Memory Lane Books
2015
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| ✬✬✬ This book was disappointing. The characters seemed unrealistic, and the ending was a little predictable. This is not a memorable story despite its WWI background. Using letters to tell the tale did not help the story, I have enjoyed other novels that used this structure, here; the method left the reader too removed from the action. |
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| ✬✬✬✬✬ Scarlet Lion only solidified my love of Chadwick further and reminded why I enjoyed her work so much. Chadwick weaves a captivating and all-too-real world that comes to life on every page. Highly recommended for fans of historical fiction with an emphasis on history. |
2016
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| ✬✬✬✬ It is a good novel. It show’s Roman warfare in brilliant detail and is a good insight into that part of the Roman world. The story is good as well it’s not the most amazing story in the world, but it’s still kept me interested and has a mystery, through the story and leaves with another mystery at the end. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ Provocative, engaging, and human, Eva Etzioni-Halevy has produced a fine and entertaining piece of biblical fiction, well worth the time for those who enjoy the genre. |
2017
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| ✬✬ I have read and enjoyed others of Philippa Gregory’s novels, but was disappointed by “The Virgin’s Lover”. It was repetitive, and the characters were boring in their portrayal. This is one of my favorite periods for historical fiction, and I have read dozens of novels set in the period. So it isn’t the facts/the plot that matter as I read; it is how the story is told. |
2018
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| ✬✬✬ Different kind of book, first point of view with the main character that does what she has to do to survive. I liked the way the author breathed life into a person who existed, but no one knows too much about, was slow in some spots and sometimes confusing. |
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| ✬✬ Information about the Spanish Civil War kept me reading, not the love story or the back story of parentage. The little bit of info about making perfumes and how smells affect us was of interest too. The plot and dialogue- disappointing. |
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| ✬✬✬ Story is written in the past and the future, with chapters alternating between the two for most of the book. The present-day sections were not great but the historical sections were well done and imparted a good bit of information about the lives of the Chinese in the Pacific Northwest during the 1880s after the Exclusion Act was passed. Writing in these sections was good, and the characters had weight and substance. The story rang true, and it included some actual historical events alongside the fictional ones. Modern story, however, was unrealistic, and the characters did not come alive. Too much depended on coincidence and lacked credibility. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ A fascinating read about a truly exceptional situation, with more than enough message to occupy my brain, and enough visceral happenings to keep me emotionally engaged throughout the book. |
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| ✬✬ The book is filled with family, love, and friendship. It is a mystery, romance, and adventure. It sounded more intriguing than it actually is. Book started out to be great but as the story went on, I just lost interest and found it a chore to finish. The plot is slow-paced, and there is a lot of trudging through to get through to the climax. The setting is well-developed, but the characters are not likable and forgettable. |
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| ✬✬ I wanted to like this book, but just couldn’t. The writing was incompetent with predictable plots and an attempt to throw in bits of historical fact here and there. |
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| ✬✬✬✬✬ Just like the first book, this one, captIvates the reader. The plot even though tied to the first book, has twists of its own. The technique of dedicating a chapter, within a timeframe, to each character, makes it easy to follow the plot. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ Mr. Sansom develops an excellent story in a location that is often forgotten about in the World War II era - post-Civil War Spain. There are not too many characters to keep track of, and flashbacks provide deep, if somewhat rushed, explanations for events that continue to mold the story. The biggest fault is the end which feels rushed and takes some unnecessary events. Character closure is also not addressed. Overall, a great book to read that keeps you on your toes in a new, dark environment and lets you feel the despair that many felt in the 1940’s Europe. |
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| ✬✬✬✬✬ I just love the way Archer weaves the story with so many strands. He continues to keep us interested by giving us just enough information to tell the main plot but leaves out enough info so we keep reading on to find out what happens. Archer takes on many exciting adventures and weaves them all into one fantastic story. |
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| ✬✬✬ I had wanted to read this book for years. Finally, got around to it. Surprisingly, I didn't like it. Couldn't follow it. It didn't hold my interest. Didn't like the style of writing. Took me a long time to finish it. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ For a casual read, with an interest in how a feminist woman could fight back, in a patriarchal world, I loved this. We catch onto the melodrama, the matchmaker themes and heavy breathing going on. But the heroine is brilliant; the mystery plot is detailed and tangled. It keeps you guessing. I love a book that tends toward disaster, but all is well in the end. This one is well worth reading. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ Insightful and well written. The reader gets carried along with Aron's story. |
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| ✬✬ There was no chemistry between the hero and the heroine. I didn’t like either one. The secondary story was a good diversion from the shallow nature of the main story. That was the only redeeming quality in my mind. |
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| ✬✬✬✬✬ This was an original, funny, and charming book, with likable, if overly stubborn leads and the interesting twist of having a historic working woman being a scholar. Also, I love how seriously Anthony takes his duty and responsibilities, a true gentleman. Light, fun and utterly charming. |
2019
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| ✬✬✬ It was just an “okay” reading experience for me. There were parts in the dialogue where I had trouble following who was speaking and it took a while to get into the story. The ending was just too abrupt for me and needed something more. |
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| ✬✬✬ The book was really good until a certain point. The rest was just unnecessary filler until the conclusion at the end. I felt like the author was just dragging it on to hit a certain page number. I kept waiting for it to pick back up and it never did. |
