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A review by kookie9200
The Poppy and the Rose by Ashlee Cowles
3.0
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to review this book.
When Taylor Romano arrives in Oxford for a summer program, she doesn't expect to be met by a Rolls Royce. The old woman she meets inside is a surprise as well, and Lady Mae, the woman, is ready and willing to tell Taylor a story about her deceased father. That is, until Mae unexpectedly dies, leaving behind a memoir from Ava Knight, a survivor of the Titanic. How can the mystery Ava finds aboard the Titanic link back to Taylor's father?
Here's my problem with this book. The Titanic descriptions are great, but it feels like every bit of it is pulled from the movie. The wording, the people highlighted, all of it. It was weak storytelling that relied far too heavily on actual events to move a story forward. Second, the Taylor chapters were just her reading this diary of Ava's and every once in a while having an "Ah-ha!" moment. It's less mystery than show and tell. I wanted to like it, but the pieces just never fully came together for me, and it became predictable very quickly.
When Taylor Romano arrives in Oxford for a summer program, she doesn't expect to be met by a Rolls Royce. The old woman she meets inside is a surprise as well, and Lady Mae, the woman, is ready and willing to tell Taylor a story about her deceased father. That is, until Mae unexpectedly dies, leaving behind a memoir from Ava Knight, a survivor of the Titanic. How can the mystery Ava finds aboard the Titanic link back to Taylor's father?
Here's my problem with this book. The Titanic descriptions are great, but it feels like every bit of it is pulled from the movie. The wording, the people highlighted, all of it. It was weak storytelling that relied far too heavily on actual events to move a story forward. Second, the Taylor chapters were just her reading this diary of Ava's and every once in a while having an "Ah-ha!" moment. It's less mystery than show and tell. I wanted to like it, but the pieces just never fully came together for me, and it became predictable very quickly.