Monday, September 29, 2014

Book #79: Glow by Amy Kathleen Ryan

This is a book someone recommended to me back at the beginning of the year when I asked for recommendations on Facebook. I've had it on my "to-read" list on Goodreads ever since then and just got around to it. I got the impression that it was a Hunger Games/Divergent type book, the first of a trilogy, in a post-apocalyptic universe, and I thought it sounded semi-interesting. Let's do a quick summary before I delve into my reactions to the book: the book is set on the Empyrean, a massive self-sustaining spaceship which is traveling to "New Earth," some eighty years away from the old, destroyed earth. The kids on the ship have lived there their entire lives. Waverly and Kieran are two of the oldest kids (16 years old) on the ship, and they have been dating for almost a year and get engaged to each other (because fertility and having babies is super important to everyone on the ship, so you're supposed to start that stuff early). But all of a sudden, their ship gets attacked by their sister ship, and all of the kids get separated and all the adults are either killed or taken hostage. The rest of the book goes between Waverly and Kieran's perspectives from their locations and their attempts to get back together and save all the kids.

I think this is a pretty interesting premise, really. It's definitely intriguing to imagine what it would be like to be born on a ship like that, to never have been anywhere else, and to live with a mission like "repopulate the entire population of the earth" and how that would affect you and your life. So I like that idea. And when it's compared to Hunger Games I feel like I can predict exactly what it's going to be like, but it'll probably be pretty enjoyable and easy to read, right? But turns out, I was so annoyed by basically everything that happened in this book.

First off, Ryan does an absolutely terrible job at building her characters and making them into people we might actually care about and be interested in seeing them survive and love each other. The book and the action start at the exact same time; the attack happens and I could honestly care less that Waverly and Kieran are separated because who are these people anyway? Also, Ryan has no subtlety in the few things she does try to tell us about the characters. Waverly is introduced to us and about two pages later she's complaining about how she can't get engaged to Kieran and just be his "passive little wifey." (Actual words from the book.) Oh, okay, I get it--Waverly is MORE than just a little princess wanting to get married first thing. What a brand new original thought, Ryan! Thanks for telling that to me so explicitly because I would never have suspected that from a contemporary dystopian novel with a female main character. She also creates the weakest love triangle I have ever seen, throwing in some random boy named Seth who apparently also likes Waverly, but she gives you about 1.5 pages where Waverly and Seth have a conversation, where it's clear that they haven't talked at all for the last 13 or so years and there's no reason we should be interested in them at all. So who does Waverly really like? I just don't know who she's going to choose and I'm so torn up about it!! (And note: I think the comparison to Hunger Games is weak here. Waverly is soooo much more annoying than Katniss.)

Lastly, and more important thematically, I was really bugged by Ryan's commentary on organized religion throughout this book. The evil sister ship, which kidnaps all the girls at the beginning of the novel, is run by Anne Mather, who is apparently just completely evil and is in charge of the church services run on that ship (which is significantly more religion-centered than the Empyrean, where Waverly grew up). On that ship, the common people are depicted as these clueless, ignorant sheep who just follow Mather because she's their religious leader, while she's secretly doing these terrible things and not telling them. And then when they get back to their original ship, Waverly freaks out and basically breaks up with Kieran because he's started religious services on their ship to help the boys' morale. Waverly equates religion with evil after her experiences with Mather, and I would have appreciated a much more nuanced portrayal of religion and God. I honestly feel like that was a kind of random element to add to the story, which just made me annoyed and just gave Waverly (and Ryan) some group to heap all their hatred on.

So, all in all, I was not a big fan of this book. Like I said, it's the first of a trilogy, but I do not intend to read the other two, because I couldn't wait to get through this one and be done with it. I think this is the first book I've given a one-star rating to on Goodreads, so there you have it. Did not like it. (But my other friends on Goodreads who have read it all gave it four or five stars, so maybe you will like it.)

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Book #78: Mary Poppins by P. L. Travers

Okay, I decided I wanted to read this back after watching Saving Mr. Banks over Christmas (was that when it came out?), which makes me feel kind of like a cheater to read a book because of a movie. But I felt like I had only just realized that this original movie was based off a book, which I'd never read, so I wanted to check it out. I read it today, while both my boys were napping (and I of course couldn't fall asleep), and it was the weirdest deja vu experience--every image and every sentence reverberated in my mind and sounded so familiar. And I knew I'd read this before. I must have read it when I was in the 10-12 age range, because I read lots of books like this and they have all blended together (I feel like the Shoes books, like Ballet Shoes and Tennis Shoes, were right along this same time), and I honestly had no idea I'd read this before. But I knew every story in this whole book, and I'm remembering even more, so I know I've read some of the sequels as well.