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| ✬✬✬ I think many people will like this book much more than I did. It’s not a bad book---just limited in character development and simplistic in philosophy. |
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| ✬✬✬✬✬ Marc Levy writes about secrets, lies, and reconciliation in a great compelling way. I love his easy flowing writing style. In his stories, anything is possible, which is something I like a lot. His main characters are multilayered and he writes with a warm sense of humor. Some topics he addresses are serious, but because of his lighthearted style, his stories don’t become too heavy. I enjoyed the exact right harmony between crazy twists and turns, deep feelings and clever dialogue. |
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| ✬✬✬ The main character for whom the book is named got on my nerves. I did not like her at all and had a hard time getting through this book. I wanted to like this book, but it was a disappointment. |
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| ✬✬✬ It was good, not great. There are three love stories to follow, each of which takes place in a different era, as the main character seeks info to free an imprisoned man perhaps wrongly accused of Nazi war crimes. The action jumps back and forth from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Poland and Germany. I wish that there were fewer storylines. It would have kept me more captivated and less confused. I was very disappointed with the ending of the main storyline. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ A great big Russian Novel beginning with the death of Stalin when things were supposed to get better. This novel is not about the peasant poor but the educated poor and the constant fear they lived in never knowing who would tell that they were reading smuggled western literature. |
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| ✬✬✬✬✬ The book is very interesting and gave me an insight into the corrupted world of medieval times and how some of those corruptions still exist. There is a lot of darkness in this book, but it is split up with parts of dark humor, which was cleverly done and had me laughing out loud in some places. The writing is superb, and the scenes and setting draw you in and hold you tightly. The author has an extraordinary way of describing things, I could almost taste the food from his descriptions and I could almost feel pangs of suffering from the torments that some characters were forced to go through. |
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| ✬✬✬ My main problem with this story was the time it took the main character to stop sulking about and feeling sorry for herself - at least half the book. Otherwise, it’s a good story jumping back and forth between times and I did eventually enjoy it and the way it ended. |
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| ✬✬✬ It was a struggle to get through the first half of this book, but my interest in the storyline and setting kept me going. This story comprises a long history of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt, and an extensive math lesson regarding the riddles of the pyramids and their meaning. The writing was overly detailed but was well researched. |
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| ✬✬ “The Queen’s Pawn” is ok but with little historical accuracy. I got through the book by pretending that Eleanor, Alais, Richard, and Henry were just character names and not representing historical figures. It is repetitive in its descriptions and phrasing, and the characters’ perpetual ability to mind-read each other’s thoughts is implausible and irritating. |
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| ✬✬✬ I enjoyed this book, particularly at the beginning. I could classify this book as a mystery and towards the end, I felt that the clues had gone on too long and it was getting tedious. Also thought the major mystery was solved too early in the book so after that, I completely lost interest. I finished the book hoping that there would be a surprise, some twist but there wasn’t. |
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| ✬✬✬ The book comes on slow because the author is extremely detailed. However, once you get to know the characters and the story I was hooked because it is more than what you think it is on the surface. It is not the best writing in the world and seems a tad repetitive with some characters self-dialogue. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ I really enjoyed it as political thrillers are not so much my cup of tea. It describes the exotic and dangerous locales in vivid detail. It’s a serious subject but never too heavy. The action is non stop. There are so many layers to this story and the end is so surprising that the book stays with you well after you finish reading it. An original and thoughtful thriller, ‘’Death in Shangri-La’’ is for all fans of spy thrillers. |
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| ✬✬ At first, I thought I would like this book. After a while, though, it just droned on and lacked depth. Repetitive, jerky dialogue; gaping holes in character development; and, failure to tie the ends, leaving you hanging on so many aspects of the book. |
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| ✬✬✬ Starts off brilliantly and I was expecting the subtlety and range of his Dark Materials but it becomes more and a more simple, but fun, an adventure story with some interesting fantasy stuff thrown in. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ Maurice Druon does a wonderful job, bringing the middle ages alive. I can see the knights in shining armor, battling for their countries, and the kings waging war, fighting to win. His fiction is so reality-based that I feel I am right there. I enjoyed this book very much, as I did the previous two in this series. |
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| ✬✬ The author repeats lines and themes, leaves out important pieces, and does not bring many important characters to life. There are frequent occasions when she tells us about events rather than bringing us into the story. I enjoyed some ideas she had about character motivation but was disappointed with the execution of those ideas. |
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| ✬✬ The ending is predictable; the relationship is predictable, and the author is verbose; what she could describe in three words, she would use 20. I felt the more obscure the adjective, the more likely she’d use it. Sometimes the story-telling overpowered the plot. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ The book was well-written, well-researched, and in general, was both an easy and an excellent read. My only criticism is that I was confused about the timeline and who was doing what, when as it went back and forth between the war period and 40+ years later. |
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| ✬✬✬✬ It is a well written, interesting mystery that sweeps the reader into the daily lives of the ancient Egyptian upper class. Entwined throughout the mystery is the side story of Meren and Tutankhamen-and Meren’s attempts to keep the King alive while he is surrounded by traitors everywhere. |
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