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3.69 AVERAGE
3.69 AVERAGE
“And in this life, where I had so little to call my own, where my liberty and love were torn from me, I seize this power: the freedom to write my own story.”
It’s disappointing that the stories of women were so heavily saturated with Khayyam’s love triangle. I wanted to so much more from this book and so much less of the love triangle driven plot. It took so long to get to the true focus. The climax being the fall out of the triangle is a real shame. Leila’s chapters were so short and it took until about the last 100 pages to really focus solely on solving the mystery of Leila’s life and the Dumas fortune.
Really interesting read for sure, I just didn’t love it :/
It’s disappointing that the stories of women were so heavily saturated with Khayyam’s love triangle. I wanted to so much more from this book and so much less of the love triangle driven plot. It took so long to get to the true focus. The climax being the fall out of the triangle is a real shame. Leila’s chapters were so short and it took until about the last 100 pages to really focus solely on solving the mystery of Leila’s life and the Dumas fortune.
Really interesting read for sure, I just didn’t love it :/
Snore.
This book was drudgery.
I can appricate the author's ambitions, using a duel narrative to tie different historical works of art together with a feminist message. And perhaps it would have been more readable if she had just stuck to the historical story. Instead were forced to dither about Paris as our boring heroine conviently uncovers hiddens messages and treasure in awkwardly contrived moments. The romances are so shallowly protrayed, even the historical one, it was hard to stay invested.
This book was drudgery.
I can appricate the author's ambitions, using a duel narrative to tie different historical works of art together with a feminist message. And perhaps it would have been more readable if she had just stuck to the historical story. Instead were forced to dither about Paris as our boring heroine conviently uncovers hiddens messages and treasure in awkwardly contrived moments. The romances are so shallowly protrayed, even the historical one, it was hard to stay invested.
Annoyed, almost to my breaking point annoyed and a huge let down. What I hoped would be an exciting mystery full of art history, poets, paintings, France (love that), two stories separated by centuries but nearly intertwined that solved the puzzle turned out to be a feminist manifesto from the perspective of a conflicted biracial muslim american girl who couldn't see past her own privilege complete with college professor parents and summers in Paris, and wasted every breath railing against the patriarchy, "his"tory as opposed to "her"story and centuries of poor women whose story was never told thanks to colonialism. Oh and by the way she was just using the guy in France to get back at her boyfriend who ended things before she left on the trip, then gets upset to find out the guy in France also had an agenda. Self-righteous much? Yeah, life's tough. Moving on.
adventurous
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Premise - wonderful. Execution - a lot of telling and not showing, repetitive AF, and just a major letdown from a book that I was very excited to read.
When I was reading the first 1/3 of this book, I wanted to put it down. It seemed like a watered down, YA retelling of Possession by AS Byatt. But I’m glad I didn’t. While it does definitely seem to be very similar to Possession, it highlights race and culture and religion and the importance of telling the stories of those pushed to the margins of history. The afterward really brought everything together beautifully. I’m very glad I read this book.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Khayyam, half-American and half French (and also Muslim and Indian), is in Paris with her parents for the summer. She has recently applied for a Young Scholar prize at her dream art school with an essay that connected Alexandre Dumas to Eugene Delacroix, but her main premise ended up being incorrect, and she feels like a failure. After stepping in dog poop, of all things, she runs into a young man named Alexandre Dumas - an ancestor of the original author who was part of the premise of her essay. Seeing an opportunity to try to reclaim her credibility, she embarks on a detective mission with the modern Alexandre, unearthing an incredible story about a girl named Leila from a long time ago.
Interspersed throughout the novel is parts of Leila's story. I found myself wanting more of Leila's story every time I had the opportunity to read some of it, and Leila's story is a big reason why I liked this book.
I absolutely loved the book at the beginning. I felt it dragged a little bit in the middle, and the "love story" part of it fell a little flat for me - while I really liked Khayyam as a character, I didn't feel like Alexandre was quite as fleshed out, and so I had trouble being invested in their relationship. The pace of the book picked up again later on, though, and I was turning pages eagerly toward the end. I enjoyed seeing Khayyam find herself, her confidence, and her independence. Leila's story was fascinating, and the detective work to find out more information about Leila was intriguing. All in all, definitely a worthwhile read.
Interspersed throughout the novel is parts of Leila's story. I found myself wanting more of Leila's story every time I had the opportunity to read some of it, and Leila's story is a big reason why I liked this book.
I absolutely loved the book at the beginning. I felt it dragged a little bit in the middle, and the "love story" part of it fell a little flat for me - while I really liked Khayyam as a character, I didn't feel like Alexandre was quite as fleshed out, and so I had trouble being invested in their relationship. The pace of the book picked up again later on, though, and I was turning pages eagerly toward the end. I enjoyed seeing Khayyam find herself, her confidence, and her independence. Leila's story was fascinating, and the detective work to find out more information about Leila was intriguing. All in all, definitely a worthwhile read.