Book Review: No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay

I haven't written a book review in a long time and the pile of books that I need to write about is just getting bigger and bigger!

Today I want to talk about No Time For Goodbye by Linwood Barclay. I had never hear of Linwood Barclay before but I probably will check out some of his other books!

The house was silent. No sound of her parents getting ready for work, or her brother late for school. Were they punishing her for last night? She'd been out on a date when she should have been studying, and had a huge fight with her father. So where was everyone now? Why had her family disappeared?Twenty-five years later the mystery is no nearer to being solved and Cynthia is still haunted by unanswered questions. Where her family murdered? Abducted? If so, why was she spared? And if they're alive, why did they abandon her?Then a letter arrives, a letter which makes no sense. Soon Cynthia begins to realise that stirring up the past could be the worst mistake she has ever made...

The book is written in 1st person, which is something I usually cannot stand but with this book it wasn't a problem. What I found a unique touch to the book is that the speaker of the book isn't Cynthia (the main character) but her husband Terry. It gives the book such a strange (in a good way) vibe, you feel like an audience to the events that are happening since you are not reading them from the view of the main character.

The story line was as well good, not great since it was very predictable but I enjoyed it (even though I knew exactly how it would end). The characters were great, and I liked how Linwood added some extra character for some suspense. There weren't too many character, which is good because it can be come confusing, but just the right amount of them.


There are couple of chapters that are about two mysterious people that aren't named until the last chapters of the book, those chapter still give so much away so only the first chapter is mysterious and the rest obvious. I think that that part is the only thing I don't really like about the book, I felt they were more of a page filler than important for the story line. I even felt like they destroyed the suspense of the story!

At last, my favorite part about writing book reviews the quotes.

"I'd never been to a shrink before. About all I knew came from watching The Sopranos' Dr Melfi help Tony work through his problems. I couldn't decide whether ours were more or less serious than his. Tony had people disappearing around him all the time, but he was often the one who'd arranged it. He had the advantage of knowing what had happened to these people." Page 71  

"I acted on impulse. I opened the closet, picked up the typewriter - God those old machines were heavy - and put it inside, on the floor. Then I draped some other things over it, an old pair of pants I'd used to paint in, a stack of old newspaper." Page 229

"If I could have brought myself  to call Detective Wedmore I could have asked her outright where I might find Vince Fleming and saved myself some time. She'd already said she knew the name. Abagnall had told us he had a record for a variety of offences." Page 271

What kind of name is Abagnall? I think that is the only name were I was dumbfounded by, I mean, how do you even pronounce it Ab-a-gnall? Ab-gnall? Who knows!

All in all I did like this book! Which I feel sometimes is a rare occurrence!

Have you read this book or any other book by Linwood Barclay?

Bisous

Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

I have so many books that I need to review but I somehow can't get into the right mood to write them! But I shall change that by forcing myself to actually write them. 

I wanted to start by reviewing The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I picked up this book because it was recommended to me by so many people. I wasn't really sure because I'm not a big fan of needy women books, and especially not when they are written by women that should know better than to write a book that is just horribly demeaning towards women! 

With that kind of intro you might have figured out what I actually think about this book but I am still going to review it like I review (almost) every book I read! Let's start with the synopsis on the back of the book.

A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who involuntary travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare's passionate affair endures across sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love. 

I should have known with that kind of synopsis that this wasn't a book for me! Henry is dashing, adventuresome and Clare is an artist who has a natural sequenced life. Why can't Clare be the adventuresome character? Why does she have to be the stay at home and worry character? Why does Clare have to be the weak character, why can't she be the hero? Why is Clare only life goal to be with Henry? These are the questions that constantly jumped at me during the whole book.

It isn't that the story isn't a great story, it has potential. But instead of working on these potentials the story just goes into the "weak woman strong man" road and doesn't even once derive from that.

Anyways, the book is written in 1st person and is from the viewpoint of Clare and Henry, most of the chapters have couple of sections that are about the time-travel. For example chapter one is called First Date, One and the first section is called Saturday, October 26, 1991 (Henry is 28, Clare is 20) and part of that section is from Clare's point of view and part from Henry's point of view. The second sections is called Later that evening and it is only from Henry's point of view. The third section is called The next morning and that section is from Clare's point of view.

