Modernization is happening at a furious pace and there’s no question it’s making life easier for the many. But sometimes I wonder if with every advance we make in mechanization or technology, we lose something vital of ourselves?
Page 25
In a nutshell
Flora Macqueen has always dreamed of a life bigger than the ones of those who inhabit her homeland of St Kilda, a small Scottish island. When a wealthy adventurer visits and she catches his eyes, her dreams seem closer than ever. But when winter seas separate them and the island gets evacuated a few months later, tragedy strikes and a new reality awaits her.
Book Club Notes
This book is a guilty pleasure to read. It’s like watching The Bachelor, or eating a bag of chips when you’re hungry. It hooks you and you compulsively need to see what happens next, or finish the bag even though you know they’re empty calories and you’re just going to be unsatisfied at the end.
Although the historical backdrop of this novel added much needed depth to the story, it was lacklustre. It didn’t give me the usual feels that historical novels do – the one that makes you feel like you’re being dropped into another place in time and learning something new. The realness was missing, and because the general storyline and romance also had a childish fairytale air to it, it compounded to equal a mediocre read.
My biggest criticism is that in parts it felt laborious to read, like the emotions and thought processes were overenounced to compensate for something lacking. Whether a story is brilliant or just an easy beach read, you never want to feel like it’s an effort to read a book. You get books like The Covenant of Water, which at 715 pages feels too short, and then there are books like this, which at 418 pages feels like the same story could have been told in half its length.
The Lost Lover is part of a series but each book can be read as a standalone. It was not apparent at all that this was #3. It looks like each book covers the same time, history, but stars a different character, and thus focuses on a different vantage point. Based on this one, I would not be inclined to read her previous two, but the ending of The Lost Lover was so strange that it made me think the last in the series will tie all ends together. If that is the case, despite my less than stellar review, I would read it. Like I said, it’s a mediocre read – not a bad read.
Read If
You love fairy tales.
Rating
Writing – 5/10
Character Development – 5/10
Plot Twist – 5/10
Shareability – 5/10
The Nitty Gritty
Similar Reads
A note on our book ratings
Storyline: How good is the storyline? Is it believable and complex or does it make you shake your head in its ridiculousness?
Writing: How well written is the book? Do you find yourself wowed by the writing or unimpressed?
Character Development: Do the characters evolve and grow through the book and are they multi-dimensional?
Plot Twist: Were you able to predict the end, or did the author give you some surprises along the way to keep you on your toes?
Shareability: How likely are you to share the book?
