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thepaigeturner 's review for:
The River King
by Alice Hoffman
I suppose I have to accept that I will never find another Alice Hoffman book that I love as much as "The Rules of Magic". I thought I would with "Practical Magic", but that was disappointing, maybe because I love the film adaptation so much.
"The River King" is the story of a scandal surrounding a boarding school in Haddan, Massachusetts. The scenery and writing is beautiful, but it takes many pages to get to the root of the story. I don't typically do well with books when the chapters are very long. Sure, I can finish a book in a day, no problem, but I like chapters to break it up. I just slowly made it through the beginning half of this book and sometimes couldn't even remember what I read. I gave it 3 stars because once the story actually gets started, it gets good. Who doesn't love a good murder mystery? However, the ending of the book was not as satisfying as I hoped it would be. Hoffman did a good job of getting the reader to dislike the protagonist, as I did, however, I hoped for more in the end. I didn't feel satisfied enough with the resolution. I do love how she incorporates magic and romance in her novels.
All in all, I could go either way with this book, take it or leave it. I'm not sure it's one I would recommend, but it still wasn't bad or great. Just mediocre.
"The River King" is the story of a scandal surrounding a boarding school in Haddan, Massachusetts. The scenery and writing is beautiful, but it takes many pages to get to the root of the story. I don't typically do well with books when the chapters are very long. Sure, I can finish a book in a day, no problem, but I like chapters to break it up. I just slowly made it through the beginning half of this book and sometimes couldn't even remember what I read. I gave it 3 stars because once the story actually gets started, it gets good. Who doesn't love a good murder mystery? However, the ending of the book was not as satisfying as I hoped it would be. Hoffman did a good job of getting the reader to dislike the protagonist, as I did, however, I hoped for more in the end. I didn't feel satisfied enough with the resolution. I do love how she incorporates magic and romance in her novels.
All in all, I could go either way with this book, take it or leave it. I'm not sure it's one I would recommend, but it still wasn't bad or great. Just mediocre.