CLARE: It's a humid sticky hot Sunday afternoon, and Henry, Gomez, and I are at large in Evanston. We spent the morning at Lighthouse Beach, playing in Lake Michigan and roasting ourselves. Gomez wanted to be buried in the sand, so Henry and I obliged. We ate our picnic, and napped. Now we are walking down the shady side of Church Street, licking Orangsicles, groggy with sun. (Page 295)

HENRY: Today was Moving Day. All day it was hot; the movers' shirts stuck to them as they walked up the stairs of our apartment this morning, smiling because they figured a two-bedroom apartment would be no big deal and they'd be done before lunch time. (Page 294)

Only two quotes this time, since there wasn't anything that I found amazing about the book. No words stood out to me, I wasn't inspired about anything in the book.

And at last, would I recommend this book to anyone? No, I am sick of weak female characters in literature and I definitely wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

Bisous

Book Review: Timeless by Gail Carriger

Another Gail Carriger book? Yes, I love her books! I have written about Souless and Heartless before and now it is time for Timeless. I really want to read Changeless, Blameless but they aren't available on kindle format, yet. I hope they will be one day and hopefully soon!

One funny thing, even when I am in full force with my 25 things before my 25th birthday list I keep on thinking about what will be on my 26 things before my 26th birthday. One of the things is I might only buy kindle book for that year. 

Back to Timeless, this is the last book that has been published in The Parasol Protectorate series. I don't know if there will be more books published in this series or if I should try to read some of her other novels. The book description is quite intriguing, which they usually are for these books.

Alexia Tarabotti, Lady Maccon, has settled into domestic bliss. Of course, being Alexia, such bliss involves integrating werewolves into London High society, living in a vampire's second best closet, and coping with a precocious toddler who is prone to turning supernatural willy-nilly. Even Ivy Tunstell's acting troupe's latest play, disastrous to say the least, cannot put a damper on Alexia's enjoyment of her new London lifestyle. 

Until, that is, she receives a summons from Alexandria that cannot be ignored. With husband, child, and Tunstells in tow, Alexia boards a steamer to cross the Mediterranean. But Egypt may hold more mysteries than even the indomitable Lady Maccon can handle. What does the vampire Queen of the Alexandria Hive really want from her? Why is the God-Breaker Plague suddenly expanding? And how has Ivy Tunstell suddenly become the most popular actress in all the British Empire?

The story is hilarious (as always), and since I read Heartless shortly before I read Timeless the sheer amount of character wasn't as big of a problem as when you just start reading her books. I really liked how Alexia's daughter, Prudence, fitted well into the story and even had her own story line.

"It's bath night. You don't have a choice. Real ladies are clean ladies," explained her mother, rather sensibly, she thought."  Page 7

"If Alexia had not interfered, Lord Akeldama would have remained mortal, and Prudence a fanged toddler, until sunrise." Page 10

"Foo Foo," replied Prudence with equal gravitas. Then, after giving the lady dressed as a gentleman a very assessing look, she added, "Btttpttbtpt."  Page 108 

"There was a wastrel in black Alexia  first thought might be a statesman, until he whipped out a notebook, which made her thing he was that lowest of the low: a travel journalist." Page 130

I would say that Timeless is as good if not even a bit better than Soulless and Heartless, the only thing I find annoying is how expensive the kindle books are for this series.

Bisous

In other book news, I gave up on Timebomb by Gerald Seymour. This is a rare occurrence since I always try to finish every book I start on. Timebomb was just so extremely bad that I just couldn't carry on.

Book Review: Body Double by Tess Gerritsen

I always love reviewing books that I loved reading! Body Double by Tess Gerritsen is a great book. It is a great crime novel and it is just thrilling. I completely recommend this book to anyone that would like to read a crime novel! I picked it up because the tv-show Rizzoli and Isles is based on these books, I LOVE Rizzoli and Isles and I will definitely read some more of these books!

But back to Body Double, the synopsis of the book (as written on the back cover):

"As the scalpel begins to cut my blood runs cold. I look like her. Exactly like her..."  

