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jbarr5's review
3.0
Across the Green Ocean by Wendy Lee
This book was a bit more than what I thought. Loved all the detailed explicit descriptions of the scenery abroad and stateside along with what the characters were doing.
Starts out with the father dying and leaving a woman and her 2 kids, who are grown and don't live at home. Michael discovers letters written to the father and tracks down who he has to meet with in China to find out how they knew one another-as everything is forgiven the letter stated.
Emily is the grown and married daughter who works a lot of overtime and her pay shows for it although her spouse spends time making food for hours on end to please her. He wants kids and she never does, still.
Story goes back in time to how the parents met and their beliefs. Quite strong beliefs from the kids also come to the forefront and how they deal with them.
Love the mystery in this book but didn't expect the homosexual scenes to be so pronounced.
Liked what he discovers in China that helps him heal and helps him and others in the family move forward.
I received this book from The Kennsington Books in exchange for my honest review
typewriters87's review
4.0
I picked this book up at a store where it was back with the bargain/clearance books. It sounded interesting, and when flipped through a few pages, read well.
I have to say, and possibly because I had SUCH low expectations going into it, it really knocked my socks off.
It definitely wasn't a quick read, but I found it very enjoyable, and really, really interesting to see each character with their separate struggles. Death is difficult by itself, but you get to watch not only how they deal with that death but all of their other things as well, at the same time. It's very combustible. This is definitely a book that I'd want to re-read in the near future to let it soak in a little more and see if there were things I missed the first go-round.
I will say that the ending did leave me very unsatisfied. I like neatly tied and tucked endings, this just kind of let you see the very beginning of the end. I felt like it could have maybe explored things a little further.
I have to say, and possibly because I had SUCH low expectations going into it, it really knocked my socks off.
It definitely wasn't a quick read, but I found it very enjoyable, and really, really interesting to see each character with their separate struggles. Death is difficult by itself, but you get to watch not only how they deal with that death but all of their other things as well, at the same time. It's very combustible. This is definitely a book that I'd want to re-read in the near future to let it soak in a little more and see if there were things I missed the first go-round.
I will say that the ending did leave me very unsatisfied. I like neatly tied and tucked endings, this just kind of let you see the very beginning of the end. I felt like it could have maybe explored things a little further.
emilykuper's review
5.0
This book sucked me in immediately. Lee’s writing is incredibly descriptive and full of life. I felt like each perspective that was shown was vivid and distinct. I felt very connected to the characters by the end of it.
timbooksin's review
5.0
This was such a wholehearted story. I connected with all the characters and enjoyed seeing the same scenes played out from multiple perspectives. Flashback as a literary technique really did well to advance the plot. The interweaving plot lines were airtight, which is really hard to do. The book is well-paced, a good length, and brings resolution to all the main conflicts. I'd likely go back to this one again!
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