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lshulz 's review for:
The Lavender Garden
by Lucinda Riley
Overall, this was an enjoyable and interesting read.
My main issue was with the two main female characters of each timeline, Constance and Emilie. While on first description they both seem to be strong capable woman, I did feel like there was a bit too much “damsel in distress” energy.
Emilie had been through a lot and had even broken away from the family to be a vet. Yet when responsibility falls on her she starts out helpless and walks easily into a marriage with a man clearly trying to take advantage of her. Not to mention when her dog gets hit by a car and they take it to the vet. Girl aren’t you a vet? You really couldn’t help at all? Her character gets much better by the end and redeems herself, but for most of the book I was annoyed by her.
Constance had all this training to be the perfect agent/spy, but also seems super helpless most of the book. I get that there wasn’t much she could do, but when it came time to escape why did the maid have a better handle on the situation then her when she had been trained for that. She also redeems herself a bit later in the book but I still was confused reading about her character for most of it.
It seemed that both were strong women. But when it came time for them to be strong, they were very stereotypically helpless weepy woman. It felt contradictory to how they were originally described.
The author did a very good job of portraying the time period and the environment. I didn’t love that it felt like the defending of Fredrik felt a little like “not all nazi’s are bad.” I didn’t think that’s what the author meant to do. I think she was trying to talk about humanity, but still the whole time I was like nah I won’t have sympathy for this character literally ever.
I did enjoy the overall story, it was interesting albeit predictable. Again, flawed but still an enjoyable read.
My main issue was with the two main female characters of each timeline, Constance and Emilie. While on first description they both seem to be strong capable woman, I did feel like there was a bit too much “damsel in distress” energy.
Emilie had been through a lot and had even broken away from the family to be a vet. Yet when responsibility falls on her she starts out helpless and walks easily into a marriage with a man clearly trying to take advantage of her. Not to mention when her dog gets hit by a car and they take it to the vet. Girl aren’t you a vet? You really couldn’t help at all? Her character gets much better by the end and redeems herself, but for most of the book I was annoyed by her.
Constance had all this training to be the perfect agent/spy, but also seems super helpless most of the book. I get that there wasn’t much she could do, but when it came time to escape why did the maid have a better handle on the situation then her when she had been trained for that. She also redeems herself a bit later in the book but I still was confused reading about her character for most of it.
It seemed that both were strong women. But when it came time for them to be strong, they were very stereotypically helpless weepy woman. It felt contradictory to how they were originally described.
The author did a very good job of portraying the time period and the environment. I didn’t love that it felt like the defending of Fredrik felt a little like “not all nazi’s are bad.” I didn’t think that’s what the author meant to do. I think she was trying to talk about humanity, but still the whole time I was like nah I won’t have sympathy for this character literally ever.
I did enjoy the overall story, it was interesting albeit predictable. Again, flawed but still an enjoyable read.