Maura Isles deals with death. As a pathologist in downtown Boston, she has seen more then her share of corpses. But never before has the body on the medical examiner's table been her own.
There can be no denying the evidence though. The dead woman is her mirror image right down to the most intimate physical details. Even more chilling is the discovery that they share the same birth date and blood type.
Then a DNA test confirms that Maura's mysterious double is indeed her twin sister, and suddenly an already bizarre murder investigation becomes a disturbing journey into a past full of dark and deadly secrets...

Isn't that just so intriguing! The novel has so much suspense in it without being over the top! Just amazing. The characters are well written and even the smallest character have enough back-story to be believable.

I highlighted tons of quotes on my kindle, there were just so many sentences that I loved! But to narrow it down I chose five that I believe gives and insight into the story and demonstrates how it is written!

That's not healthy, she thought as she sat at an outdoor café, savoring one last cup of espresso and a strawberry tart. Page 18

That's three hours I could have spent walking alone the Seine, she thought as she sat disgruntled in Charles de Gaulle. Three hours I could have wandered the Marais or poked around in Les Halles. Page 18

Even from across the lawn, Maura could recognize homicide detective Jane Rizzoli. Now eight months pregnant, the petite Rizzoli looked like a ripe pear in a pantsuit. Page 20

She had seen her share of horrors in this lab, had gazed at flesh in every stage of decay, at bodies so damaged by fire or trauma that the remains could scarcely be categorized as human. The woman on the table was, in the scope of her experience, remarkably intact. The blood had been washed away, and the bullet's entry wound, in the left scalp, was obscured by her dark hair. Page 39  

There were no pictures taken in the hospital, none of her mother in pregnancy. Just this sudden, sharp image of Ginny smiling in the sunshine, holding her instant baby. She thought of another dark-haired baby, held in another mother's arms. Perhaps, on that very same day, a proud father in another town had snapped off a photo of his new daughter. A girl named Anna. Page 86

The book is mostly written in third person but has some sentences in first person, those sentences are inner monologue but they aren't preachy or at all annoying and I usually HATE inner monologue and first person yapping.

All in all, I would definitely recommend this book and it is highly likely that I will pick up another one of Tess Gerritsen novels soon!

Bisous

Book Review: Exit Music by Ian Rankin

I have been reading this book for such a long time! The problem is that this is such a slow book, I am not asking for a action thriller I am just asking for a book that isn't in such a horrible snail pace!

It's late autumn in Edinburgh and late autumn in the career of Detective Inspector John Rebus. As he tries to tie up some loose ends before retirement, a murder case intrudes. A dissident Russian poet has been found dead in what looks like a mugging gone wrong. By apparent coincidence, a high-level delegation of Russian businessmen is in town - and everyone is determined that the case should be closed quickly and clinically. 

But the further they dig, the more Rebus and DS Siobhan Clarke become convinced that they are dealing with something more than a random attack - especially after a particularly nasty second killing. Meanwhile, a brutal and premeditated assault on a local gangster sees Rebus in the frame ...

Not even half way through the book I just wanted to quit reading it! It was just dreadfully slow and horribly boring.

"Rebus had dropped her home and then driven through the silent pre-dawn streets to Marchmont, an eventual parking space, and his second-floor tenement flat. The living room had a bay window, and that was where his chair was." Page 15

I wondered if the story might be more interesting if I had read the other 17 books written about Inspector Rebus but somehow I highly doubt it.

The book spans nine days and an extra day epilogue which can be what makes the story develop so slowly. To be fair, there is almost no movement in this book! It is just a repetition from day to day with just little bit of new information and just page-loads of nothing.

"He turned his attention to the windscreen and the bleak car park beyond. Clarke could see that he wanted to wind down the window so he could smoke. But the smell was out there, lying in wait just above the level of tarmac." Page 64

I wonder if Ian Rankin wanted just to stop writing about Inspector Rebus, since he is supposed to retire in this novel, and the publisher made him write another book with this is the result, an awful book! But in reality there is an eighteenth Inspector Rebus novel that came out after this one.

"The moment the flashing blue light was plugged in, it began working. Goodyear reached out of the window and attached it to the roof. The light ahead was still red. Clarke sounded her horn and watched the driver examine her in his rearview mirror." Page 396

I think Ian Rankin will go into my "do not read" author list, along with Kathy Reichs (see review here). Life is just too short to keep on reading bad books!

