Saturday, April 17, 2010

Show Me 5 Saturday, Stopover in Venice


This meme is hosted by A Novel Idea or Find Your Next Book Here
1 Book you read and/or reviewed this week(actually took me several weeks, I just couldn't finish it!


2 Words that describe the book, O.K. semi love story
3 Settings where it took place or characters you met
Nel is the main character, Lucy, Matteo, Leo a dog,Lydia, Ronald,Annunziata, and many more. The story takes place in Venice, a old estate formerly a convent.
4 Things you liked and/or disliked about it

I think the thing that made me keep trying to finish the book was the plot of an undiscovered artistic masterpiece. While I thought the characters were O.K. they were not compelling enough for me to want to NEVER put the book down, the end was predictable. I love reading the "found" correspondence from many many years ago, and I was amazed at the expert fields introduced into the story. I'm actually using this book to do my homework. It follows the "formula" for a romance quite true to form. I think however, if I had to do "*an extremely rude interview" of these characters there would still be a great many unanswered questions
I disliked the format, there were no quotation marks, so I had to really pay attention to was this an actual conversation, or was the character just thinking this. I often found myself having to go back to the previous paragraph to keep track of where and who was speaking. Perhaps I'm stupid and this is a novel idea of writing, but one I did not like. I like the cover, the collage was very interesting. The beginning appealed to me, simply because I thought dumping your husband and his entourage would be so rebellious. I liked the "new friend" thingy, but after that ... too ho hum. Would I read it again? I would probably not read it again, I think I might have even abandoned it earlier on, except for the fact that I was stuck on a train with nothing else. I appologize to the author, but not your best work.

5 Stars or less for your rating?

I'm only giving this book a rating of 3, simply because it did keep me wanting to know all about how one decides this is a masterpiece the plot did not keep me interested at all. I wanted "Matteo" to be a little more appealing and Nel I thought was downright boring.

*An extremely rude interview is a series of questions devised by my instructor Dee Lloyd to assist us wantabe writers with character development.

8 comments:

Catherine Holman said...

I hate getting a book that I simply can't start or finish. I've got one now that i can't get past the first page.
Catherine

Mary (Bookfan) said...

My reading time is rather limited these days so I'm not sure I would have kept reading. I admire that you did. Thanks for the review. I'm happy to see another new Show Me 5 review this week :)

giorno26 ¸¸.•*¨*•. said...

Hi Irene,
com'รจ il tempo da te oggi ?
Buona giornata :-)
Myriam

Leslie Jane Moran said...

This was one of Juliet's recommendations, so I can't be held totally to blame :)

I too found it a rather mundane read, almost like you had to read it all at once to keep things straight. I kept forgetting who everyone was. The artwork mystery was also what kept me going.

Kaye said...

Thanks for an honest review. I guess this wouldn't be one I would pick up. Kudos to finishing it though. Thanks for visiting today and I'm thrilled to see another Show Me 5 entry! If you do end up reading Sugar Queen, I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Have a great week and happy reading.

atla said...

It has great cover art, at least! :) Hopefully, your next read will be fabulous to make up for this mediocre one.

Jenners said...

Sorry to hear this didn't work for you. It doesn't sound like something I would enjoy. And I hate when writers don't use quotation marks! It is very frustrating!

Hope to see you for future Show Me 5 Saturday posts!

Alyce said...

I've read some books without quotations where it worked well (Blindness by Jose Saramago, for example), and others where it was frustrating. I'll definitely be passing on this book though. Doesn't sound like something I'd like.

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