amandameira 's review for:

The Orphan Collector by Ellen Marie Wiseman

3.0

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This is the third book I’ve read by this author and I’m still very much on the fence about her. Some of the story was very patched together, held in place by just-believable-enough strings of events. Her writing is lovely—full of description and character, engaging, heartwarming. But she falls short in convincing me of her characters’ genuineness. While Pia’s story was filled with heart wrenching twists and turns, and I felt a genuine connection to her, and her motivations and her plights, Bernice was flat and unconvincing. Her hatred of immigrants felt false and forced, especially when she took in the twins—whom she knew to be Germans—as her own, going so far as to breastfeed them without hesitation. Then they mostly disappeared from the story while Bernice undertook her malicious endeavors, only to be inexplicably disposed of later, as if they had never been her children at all. There was no explanation or follow-up to her cruel message to Pia, or Rebecca’s appearance and subsequent absence. The story simply progressed several years, ignoring Rachel’s side story, ignoring the revelations Pia had made and her pursuit of the truth until a random point of time at which it was convenient to bring Finn back as a dashing young man.

All that considered, as I said, the story was extremely well written and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It was a really intriguing concept, and especially interesting to read during the current pandemic. I think this author is extremely talented, and am also frustrated by her shortcomings BECAUSE she is so talented.