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A review by candacesiegle_greedyreader
Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
3.0
2.5 *
Like so many other reviewers, I wanted to like this novel but found that I really didn't. For me it was that it lacked a cohesive sense of time and place. It's supposed to take place in the 1920s, but the clothes, hair, technology, traditions seem to belong in the 1950s. Zoya's memories of Russia seem believable, but what was this rescue organization that brought Russian children to the US, dumped them in expensive boarding schools and never checked on them? So much of "Invitation to a Bonfire" seems off-kilter and poorly thought out.
What works is Zoya's adoration of Lev through his writing and the fire of their relationship. Strange and electric is Zoya's possible backstory with Lev's elegant, enigmatic wife Vera who is a mysterious creation.
Like so many other reviewers, I wanted to like this novel but found that I really didn't. For me it was that it lacked a cohesive sense of time and place. It's supposed to take place in the 1920s, but the clothes, hair, technology, traditions seem to belong in the 1950s. Zoya's memories of Russia seem believable, but what was this rescue organization that brought Russian children to the US, dumped them in expensive boarding schools and never checked on them? So much of "Invitation to a Bonfire" seems off-kilter and poorly thought out.
What works is Zoya's adoration of Lev through his writing and the fire of their relationship. Strange and electric is Zoya's possible backstory with Lev's elegant, enigmatic wife Vera who is a mysterious creation.