Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step inside Mosco’s Traveling Wonder Show, a menagerie of human curiosities and misfits guaranteed to astound and amaze! But perhaps the strangest act of Mosco’s display is Portia Remini, a normal among the freaks, on the run from McGreavy’s Home for Wayward Girls, where Mister watches and waits. He said he would always find Portia, that she could never leave. Free at last, Portia begins a new life on the bally, seeking answers about her father’s disappearance. Will she find him before Mister finds her? It’s a story for the ages, and like everyone who enters the Wonder Show, Portia will never be the same.
-image and summary from Goodreads.com
This book was full of potential. Its writing was lovely and lyrical, full of the vagueness of dreams and yet sharp with the harsh grit of reality. This story could have had it all.
But--it was VERY short. In my library, it was shelved in the Young Adult section, which I found apt for its content. However, nowadays young adult novels are well over 300 pages. I felt the author could have taken advantage of this fact to expand her world. Maybe I'm just greedy, but if I could take a whole pie over a thin slice, you can bet your bottom dollar I would.
I wanted more of everything: Portia and how her relationships affected and formed her; more about the circus and the people in it; and more of an ending. In particular, one character vanishes in the midst of the novel and then we never really hear from her again. I would have liked knowing what happened to her--if she got to where she was going, etc.
If I remember correctly, there were a few instances where God came up. This could have opened up a lot of thought-provoking narrative, but as it was, it was just left hanging. Portia never really commits to any sort of belief or idea about believing. Maybe the author intended to have Portia ever roaming, suspended between realities and never really landing. But to me, it felt a wee bit like playing it safe. I know some people think having this floating feeling, this just-be-you-and-don't-think-of-the-bigger-things idea is a new form of art, but to me, how likes thinking of the bigger picture, it just falls flat.
I loved how the author described the setting of the places Portia came to. The towns, the mansion--they all had their own atmosphere and personalities. The author certainly knows how to weave beautiful words together.
However, somehow I just could not connect to this story like I wanted to. I simply wanted more, of everything.
Three stars!
Lucy Kendall always assumed she'd help her father in his candy-making business, creating recipes and aiding him in their shared passion. But after a year traveling in Europe, Lucy returns to 1910 St. Louis to find her father unwell and her mother planning to sell the struggling candy company. Determined to help, Lucy vows to create a candy that will reverse their fortunes.
St. Louis newcomer Charlie Clarke is determined to help his father dominate the nation's candy industry. Compromise is not an option when the prize is a father's approval, and falling in love with a business rival is a recipe for disaster when only one company can win. Will these two star-crossed lovers let a competition that turns less than friendly sour their dreams?
--image and summary from Goodreads.com
Two of my favourite things are candy and Europe, so when I read the summary of this book for the Bethany House Blogger Reviews Program, I jumped on the chance to read it. Unfortunately, this book did not live up to my expectations. I got halfway through it and started skimming, so I read enough to tell me this isn't my type of book.
With the characters, I can usually forgive un-likeable ones if there's enough story to keep my attention. This book was written from two first-person perspectives, those of Lucy and Charlie, so it was very much a character-driven novel. This makes it difficult to keep reading when you sort of loathe one of the characters. I thought Charlie was a cool chap, though his voice seemed not too different from Lucy's. Lucy, however, got on my nerves, with no redeeming qualities to endear me to her. She seemed very selfish and slightly stupid, not asking the right questions or realizing that maybe she was a tad obsessive with the family business. Perhaps she should have been more concerned for her father's health.
What really annoyed me, though, is that apart from his past, Charlie is the good guy here. I can't tell you how many Christian romances make it about the girl getting over herself in order to win the man's love. It's very difficult to find a fresh, original story about a man getting over a character flaw--and not just a dark past that makes him more a victim than a sinner. I'm sure such stories exist out there in the Christian market, but I've yet to come across one. It's not just in the Christian market, either. It seems that the onus is continually on the woman to change, while men just need to escape the environment that shaped them.
Anyways, that rant is over. It's something that has been on my mind for a while now, simply brewing.
Another thing that made me unable to finish this book was that, as well-described as the world was, nothing seemed to happen. I thought there would be more intrigue and danger and rivalry, but there wasn't. It was just Lucy getting herself into trouble.
BUT--this is all just my opinion. I've just gotten into reading Christian historical so maybe I just haven't gotten into the rhythm yet. Take everything I've written with a grain of salt. The only way to know whether this book is for you is to try it out yourself. No matter what, it is a clean, light read, so there's no harm in giving it a look.
3 stars!
I received a free copy of this book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review as part of their Blogger Review Program. Thank you for the opportunity!
What if the characters in a vampire novel left their world--and came into yours?
Amy is in love with someone who doesn't exist: Alexander Banks, the dashing hero in a popular series of vampire novels. Then one night, Amy meets a boy who bears an eerie resemblance to Alexander. In fact, he IS Alexander, who has escaped from the pages of the book and is in hot pursuit of a wicked vampire named Vigo. Together, Amy and Alexander set out to track Vigo and learn how and why Alexander crossed over. But when she and Alexander begin to fall for each other, Amy wonders if she even wants him to ever return to the realm of fiction.
--image and summary from Goodreads.com
The Vampire Stalker by Allison van Diepen was not what I expected it to be. From the blurb on the back, I thought it would be a hilarious take on how rabid book fans can be, to the extent that their wild fantasies actually come to life. Having read the Twilight books, I was half-hoping for some witticims on the whole craze over vampires recently. Even looking at the cover, I thought it was trying to mock the seriousness of vampire novels.
I got a bit of that, but not nearly enough to placate me. Instead, the story was far more serious--Amy, the main protagonist, is struggling after her parents' divorce, what with her sister constantly pushing her away and her failed attempts at writing anything but fanfiction. Some of her issues drove really close to home for me, which is good in a sense but not what I was looking for from this book.
The characters were all rather flat. The book was so short that only Amy and her love interest, Alexander Banks, vampire slayer come to life out of one of Amy's favourite book series, are the only characters that really get showcased. Though Amy's younger sister does seem to have a bit of a character arc--perhaps even more so than the main characters. Amy's friends were cool and I would have loved to hang out with them, but they didn't jump out at me from the page. Even now I'm trying really hard to remember the names of the characters in this book, because their personalities were simply non-existent to me.
I think the main issue is that this book was simply too short and took itself too seriously for me to handle. It's not a bad book by any means, but the interesting ideas in it took a back seat to Amy and Alexander's budding romance, which tied up a little too neatly for me. The choice Alexander makes in the end would not have been so simple for real people, whose loves for love interest or family are often tangled together and of the same strength. Actually, I would have thought love for family, your own blood, would trump the attraction you feel to a girl you hardly know and have just met.
But perhaps that's me being nit-picky. I'm hardly one against happy endings, but I was just expecting so much more from this story that the big happy bow wrapped around it makes me want to act like a cat and tear it to shreds. If it had been a wee bit more witty and even darkly comedic (I just wanted to laugh, for goodness' sake!), I may have been more forgiving. But the blurb promised more than what I got, and, though that's not the author's fault by any means, it makes me wary to trust any book blurbs because you really have to wonder if those people actually read the book.
However, this book is light, sweet, and short enough for a summer beach read. So if that's your thing definitely check it out and decide for yourself. This is simply my opinion. :)
3 out of 5 stars!
