A missed opportunity to be a truly great book
353092
As a student of Russian history and traveler to Russia for more than 30 years, I was quite disappointed with this book.  I simply could not suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy this.  First of all, though the writing was eloquent and beautiful, this particular Gentleman is not Russian in thought, character or action.  He is more British in nature or simply a "generic aristocrat."  Even the descriptions and back story of his childhood are more descriptive of the English aristocracy than the Russian.  Generally, the pre-revolutionary Russian Aristocracy was self-serving, corrupt and oppressive. The Revolution didn't happen because they were an enlightened, progressive bunch.

Secondly, the story simply could not have happened.  The Imperial Russian elite were hunted down and executed or fled the country in the late teens and early 20's.  The Bolsheviks spared no one, let alone a aristocratic poet.  They even slaughtered or drove to madness many of the poets and artists that supported the early regime.  The Red Terror of the 20's and then the Great Purges in the 30's would not have spared anyone.

Third, the relationship he had with Nina was impossible.  Her association with one of the "Former People" would have resulted in catastrophe for her and her entire family early in the red Terror.  She and her family would not have survived her association with him let alone allowing for any on-going relationship.  She would never have lived to be old enough to have a child because of her association with the Count..  Even if I could buy into it, the relationship could have been a much greater vehicle for illustrating and allowing the reader to experience the dark brutal realities of life in early Soviet Union, the reprogramming of youth and the obsessive, no-cost-is-too-great attempt to build Communism.  Association with the Count would have also been a death sentence for anyone else in the hotel, including the staff.

Likewise the relationship and "English lessons" he had with the Bolshevik leader could not have happened.  The General would have been purged and shot for simply associating with the Count.  In a hotel like the Metropole nothing was secret and every secret was told to the regime.  Nearly every employee was an informer just to survive.  Someone would have noticed and informed on the Red General.  And a Red General would never have placed himself in such a dangerous position by seeking out the Count.

Fourth, the experience of WWII, The Great Patriotic War, is virtually ignored.  The Battle of Moscow and the utter destruction of most of the city and the trauma to every Russian family is completely neglected.  The experience of the War is key to the country and culture that emerged afterwards and is perhaps Russia's defining moment for generations to come.

Finally, and very troublesome to me, is why did he wait 30 years to attempt an escape.  Why is there no mention of any thoughts, attempts to escape or appeal his "house arrest?" Not once.

The story of Russia in the 20th Century is a story of human tragedy and at the same time a story of human beauty, survival and endurance.  It is one of the most tragic 100 years in the history of any nation or people on earth.  In this book, revolutions, famines, terror, two world wars, utter destruction and the start of the Cold War are glossed over while the author spends endless pages on descriptions of dinners, meals and wine selections.

The writing is amazing.  The images that flow are lyrical and gorgeous.  But this is a missed opportunity to be a truly great book.  Frankly, Russia, in all its beauty and brutal history, deserves a better treatment.  Readers deserve to know and experience the real journey of Russia in the first half of the 20th century.
4458042
SPOILER ALERT: I really enjoyed the previous books in the series but I thought this one fell a bit short.  The idea is a great one...a workaholic pediatrician meets a man with a special needs child and they need to find a way to make it work.  First, there was never any reference to Jillian's actual work in the book.  There was talk of her working long hours but there was never a mention of the patients she saw or any that touched her heart.  Suddenly her biological clock goes off and she wants a man and lots of sex.  Enter a man from her past with whom she had a sizzling one night stand.  He is a single father dealing with his son's autism and feeling as though he isn't doing enough.  This could have been a much better story if they had introduced Jillian to the man's son in more than just the last few pages of the book.  She wants to be part of his "real life" but the introduction, when it FINALLY happens, goes too smoothly and there are no scenes where she experiences the trials that he has to go through.  I think it could have  been much better.  Also, in the previous books, each of the men was supportive of the woman's hopes/dreams.  That wasn't the case in this book at all.
3779863
No doubt Morgentstern is a skilled writer with the ability to transport the reader into her dark, magical world. Her description are lush and evocative, so vivid that I expected a bit more from her characters, but I felt a distance with them that I did not feel with the setting. In fact, the setting seemed more real that the feuding magicians.

It's a great idea, and a wonderful world that Morgenstern creates. I wish she would have flushed out the characters a bit more. I think then it would have gone beyond a good story in a beautiful reality, to an ageless, remarkable book.
1712734
I really wanted to love this book. First, I must congratulate the scholar on her exemplary research. The strength of this book is indeed its meticulousness. I applaud her attention to not just the details to be found in the texts she studies, but also attention to the previous scholarship as pertains to the topic. This aspect of the book is worth a full five stars. What hurts the book is its density and disjointness. Perhaps a few more charts would have helped, as she frames the whole of the book on a horizontal and vertical map she repeatedly refers to, but we never get to actually see applied. Just in general I was asked to fill in a lot of gaps and the book seemed to jump from one place to the next. I would get a splash of detail followed by a declaration of the problematic lack of evidence. This only served to heighten the disjointness. In the end, the author offers commentary on the New Testament in light of the research. Again, great details. But where is the context into which I would place these details? I am writing this review not to complain, but to ask for something. With so much of value in this book, I think it would be helpful if perhaps some supplemental materials were added. I think the author must be energized and onto something with her references to the horizontal/vertical map. Perhaps if the author has a university web page she could publish some supplemental maps that show how the details she discovered in her research and how they can be applied to, and understood within, her framework structure. The point is important, something shifted, I hear that. Please. Show me.
3628198
This was an beautifully written book in many ways. It stood out, as being more cerebral and lyrical than your usual urban fantasy. There were a few drawbacks. I like baking but I got bored with the details involved with her career.  The lack of dialogue (ie, to much telling expository and not enough showing via dialogue). I would have liked to have known more about her relationship with her mother, step-father and boyfriend.

