I finally finished this book just in the nick of time to participate in the Books on the Nightstand bookclub bookchat (I’m not really sure that’s what Ann and Michael are calling this, hopefully they’ll forgive me).
First up, the book. The book. I really liked this book. I had especially high expectations for it as several people whose opinions I respect absolutely loved this book. Michael from BOTNS being one of them. I want to say that I loved this book. But I’m not sure that I loved it. I did like it a lot. The writing was amazing. It flowed so smoothly that and was so beautiful in places that I found myself re-reading sentences just because I enjoyed them so much.On the podcast I said that my daughter’s teacher often uses the phrase that they should use flavorful words when they are writing and that is a good way to describe the writing in this book. It’s tingled the taste-buds of my brain.
The storyline moved quickly even though it was a chunk of a book. My only complaint was the beginning. It moved rather slowly and it wasn’t until the boys were in NY that I was able to immerse myself in the story. Part of what I enjoyed and think that helped move the plot along was the narrative changing the characters POV. I think my favorite parts of the story were when Rosa was narrating. Maybe it’s because I’m a women that I enjoyed her perspective so much. She seemed so ahead of her time and so calm that her perspective was a nice balance to the two men. Their perspectives always seemed so harsh and dramatic. I will admit to skipping over some of the parts in the Antarctica. Those scenes were just as descriptive but I could have done without that. I usually like the happy ending and I do have to say I was a little surprised by the ending. Which I won’t give away here. It was bittersweet. I’ll leave it at that.
The call-in chat was so much fun. I’ve wanted to participate in a book club and don’t know of any locally so this was great for me to be able to participate in.
We’re so glad you joined us!!