Daughter of Fortune

Daughter of Fortune - Isabel Allende 

Me and a friend decided through our love of books and writing we would start our very own book club so to speak. I will be moving away soon and it is our way of keeping in contact. She took a list of 25 books every girl should read and bought me the first two as my leaving/birthday present. The first one is Daughter of Fortune, it is set in the 1800's and the first chapter is well all about the daughter Eliza, I thought I would struggle to get into this book but actually it is far better written than I imagined. I'm not normally into these kind of books but I am going in with an open mind. I have learnt a little about Eliza at the moment she was left on the doorstep of an English family in Cuba and no one can seem to decide how she was there. Every frowns upon Indian roots and that's about all I've established so far.

After finishing the second chapter it seems that Isabel Allendre likes introducing her characters. This one was all about an Englishman Jacob Todd who comes to Chille he spends his time with the Sommers (the family that took in Eliza) and he becomes fascinated by Rose Sommers. Although I am all for learning the background I have only just started the third chapter and it seems this is once again introducing characters.

So I have just finished part one and I feel as though I have only just finished being introduced to the characters. If I'm totally honest not 100% sure where this book is going and I feel there is going to be some surprises in store for me. As this book is based in the 1800's I am reading all about the lives of people pushing the boundaries for this time period, a woman who doesn't want to marry. Stolen love that is forbidden. Virginity being given which is not something that was done at this time. There are a few sexual encounters however Allende keeps them extremely tasteful and mysterious. After finishing the first part I am now enthralled in the book. It is written beautifully and I can appreciate a good book when I read it. I am now in 1848-1849 and looking forward to reading where this story takes Eliza and her lover.

The next few chapters seem to based around Tai Chi'en and how he meets and helps Eliza get to her destination of California to follow her lover after he gets the Gold Fever, she has a miscarriage on the voyage and Tai has to care for her with the help of a whore who was also on the boat. 

So I have now finished the book and I was not that impressed by the ending. Eliza spends her journey staying in a brothel helping out waiting for her lover to appear.... However he doesn't show and Tai shows instead. There is a bandit Jacques Murieta which Eliza thinks is her lover...  The ending is underwhelming Murieta is hung and Tai and Eliza seem to have a connection and it ends.

The book is a good read I suppose but it is not one that I would read again. 
5/10 

Struggling...

Pretty Girls - Karin Slaughter

So I finally finished Karin Slaughter newest book. It is a stand alone Novel similar to Cop Town. It's all about a family who is wrought with tragedy and how all the questions they have had throughout the last year's all come into place. Claire Scott is our primary character, she loses her husband at the beginning of the book and starts to search through his things after his funeral which leads to more questions than answers. We then have her sister Lydia Carroll, they haven't spoken after an event tore them apart but the events of Claire's husband death pulls them back together. Paul Scott is the man of the book, Claire's husband.

Now I don't want to reveal too much as I don't want to spoil the story but I did struggle to finish this book. At just over 500 pages I should have been able to finish in less than a day but it took me three! The story was very slow and full of "what the hell are you doing???!!! " which I hate in a book, I mean I know the actions of the characters are to build the story but sometimes they are just being stupid. As she was in this book.

The characters were a little one dimensional until the end of the book after everything is sorted which only lasts for a few pages which is a shame I would've liked to read more of the characters interact at the end.

The story itself was good a little predictable in terms of who the bad guy is but, it is a crime book so I guess predictability is inevitable. It was quite dark and similar to her Triptych the way the victims were killed was quite brutal.

I will end this review with one point. Why doesn't she finish the Grant County series. That series requires one more book just to wrap up the ending and the future for Sara and Will and she hasn't done anything!! These stand alones are all well and good but it's Sara that I love and want to read more of especially now she has Will.

Pretty Girls is not a book I would read again. It was pretty average for Karin Slaughter who normally I can't put down her books. 

5/10 

It was very low standard when compared to her previous novels and was a pretty pointless book at the end of the day.