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A review by popthebutterfly
Talland House by Maggie Humm
3.0
Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. Thanks! All opinions are my own.
Book: Talland House
Author: Maggie Humm
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended For...: historical fiction fans
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended Age: 16+ (romance, slight sexual content)
Publisher: She Writes Press
Pages: 352
Synopsis: Royal Academy, London 1919: Lily has put her student days in St. Ives, Cornwall, behind her―a time when her substitute mother, Mrs. Ramsay, seemingly disliked Lily’s portrait of her and Louis Grier, her tutor, never seduced her as she hoped he would. In the years since, she’s been a suffragette and a nurse in WWI, and now she’s a successful artist with a painting displayed at the Royal Academy. Then Louis appears at the exhibition with the news that Mrs. Ramsay has died under suspicious circumstances. Talking to Louis, Lily realizes two things: 1) she must find out more about her beloved Mrs. Ramsay’s death (and her sometimes-violent husband, Mr. Ramsay), and 2) She still loves Louis.
Set between 1900 and 1919 in picturesque Cornwall and war-blasted London, Talland House takes Lily Briscoe from the pages of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and tells her story outside the confines of Woolf’s novel―as a student in 1900, as a young woman becoming a professional artist, her loves and friendships, mourning her dead mother, and solving the mystery of her friend Mrs. Ramsay’s sudden death. Talland House is both a story for our present time, exploring the tensions women experience between their public careers and private loves, and a story of a specific moment in our past―a time when women first began to be truly independent.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. The world building and character development was well done. The pacing was on point and it really flowed with the book. The book also had a great plot that kept me motivated to read.
However, the protagonist makes reading the story really hard. I didn’t vibe with her cocky and mean attitude and it made me really want to stop reading the book several times over. The book also was written weirdly. The book was descriptive in some parts and the just quickly wrote in others. I think it needs to just be edited a bit more.
Verdict: It was good just weird.
Book: Talland House
Author: Maggie Humm
Book Series: Standalone
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommended For...: historical fiction fans
Publication Date: August 18, 2020
Genre: Historical Fiction
Recommended Age: 16+ (romance, slight sexual content)
Publisher: She Writes Press
Pages: 352
Synopsis: Royal Academy, London 1919: Lily has put her student days in St. Ives, Cornwall, behind her―a time when her substitute mother, Mrs. Ramsay, seemingly disliked Lily’s portrait of her and Louis Grier, her tutor, never seduced her as she hoped he would. In the years since, she’s been a suffragette and a nurse in WWI, and now she’s a successful artist with a painting displayed at the Royal Academy. Then Louis appears at the exhibition with the news that Mrs. Ramsay has died under suspicious circumstances. Talking to Louis, Lily realizes two things: 1) she must find out more about her beloved Mrs. Ramsay’s death (and her sometimes-violent husband, Mr. Ramsay), and 2) She still loves Louis.
Set between 1900 and 1919 in picturesque Cornwall and war-blasted London, Talland House takes Lily Briscoe from the pages of Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse and tells her story outside the confines of Woolf’s novel―as a student in 1900, as a young woman becoming a professional artist, her loves and friendships, mourning her dead mother, and solving the mystery of her friend Mrs. Ramsay’s sudden death. Talland House is both a story for our present time, exploring the tensions women experience between their public careers and private loves, and a story of a specific moment in our past―a time when women first began to be truly independent.
Review: For the most part this was a good book. The world building and character development was well done. The pacing was on point and it really flowed with the book. The book also had a great plot that kept me motivated to read.
However, the protagonist makes reading the story really hard. I didn’t vibe with her cocky and mean attitude and it made me really want to stop reading the book several times over. The book also was written weirdly. The book was descriptive in some parts and the just quickly wrote in others. I think it needs to just be edited a bit more.
Verdict: It was good just weird.