This book is different than the all-familiar movie that we all know and love. First off, Mary Poppins is cranky. All the time. Not this sweet Julie Andrews character (although she's kind of tart in the movie too, but not like this Mary Poppins). Also, the book is like a collection of unrelated short stories, with each chapter as its own self-contained adventure, which gives it a different feeling than the movie--it feels like they last over a longer period of time, to me, and makes you wonder what other adventures they are having in between the ones recorded in the book. And I loved that. But--and it's been a long time since I've seen the movie, so I don't know if this is in contrast to the movie version or not--what stands out to me from the book is how magical the magic of Mary Poppins is, and how miraculous every adventure is to Jane and Michael (and the other kids--I forgot that there were several other Banks kids that they left out of the movie). I thought it was so fun and exciting and darling to read. And I want to look at a few of the sequels now that I've revisited this one too!

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Book #77: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini

I have meant to read this book for months now. I have checked this one and The Kite Runner out from the library, actually, multiple times, and then always ended up returning it without having gotten around to it because I never could gear myself up to reading it. (Still haven't read Kite Runner--probably will now that I enjoyed this one, though!) But I did get around to it yesterday, and I was surprised by how quickly I got into it and how fast I got through it, because I could hardly put it down.

This book centers around the story of Abdullah and Pari, a big brother and little sister who mean everything to each other. Their parents make the tragic decision to sell Pari to a rich childless couple for adoption, because they are too poor to afford to warm themselves through the winter, and Abdullah spends the rest of his life longing for her and missing her--while Pari was young enough that she completely forgot that she'd had another life than the one she was adopted into. The book is made up of different stories from different perspectives, all from people who have some relationship to Abdullah's and Pari's lives, some only tangential and some very close to them. Each of the stories helps you to learn what has happened to each of them as they grow up, and to create a full picture of all of these relationships and the culture they live in. And each of the stories has something to tell you about remembering and forgetting and loving--how people deal with tragedy and loss, and what the good and bad things are about being able to remember and love things forever.

This book was so, so sad to me. I was just tortured by the parents' decision to give away Pari and how that affected Abdullah. It's just a horrible decision that no parent can imagine having to do--but it's even more horrible to realize that that is real life for some people (and another reminder of how privileged we are). And so sad to see how those decisions affected people throughout their whole lives (for good and for bad). But after so many quick and easy romances lately, it felt really good to read something with some substance and real meaning.

Thursday, September 25, 2014

Book #76: Going Vintage by Lindsay Leavitt

I heard about this book when it was one of the Whitney Awards finalists (the awards given for Mormon writers) and thought it sounded cute. And our library here had it, so why not? I got through it very quickly today--it was a cute, fast romance with an interesting twist.

Mallory breaks up with her "tool" boyfriend (I am bugged by that word in normal life, and Mallory seems very fond of calling all men she knows tools) after finding out he's got a second, secret attachment with his online "wife" in his virtual life online. The same day, she finds a list of goals of her grandmother's from when she was 16 and decides that being a teenager back then must have been so much better than it is now. She decides to swear off all technology and live her life like it's 1962, with only things that were available then, and talks a lot about how technology is the main problem with people today. She makes it her goal to achieve her grandma's list, and in the process--guess what?--finds someone else to love!

