedding plans. It was not believable with the characters as presented.
The final piece that was just plain wrong was when she decided to add her history to the “garden” but instead of using pages from the book that Luca gave her with his inscription, she let Angelo give her his copy to cup up instead. This removed all the power from the action and was disappointing.
And a few things were just annoying. SPOILER: Would a trained, seasoned resistance fighter who is hiding and seeking in the woods, surrounded by the enemy, miraculously find all the things needed give his love a bath, including a handy spring of fresh water, and then light a fire to heat that water? Light a fire as a signal to the enemy where they are, really? I also thought it might have been a stretch that the beloved cello would appear just a couple of months from the time of its loss, to the convenient den of the German commander in a village of little action. We have a few problems with when the baby was created and how far along she felt it “kicking,” but, most of all, the ending was really unbelievable based on what we have been told the character of the characters was! She tells him her name, he tells her his history, and then immediately they are making love on the sofa and the sister is making wedding plans. It was not believable with the characters as presented.
The final piece that was just plain wrong was when she decided to add her history to the “garden” but instead of using pages from the book that Luca gave her with his inscription, she let Angelo give her his copy to cup up instead. This removed all the power from the action and was disappointing.