A review by abrittlebee
The Poppy and the Rose by Ashlee Cowles

1.0

The language in The Poppy and The Rose was very eloquent and poetic. It made reading the novel very pleasant because it was not overly descriptive or repetitive, but it did feel substantial and worth paying attention to every word. The way in which the dual narrative was handled also felt very directorial and unique. Being that half the book was historical fiction and the other half was a modern mystery, I knew right of the bat that one narrative was going to be more engaging than the other. This is something that is fairly unavoidable when a novel has two distinct narrative voices and plot lines. However, the fact that the modern protagonist, Taylor, was just as engaged with reading about Ava, the Titanic survivor and historical narrator, endeared me more to Taylor and therefor ensured that I was not trying to rush through the modern mystery sections of the novel.
The one major issue I had with The Poppy and The Rose has to do with how information was conveyed. It is very obvious that this book was very well-researched. However, the constant historical name dropping and complete references to historical events in the inner monologue and the dialogue was way too intrusive. I say "complete references" because, rather than a subtle hint at a historical event for context, there was instead entire sentences detailing an event, who was involved, and how everything panned out. These references and names would often come out of nowhere, and have little to no real impact on either plot line. As such, they read more as a textbook entry and would break the immersion of the story