First, I'll just say--this was a cute story; it really was. I liked Oliver (her new love interest; I'll tell you that because it's obvious from the very first mention of him that he's next in line) and thought he was cute and the romance was intriguing. But oh man, even as I liked the story, I was annoyed by a lot of premises about the book. The whole decision to leave off all technology just seemed ridiculous and never made any sense to me. She even refuses to use the computer to do her homework, like she was morally offended by technology or something, and I just kept rolling my eyes at her. Also, Mallory talks so much about being so hurt and heartbroken after breaking up with her old boyfriend, but there's no actual evidence of her being sad. I don't know; it just didn't seem all that convincing to me. You can't just say "I'm sad" and make us believe you. And then the whole determination to live completely in the 1960s was just annoying too, because yeah, life was pretty lame in the 60s too. Just for different reasons. Come on, Mallory. Luckily, there was a twist with the grandma that showed her that and helped Mallory to stop being all selfish and self-absorbed and obsessed with this randomly chosen era. So, overall, although I did like this book, I was annoyed by it as well.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Book #75: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Funnily enough, I read about this book in another book that I just finished (Dear Mr. Knightley--the narrator mentions it as one she loves), and the title sounded wacky enough that I remembered it and wanted to look it up. I loved it! It was another one that I plowed through in less than a day, because I couldn't put it down. This is (yet another) WWII novel, but it focuses on the German occupation of the Channel Islands (the English islands in the British Channel--specifically Guernsey). It's an epistolary novel--I love those--with letters from and to Juliet Ashton, an upcoming novelist in immediately-post-WWII London who is trying to decide what her next book will be about when she stumbles upon the people of Guernsey and their literary society. She begins writing these people and getting to know them, and goes down there to visit and decides to write her book about them and their stories from the war. I love how the stories told (to and by Juliet) in the letters are so random but sweet--like how this small "literary society" was formed as a cover to keep themselves from getting in trouble with the Germans for being out after curfew--and how there were some random, crazy characters who you can totally imagine living in this quiet island society forever.

I thought this was a cute story with a lovely historical tie-in, and I really did like the epistolary style for this book and the way it focused on Juliet and her personality. I did not love the ending, how abrupt and immediate it was. I was hoping that the romance would have more of a build-up and more reason for the two to get together--there wasn't enough suspense!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Book #74: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

I breezed through this book today during Dane's nap and while Tommy was putting him to bed (it is an almost hard-and-fast rule around here that Daddy does the bed duty, by Dane's preference [and mine, let's be honest] and I love it). I feel like I almost read through it too fast--like I should have soaked it up a little more and focused more on sucking the marrow out of it. I think I missed some of the important stuff from it, I guess. But let me explain: the good part about this book is not about the plot. It really is fairly predictable (once you get into it), and the drama of it all never seems very surprising. Some of it even feels a little manipulative (like Zevin is purposely tugging at your heartstrings with the saddest or cutest things you can imagine). But I felt like I loved the characters, and more, I loved the connections the characters felt to the books that shaped their lives and loves, and the conversations they have about books together (especially between A.J. and his daughter).

This book is about A.J. Fikry, who, when the novel starts, is a cranky young almost-alcoholic widower who owns the one bookstore on Alice Island and who can't imagine anything going worse in his life. However, his one nice/expensive possession gets stolen and he loses his chance at retirement, and his desire to lock his door--which leads to a baby being left in his store while he's out one day. Yep--you guessed it--he adopts the baby, changes his life, becomes happy and learns about how life is still worth living again, and even finds love. So the story is cute and a sweet story about him changing his life and his relationship with his daughter and new life--but you also get to read his recommendations of stories to his daughter and why he loves books and reading, and the book itself is filled with book-ish commentaries and discussions about the importance and purpose of reading and books. And for those of us who covet that bookstore and the life shaped by books--that's a whole motivation for reading in and of itself.

Book #73: Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

I started this book last night while Tommy was at some random priesthood meeting (ugh) and then couldn't put it down and finished it before falling asleep last night. I feel like this is one of those books I've seen all over the place, on all sorts of blogs, but I wasn't really interested in reading it (possibly because I've been overdosing on Austen-related reads lately?). But I did finally just get around to it and LOVED it. First and foremost--despite the name and the obvious connection to Emma in the title, this is NOT an Austen fan fiction rewrite. I loved, loved how not-related to Austen this was, while still tying Austen into the story.

Samantha Moore, our heroine, has had a rough life--in and out of the foster care system in Chicago with all sorts of abuse--and she's used reading and books to help her escape the challenges she's been up against and the constant disappointments her life has held. She loves her beloved classics--Jane Austen first and foremost--and spends almost all of her time reading them, thinking about them, quoting them, immersed in them. She lets her beloved authoress's words overtake her own even in normal conversation, and avoids connecting with people by spending more time with her books. But she gets offered a grant from a charitable foundation to pay for grad school, and as a part of that grant, she has to write personal letters to the anonymous head of the foundation, who has adopted the pseudonym of "Mr. Knightley." So the book is made up of these letters, which act almost as a diary for the year and a half she is in school, and give you great insight into Sam's character and how she changes and tries to overcome her fears of connecting with people and caring about people. Along the way, she gets a boyfriend, meets and befriends a famous author, and actually builds a network of people who love her and care about her. There is a big twist at the end when she finds out who the mysterious Mr. Knightley is--who she's been writing her heart to all along--and honestly, this was a great, heart-filled story that made you love Sam and root for her to achieve her goals and be happy like she never has been before.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Book #72: Maphead by Ken Jennings