What should I put on my reading list?

Bisous

Book Review: Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs

I had some high hopes for this book, I really thought it would be a great book. I have heard so many amazing thing about the Temperance Brennan books but I had never read one. I decided to go for it and I regret it.  

Déjà Dead is Kathy Reichs first novel and for me most likely the last that I will read by her. 

The bones of a woman are discovered in the grounds of an abandoned monastery and the case is given to Dr Temperance Brennan, Director of Forensic Anthropology for the province of Quebec. 'Too decomposed for standard autopsy. Request anthropologic expertise. My case.'

Researching recent disappearances in the city convinces Brennan that a serial killer is at work, despite the deep cynicism of Detective Claudel who heads the investigation. Dr Brennan's forensic expertise and contacts at Quantico finally convince him otherwise, but only after the body count has grown... 

Tempe takes matters into her own hands, re-examining remains from past, unsolved murders. She is driven to unravel shocking acts of violence by reading the bones of the dead. But even before Tempe makes her crucial breakthrough, the killer closes in...

I think main problem I have with the book is that it is written in first person, I find that just way way to annoying. There is too much of inner conversations that are just useless and make Temperance character simply annoying. I really wouldn't want to know her in real life.

The second problem was just too much detail, for me the only thing it did for the story was to fill pages and was just plain and simple boring. I threw the book down almost at every other page because reading this book is super frustrating!

The only character I could relate to was Temperance daughter, Katy. She really just wanted her mom to stop annoying her so much.

"What I saw made my blood race even faster, as if the thumb had been slipped from the shaken soda bottle in my chest and a geyser of fear allowed to erupt." Page 71

"Back in the imaging program, I called up Tang.tif and double-clicked it open. Tanguay's impression filled the screen. I retrieved the bite mark in the Rue Berger cheese, and tilted the two images side by side. Next I converted both images to an RGB scale, to maximize the amount of information in the pictures" Page 464 

The description on how she is editing pictures goes on for 7 pages! 7!!! Horrible. The same happens earlier in the book when she starts describing different types of saws.

I am only including two quotes since I just can't make myself type more of horrible written words.  I will never reach for another Kathy Reichs book and I wish I hadn't forced myself to finish this one!

Bisous

Book Review: Heartless by Gail Carriger

I have written a review about Gail Carriger book before, it was called Soulless (see here). I really enjoyed that book and it was no different with this one!

On the back cover it says:

Lady Alexia Maccon, soulless, is at it again, only this time the trouble is not her fault. When a mad ghost threatens the queen, Alexia is on the case, following a trail that leads her deep into her husband's past. Top that off with a sister who has joined the suffragette movement (shocking!), Madame Lefoux's latest mechanical invention, and a plague of zombie porcupines and Alexia barley has time to remember she happens to be eight months pregnant.
Will Alexia manage to determine who is trying to kill Queen Victoria before it is too late? Is it the vampires again or is there a traitor lurking about in wolf's clothing? And what, exactly, has taken up residence in Lord Akeldam's second best closet?

As I mentioned in my review for Soulless, Gail Carriger has written several other books with the same characters. They are Soulless, Changeless, Blameless, Heartless and Timeless. There are as well two volumes of manga that are based on these books. 

I had the same problem with this book as I had with the first one, there are endless amount of characters that have first and last names and the names are used at random! However, that is the only thing that I didn't like about the book! 

The story line is fantastic! The character are amazing! I even laughed out loud frequently when I was reading the book! Just marvelous! 

"Struck with a sudden inspiration, Lady Maccon yelled to her lupine spouse, "My love, lead them off. Go for the lime pit." She remembered Conall complaining to her about running into the pit by accident only a few nights previous, singeing all the hair of his forefeet." Page 23

"Even prior to her marriage, Miss Ivy Hisselpenny's social position had prevented her from attending events of high standing, while Miss Alexia Tarabotti had suffered under the yoke of such events. As far as Ivy was concerned, this yielded up a poor quality and quantity of gossip." Page 89

In these two quotes Alexia, the main character, is mentioned as Lady Maccon and as Miss Alexia Tarabotti! It is quite annoying if you haven't read the previous books and don't really know that Lady Maccon maiden name was Miss Tarabotti.

