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A review by bizarrebrunette
The Briar Club by Kate Quinn
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
3 stars
Washington D.C. 1954. Briarwood House will have new energy when Grace March moves in. Grace has a way of getting the other residents to open up and they have developed a close friendship. Four years later, detectives are at Briarwood House investigating two murders. Who was responsible and what secrets have been revealed in the house?
I loved reading the stories from all the residents. The ones that stood out to me were Nora Nora escaping an abusive relationship and facing the wrath of her family, particularly her brother. Xavier, a man with criminal ties murders the man who hurt Nora. Nora leaves Xavier because she doesn't want to be associated with him. and Fliss Fliss gives up her nursing career and raises her and Dan's daughter, Angela. Fliss felt like a bad mom because motherhood was so much harder than she thought it would be. Having stress from having a second baby Dan seemed so excited about it. Although, all the stories were compelling in different ways. I liked how even the side characters felt important to the story even though they didn't get their chapters , Harland, working at the FBI and being involved with Bea, a woman so opposite to him. Harland also ended up sleeping with Grace, but Bea was kind of off on her own. Xavier trying to win Nora back. Joe. Pete and Lina learn so much from the other women. Lina entered a baking competition. I thought the epilogue tied everything together as far as where the characters went with their lives.
The twist in this book was really interesting. Grace is revealed to be a Russian Spy. She defected after not wanting to serve her country and fled to D.C. where she found the Briarwood house on a whim. The murders were Grace's fake Russian spy husband and Sydney's abusive husband who Arlene murdered because she thought he was a communist. I liked how Kate Quinn at the back of the book wrote about the historical implications of this and where the idea for this book came from.
While I loved the story, I HATED how this book was structured. There were no chapter breaks, each character's perspective was 75 - 100 pages. It would have been so easy to include chapter breaks. I hate books with long chapters, it makes the book feel much longer than it should be. If this is how all Kate Quinn's books are structured, then I'm one and done. I was close to DNFing this book because of how long it took me to get into it. Once I read Nora's story, I was hooked, but it took a bit.
I liked The Briar Club, but I can't with the long chapters.
Washington D.C. 1954. Briarwood House will have new energy when Grace March moves in. Grace has a way of getting the other residents to open up and they have developed a close friendship. Four years later, detectives are at Briarwood House investigating two murders. Who was responsible and what secrets have been revealed in the house?
I loved reading the stories from all the residents. The ones that stood out to me were Nora
The twist in this book was really interesting.
While I loved the story, I HATED how this book was structured. There were no chapter breaks, each character's perspective was 75 - 100 pages. It would have been so easy to include chapter breaks. I hate books with long chapters, it makes the book feel much longer than it should be. If this is how all Kate Quinn's books are structured, then I'm one and done. I was close to DNFing this book because of how long it took me to get into it. Once I read Nora's story, I was hooked, but it took a bit.
I liked The Briar Club, but I can't with the long chapters.