You might recognize Ken Jennings as the famous Mormon Jeopardy! champion from the mid-2000s (although Tommy had no idea who he was; he said, "Isn't he that ABC news guy in Utah?"), and I'll admit, that was probably one of the main reasons this book stood out to me from random summer reading lists I saw. But I also thought that this topic was probably super interesting as well, honestly. I wouldn't say I'm absolutely terrible with geography--I'm not one of those college kids who couldn't point out Chicago on the map (something that Jennings talks a bit about), but I also couldn't for the life of me tell you where Tanzania is or distinguish between the Guinea countries. But there are people out there who love maps--LOVE maps and LOVE geography and everything to do with it--and they know much more than just having memorized the state and country capitals around the world. Geography is so much more than that--it's studying everything ABOUT those countries as well.

Jennings started writing about this topic because he was a map geek as a kid, always interested in looking through atlases and learning about maps. It turns out that Ken Jennings is a really good author with a knack for involving his own voice in somewhat dry material and making it very personalized to him and interesting to us. I thought the idea behind this book--that maps are awesome, basically--was pretty fun, but I wondered how Jennings intended to write an entire book about it. He basically follows the similar format of other non-fiction writers (like in Traffic and American Wasteland) where he has his main topic, and each chapter focuses on a smaller aspect of that topic while he interviews people, goes on field trips, gets really into that one thing, and then moves on. The chapters in Maphead focus on things like geocaching, the National Geography Bee (the less famous cousin of the National Spelling Bee, and admittedly much more impressive-sounding for that the kids learn), antique map sales, fantasy fiction maps and the purposes they serve, and more. Jennings goes to all sorts of interesting places and talks to uber-obsessed geography people (like the subtitle says, "geography wonks"), and I admit, it's a whole world of people that I really have never known anything about. But I am motivated to learn more--at least with nothing else, by buying a map for our house. (Let me tell you--reading this book is totally motivating me to want to buy a huge world map and hang it on our wall! Ikea has a really cool big one, but it's pretty expensive. We'll definitely need to wait until we move into a real house before we buy stuff like that.) I am also pretty interested in reading Jennings' other book, because I imagine it is probably at least as entertaining as this one, so I bet it's pretty good.

Monday, September 15, 2014

Book #71: The Distance Between Us by Kasie West

Okay, I'll admit it--I only just read On the Fence last night and now, less than 18 hours later, I've already finished another Kasie West novel. I was at the library this morning with Dane for storytime and I looked up Kasie West on the library system to see if they had any others of her books there--and they happened to have this one. I got it and read most of it while we were at Barnes and Noble and Dane played on the train table there (one of his favorite things--as a birthday activity for him). The Distance Between Us is actually set in the same town as On the Fence (and actually happens a little before that one--some of same characters appear as cameos in each), which is kind of neat. This novel is about Caymen Meyers, who spends all of her time working on her mom's doll store and worrying about paying their bills. Their clientele are mainly the super-rich of their town, who Caymen's mom is super prejudiced against and is always warning her daughter about getting too close with. But one of their accidental clients, Xander, starts following Caymen around and even though he's super rich, she actually likes him... What to do?

It had all of the same elements that I really enjoyed from On the Fence, with the fun, outspoken characters, and I really enjoyed the romance between Caymen and Xander. I just don't really understand why Caymen was so ridiculously insecure about the rich/poor conundrum here and always attributing everything Xander did to him being rich and caring about being rich. It really kind of started to wear on me. And just like with On the Fence, I kind of thought there was some unnecessarily dark background here--like with Caymen's dad, who left her and her mom (apparently just because he was rich)--which didn't get resolved satisfactorily by the end of the book. But I liked the dialogue between Caymen and Xander and how their relationship evolved, and I thought it was definitely a fun read.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Book #70: On the Fence by Kasie West

So don't go judging this book by its cover--because the girl on the cover of this book is definitely not Charlie, the main character in this book. Charlie is a Tomboy with a capital "T," having grown up with three older brothers and a neighbor that might as well be her brother and a doting dad, and she would NEVER wear a skimpy dress like that--all she wears are baggy shorts and whatever sports clothes she needs to play football or basketball with her brothers. But she gets a new job at a boutique clothes store at the mall and ends up having to learn more about clothes and make-up and make some girl friends instead of only hanging out with guys--and she learns some things about herself. And gets into an adorable romance in the meantime! Win win!