"She was confined to her bed with a splint and barley water and told that on no account was she to move for an entire week. Worse, she was also told that she was to lay off tea for the next twenty-four hours, as imbibing any hot liquid was bound to increase the swelling. Alexia called the doctor a quack and threw her bad cap at him. He retreated, but she knew perfectly well that Cornall and the rest at Woolsey would see that his instructions were obeyed to the letter" Page 167

All in all this book is great, it has a good story, it is well written and it is funny! I would definitely recommend it and I am thinking about reading her other books in this series!

Bisous!

P.S. Check out how I am doing with my A-Z list here.

Book Review: After Mary By Katharine McMahon

I can't really remember why I decided to read this book but I do not regret it! This is the first book on my a-z list that I thoroughly enjoyed.

I think it must have been the book summary at the back cover that made me want to read it, on the back it says:

Seventeenth-century England is a turbulent country, rife with treachery and violence, where persecuted Catholics flee for their lives, mass is said secretly in attic rooms and a plot is hatched to kill the King.

In London, young Isabel Stanhope leads a double life. Her father, a favoured courtier of James I, expects her to marry a distant cousin, the gloriously elusive Francis Bourne. But during the tense summer of 1605, Isabel is sent to stay with her devoutly Catholic grandmother. One morning, she witnesses the arrival of a stranger, the charismatic priest Peter Carisbroke, and falls immediately under his spell.

Isabel - torn between duty and a young woman's passionate, but forbidden, longing - struggles to make her choice. Eager for experience and love, she sets out on a journey which takes her from the temptations of Jacobean London to a Europe torn apart by war. But has Isabel made the right decision? Has she really followed her heart?

In this sumptuous, enthralling novel, Katharine McMahon portrays a fascinating world of self-sacrifice, betrayal and intrigue, where the consequences of love turn life upside-down.

The story is amazing, it is split into four parts, Powder (1605), Mary Mary (1609), Galloping Girls (1617) and Praxedes (1621). It follows the journey of Isabel, through her struggles with faith and other struggles. It has historical accurate characters which give the story the reality it need and Katherine McMahon managed to grab my mind and I actually looked up a lot of the characters just so I could know more about them.

"Men's heads. From ragged skin waved hair and beards, in place of lips were gaping grins and tatty lumps of flesh dangled from severed necks. People stared up, fascinated." Page 74

This quote demonstrates the only thing that annoyed me with this book, Isabel father is always mentioned as Sir William, but all of a sudden just in this quote he is mentioned as Stanhope, it took me awhile to realize that Sir William was Stanhope.  

"Her attention had drifted away from him but she awoke abruptly to the realization that she was in danger. Stanhope's hatred for Thomasina was shocking. Crossing the carriage with a spring he sat beside Isabel so that his weight on her huge skirt pinned her to the seat. His hand came up and plucked at her face, pinching the flesh of her cheek between thumb and finger. 'Where did you go yesterday?'" Page 96 

"Praxedes was easy to read. She had a way of making herself significant by assuming insignificance. Her smiles were rare and she skimmed from place to place like a shadow. To make time for more prayer, she slept only two hours a night and the flaming hair that always escaped just a little from her cap was a poignant and beautiful contrast to her huge green eyes and fragile white skin" Page 195 

As I said before, I really liked this book. The characters grabbed me and I got to see how they grew and evolved before my eyes! Amazing!

Have you read any good books lately?

Book Review: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

It took me such a long time to get into this book! It just starts in a such an awfully slow way! I really don't remember why I decided to pick up this book but I did! As mentioned before the book starts really slow and the book itself is really slow it isn't a complicated read it is written in a simple manner but the story just goes on in such a slow way!

Every time I picked up the book I read couple of pages until I just gave up, it was such a boring book! The concept is great! But the writing is just tedious! But when I was traveling back to Geneva and had nothing else to read for 12 hours I managed to finish it (with some naps in between)

On the back of the book it says:

Families have secrets they hide
even from themselves...
It should have been an ordinary birth, the start of an ordinary happy family. But the night Dr. David Henry delivers his wife's twins is a night that will haunt five lives forever.

For though David's son is a healthy boy, his daughter has Down's syndrome. And, in a shocking act of betrayal whose consequences only time will reveal, he tells his wife their daughter died while secretly entrusting  her care to a nurse.