This book is a completely uncomplicated, adorable YA romance novel, which made it very fun, quick, and easy to read. I thought that the characters were all very believable and fun. I loved Charlie's life with her big brothers all doting on her and teasing her and treating her just like brothers should--it made me jealous to not have any big brothers of my own. I liked how Charlie was outspoken and never seemed embarrassed or worried about what to say with her brothers, and I liked how she was open to trying new things--like wearing the new clothes and putting on the make-up, eventually--and realized that she didn't have to just be a clone of her brothers for them to love her. Their family has a sad story about her mom's death when Charlie was six, however, and the climax of the story is when Charlie figures out what happened to her and why it's been bothering her for years. I honestly felt like that was a little too dramatic and overpowered by the romance for it to feel realistic (within basically the same day of finding out about her mom's backstory, she finally figures things out with the guy she loves and starts dating him, so all she thinks about is that). But overall, I really liked this story and thought it was a very cute romance (and quick--I finished it in under two hours!). And perfectly clean--thank you YA novel!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Book #69: Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull

The subtitle of this book is too long for me to bother typing it out in the header of this blog post, but the full title of the book is Creativity, Inc.: Overcoming the Unseen Forces that Stand in the Way of True Inspiration. And like all good subtitles do, that gives you a good sense of what this book is really about. Ed Catmull, the author, is the president of Pixar and Disney Animation, so it seems like he should have an enormous amount of experience with fostering and working with creativity and trying to create a workplace that is friendly to those goals. He says up front that this book is not a memoir--he uses his experiences at Pixar and Lucasfilm and other exciting places to provide examples, but the guiding principle of the book is his ideas about how to foster creativity in the workplace. And I totally get that, and why that is an important book to write. But I was mainly interested in the memoir bits--the stories about his experiences at Pixar, and how they work together to create these movies that we all love--and ended up skimming through all the theoretical talk about how those ideas apply and work, etc. So although he doesn't promise a memoir, I wish he had because those parts were so much more interesting (to me) than his discussions of why creativity is important, and what managers can do to help their employees to be more creative. And honestly, a lot of his suggestions seem pretty common-sense to me--but that's probably a good indication of how important they really are (and probably an indication of my little knowledge of a workplace environment). Overall, I'm not sure why I had to wait for almost two months for this one to become available at the library, except for the superstar author, but it was a reasonably interesting read.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Book #68: Northanger Abbey by Val McDermid

Another Jane Austen read! But this is another one of the Austen Project books--modern rewrites of Austen's stories by contemporary British authors (like the Sense and Sensibility I read a few weeks ago). I absolutely love the idea of this project and I love how these books stay true to the original story--down to the actual conversations that the characters hold--while adapting so flawlessly to modern times. Northanger Abbey is a really fun Austen read, but one that I think about less than all the other ones, so it was fun to read this modern adaptation and to see the guileless Cat and her love interest Henry and how they work in a modern context. I've never read anything else by McDermid, but she's a famous Scottish crime/mystery writer, which fits in well with this book and its Gothic, creepy theme at the abbey. To be honest, I don't know how much "rewriting" or adapting she really did, because it's so dang similar to the original version--other than just throwing in the occasional Facebook reference here and there--but that doesn't really bother me because the original is good enough. I like Henry better, even than in the original, in this version (although what is the age difference between the two of them? She's only 17 and he's a lawyer already? How old is he?), and I love/hate the embarrassment Cat has to go through when she realizes her imagination got her carried away and into doing ridiculous things. But I really, really think that McDermid failed in the great reveal scene where they figure out that they love each other and blah blah blah--that conversation was AWFUL and we get basically nothing out of it. No satisfaction about them as a couple at all! Those few pages were terrible. But overall, this is a great rewrite and definitely a lot of fun to read.

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Book #67: One Plus One by Jojo Moyes

I read Jojo Moyes' Me Before You a while ago and really liked it. Moyes' style is super readable and I loved the characters she created in that book. I've seen a number of people talking about this book on different blogs and I've been meaning to get around to it for a while now, because I knew I would enjoy it. And Moyes does a great job, once again, at creating these very believable and likable characters who have real-life struggles and feelings. And in this book they get caught up in this awesome adventure that changes their lives forever.

Jess Thomas has a pretty hard life--she's a single mom raising two kids and working crazy hard at two jobs to make ends meet. Her husband ran out on them and says he can't pay any child support, her stepson is getting beat up every day and her daughter is a math geek who's likely to be heading the same way, since their small town isn't very friendly to people who are different. But her daughter gets offered this amazing scholarship to a private school, and is given the chance to participate in the Math Olympiad in Scotland, so she tries to head up there with her kids on the spur of the moment. They get pulled over after not very long, and suddenly get rescued by Ed, a rich, selfish software tycoon who is surprised by his own desire to help. The rest of the book details their adventure with getting there and how the trip changes all of them (and of course, there's some inevitable romance thrown in there, and as unlikely as the two main characters seem to be paired together at the beginning, I like them a lot together).

Just like in Me Before You, I loved how Jess is not your stereotypical romantic comedy heroine. She's not some high-powered professional working in London, who's kind of strapped for cash but goes out on weekends to bars anyways and meets guys there. She works as a cleaner and at a bar at night in order to make ends meet; she is literally just dollars away from being broke all the time. And she has two older children. But she is still a fun, real person underneath all those challenges. And I liked the juxtaposition of the class relations that Ed and Jess find as they start getting to know each other, and the (very) different money troubles they're both in. But I really loved how Tanzie and Nicky, Jess's kids, really got their own voices (they each serve as narrators occasionally) and weren't just throwaway parts of the story to the romance--their concerns and needs were central to the whole story and to Jess's whole life. I will definitely look at more of Moyes' books in the future.

Friday, September 5, 2014

Book #66: Blackmoore by Julianne Donaldson

I read Donaldson's first book, Edenbrooke, about a year ago, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I'd heard she'd come out with another book (not a sequel, but a similar period romance) and I kept meaning to read it but only finally got it from the library this week. I read it in about two hours last night because I couldn't put it down! (Tommy's probably never very thrilled when I pick up a new book, because it means I'm going to ignore him until I'm done. But I finished this book so early we still had time to watch a move afterwards.)

There were a lot of points about Edenbrooke that I didn't believe or like that much, but I didn't necessarily feel that way about Blackmoore. I felt like the romance was much more natural and sweet, and that Kate was a very sympathetic heroine. Kate has a crazy, dysfunctional family (think Mr. and Mrs. Bennet a billion times worse and without any sense of morality at all) and she is determined to prove that she is different from them, and wants nothing more than to go to India with her aunt Charlotte (who has invited her). Her saving grace her whole life has been her friendship with Henry and Sylvia Delafield, her neighbors, who spend every summer at Blackmoore, their grandfather's estate by the sea. When she finally gets invited to go with them, her mother tells her she can only go if she receives--and rejects--three proposals of marriage while she's there. Kate enlists the help of Henry and all sorts of romantic adventures ensue. I liked how the author used flashbacks to help explain why Kate acts the way she does and why there are all these hang-ups between her and her friends. And honestly, I loved Henry and think it's a little ridiculous that Kate couldn't tell they were in love the whole time. It's prettttty obvious, girl.

A few other things: The ending was WAYYYYY too rushed! The entire rest of the book covers like a one-week period, with very little action except for between the heroine/hero, and then everything's resolved and they're in love within about five pages. I was really wanting MORE from their reunion scene--it really felt like a cop-out. Also, I feel like Donaldson makes very little effort to adjust her heroines and their assumptions to the time period in which she is writing. Kate seems really pretty modern, and the way they talk and act doesn't really seem to be in keeping with the time period. I also honestly couldn't tell what sort of family Kate came from (what class) by the first half of the book, although eventually she has a maid and seems comfortable with it, so that was a hint. I did like how Donaldson had a few extended metaphors running throughout the book and how those exemplified different things about Kate: about the Greek stories, the birds, and the music of Mozart and Faust (although, let's be honest, I think Donaldson might need a lesson in how to write metaphors that aren't so heavy-handed. Kate talks about that bird in the cage--and about being a trapped bird in a cage--SO MANY TIMES it is absolutely ridiculous). But Donaldson is LDS so the book is completely clean and really very well done.