As grief quietly tears apart David's family, so a little girl must make her own way in the world as best she can.

I find the blurb isn't at all accurate for what is happening in the book, yes, David does give the nurse the baby but it is the nurse that decides to take care of the baby. Furthermore, when I was reading the book it didn't feel like it was grief tearing the family apart it was selfishness of them all. The little girl didn't have to make her own way in the world since she was very well taken care of by the nurse and the nurses husband.

The book starts in March 1964 and the last chapter takes part on 1st of September 1989. The story starts with Norah going into labor and her husband David, eleven years older than her, delivers the babies. The story starts slowly and the delivery takes about 20 pages of horribly written back-story that really doesn't give anything towards the plot.

I never felt any sympathy towards any of the characters, they were all selfish in their own ways and didn't evolve throughout the 401 pages, yes 401 pages of complaining. The book wasn't about grief, it was about how families can't stick together without having faith in each other. It felt like it was supposed all to be David's fault and he could just never catch a break. 

At last, some quotes from the book itself.

"Despite herself, Norah felt a surge of pleasure. She had given up on hope of such an invitation years ago, after Bree's scandalous marriage and divorce." Page 129

"He saw Paul a block before the party, walking down the sidewalk with his hands shoved into his pockets, his shoulder hunched. There were cars parked all along the road, no place to pull over, so David slowed and tapped the horn. Paul looked up, and for a moment David was afraid he might run." Page 199

"Caroline caught the corner of the Polaroid between her thumb and first finger as it slipped from the camera, the image already emerging. The table with its white cloth appeared to float on a sea of dark grass. Moonflowers, white and faintly luminous, climbed the hillside. Phoebe was a pale blur in her confirmation dress. Caroline waved the photo dry in the fragrant air." Page 221

All in all, I would say that it is a bad book, but the concept is great.


Bisous

P.S. Check out my other book reviews here 

Book Review: City of The Beasts by Isabel Allende

Isabel Allende was one of my favorite author when I was a teenager so I jumped at the opportunity to buy City of The Beasts when I saw it.  The book was published in 2002 and is the first part of a trilogy

On the back of the book it says.

With his mother in hospital, Alex Cold is sent to his fierce, wonderful grandmother Kate - a pipe-smoking, vodka-drinking old reporter with blue eyes "as sharp as daggers' points". Kate is about to embark on an expedition to the dangerous, remote world of the Amazon rainforest, but rather than change her plans, she  simply takes Alex along wit her... In a novel rich in adventure, magic and spirit, internationally-celebrated novelist Isabel Allende takes us on a voyage of discovery and wonder, deep into the heart of the Amazon.

The plot of the story starts well, it is believable and tragic. However, as the story goes on you start to wonder what kind of drugs she was taking when writing the book! I know that the book is a fiction book but it is just too much of a fiction. I'm not sure why I feel this way but I do think it has something to do with my experience with Allende's other novels. I was expecting the novel to walk the line between reality and fiction better but instead it just jumped into the fictional side and drowned.

I felt as well the fact that Alex was feeling attracted to a girl that was much younger than he (he was fifteen) and still comparing that girl to his younger sister quite disturbing. Just the fact that her boyish body is described in one place and in the other how grown up she seems and how Alex has started to look at her in a different way and you know she is the same age as his sister that is around 12 years old. For me that really damaged the book a lot.

"One day the crew shot a couple of monkeys, and that night when the boat was tied up along the riverbank they were roasted. They looked like couple of burned infants, and Alex felt queasy just seeing them." Page 59-60 

"The rain was warm as soup, and it turned the narrow little streets into steaming mud pits." Page 70 

""I set him free," César Santos replied with awesome serenity" Page 107 

"In a movie or a novel, this would be the moment that the helicopters arrived to rescue him and he looked toward the sky, but without hope; in real life, helicopters never come in time." Page 218 

"They had to brush away from their eyes the delicate spiderwebs embroidered with mosquitoes and dewdrops suspended like lace among the leaves." Page 253

I don't think I'll read the rest of the trilogy and I think I will stick with her books that are aimed at adults. I can't deny that Isabel Allende is a great author but this book just didn't do it for me!