The biggest drawback with this book is the unexplored potential. It could have been great. If she was only going to write ONE in this setting, than why create a world so elaborate and intriguing and then leave us hanging.

I felt the character developement of the reluctant and uneasy vampire/human alliance was fascinating,  as well as her burgeoning skills at locating vampires via the electric current of the internet, and her skills at changing things. I still feel cheated. If she wasn't going to write a sequel, and knew it all along, then she owes us as her readers to have gone into more detail and tied up the loose threads (and believe me there are a lot), Like her father/grandmother's history and ability, her growing powers, her landlords abilities as a warder, her boyfriends tattooes that could be "wards", and his background, etc. To say nothing of the Vampires history and reasons for his situation as an outcast loner. Instead...I feel cheated. It would be as if Charlaine Harris had written the first book of the Sookie Stackhouse series, and then just quit. So I feel somewhat frustrated, by the beauty this world had and the potential for story after story, being cut short.
1065827
Obviously there is a second book coming and I hate that the authors do that all the time.  I really liked the story but it went pretty fast and I think the author missed alot of opportunity for some good storytelling in this book.  For instance...they get to L.A.and the first day is explained and then all of a sudden it's 2 weeks later...Obviously the characters bonded tons in those weeks and I wish it would have been written so I could have gotten more involved with the characters. Don't get me wrong I did fall in love w the characters w how it's written now but I still think it was a major missed opportunity.
1092285
I loved the premise for this book. It was a highly symbollic reading experience, and I found it confronted my faith in ways that gave me insights into the state of my heart. There was a wonderful but vital distinction made in the book between getting on the ark in order to live, versus in order to be saved.

My big (massive actually) disappointment with this book was with the author's choice of language. The swear words weren't frequent, but they were scattered throughout and they were most definitely not necessary to the telling of the story. Obviously the author disagrees; he is very skillful and could have written those passages differently had he felt that the better choice. Choosing to insert those particular words takes this book way down in my estimation, loses it 1.5 stars on my scale, and means I will not be recommending the book to others. Harsh as this may sound, this review and number of stars given represents my personal experience with the book. For me, this greatly contributed to my perception that the spirit of the book went in a somewhat downward direction as it progressed.

While I found the journeys of the various characters the best part, seeing the lengths some would go to in order to keep their comfort zones intact, there was little to none of the joy I felt at the beginning of the book remaining once I reached the end. Such a pity - it could have been a truly great book. Personally, I would have liked to see the ending of the book come before it did, so that more was left to the imagination.
3955511
An ARC provided by author in exchange for honest review.

I miss the good old days when books were five hundred pages. Characters development was amazing, the plot and subplot had explanations until your eyes bursted from tiredness.
An ARC was provided by the author in exchange for honest review**

The title to this book is very catchy, so catchy it was the main reason why I read the book. Sadly the book as a whole fell short for me. There was a lack of character development, even against the phenomenal writing style. For example, Liv and Staci became best friends, but only because they worked together? I would have liked to see more of maybe them hanging out together without other characters or outside of work.

Liv's brother was absent middle to almost end if the book, but she lived at his house.

Or when the title of the book was said to the male lead, there was no explanation of him asking her why she said it or him even having thoughts about it.

So, all in all I wish the book was longer, with better character development, and better explanation in  some parts.
2502687
Parts of this book were just lovely and inspired. I particularly loved the chapters in which Willa was the narrator, and the chapters made up of letters written by Layla Beck. However, I'd say the novel took a wrong turn about 3/4 of the way through. Without turning this review into a spoiler, I'll only say that I found the book disappointing from the point at which the "truth" was finally revealed about what happened with Felix, Vause, Sol, and the fire. The dialog in this scene seemed forced and unnatural. It felt as though the author suddenly faced a deadline and needed to wrap things up quickly. There seemed to be no continuity in the character of Sol from one chapter to another. I also found how things turned out to be unsatisfying.

In places, the novel is really skillfully written and enjoyable...but on the whole, I was disappointed.
1380423
I really, truly want to deeply love this book!  My mother has been telling me for years to read it, and so I finally picked it up several weeks ago after looking at it on my shelf for 15 years.  I was taken right in and loved the beginning of the story.  I swept through the first 500 pages quickly and easily, enjoying most of the characters and the story line.  I thought the characters would become well developed, and instead they turned out almost flat in a strange sort of way.  One likes the "good" characters and feels sympathetic to them, but somehow you don't LOVE them; they start out being compelling, but as the pages go on they die, do things that are unbelievable, or are just uninteresting.  This is most disappointing, as the reader truly wants to be involved and know them.  The same happens with the evil characters; they could be splendid but they turn out shallow and one-dimensional.  The main thread of a cathedral being built is well written and fascinating; the author clearly did his homework on this and clearly has a passionate interest in it.  If only that could have seeped through to the actual story-telling!  In any case, after the first 500 pages, the book begins to drag and doesn't pick up again until page 700 or so; I almost decided not to finish.  I'm enjoying the last bit but am still disappointed overall in a book that could have been absolutely wonderful, one of my all-time favorites.  It doesn't quite make it.  I will read the "sequel" which has just come out, but I'm not rabid for it the way I thought I would be.  The Pillars of the Earth would indeed be a terrific movie or TV mini-series, as it has a lot of action, blood & guts, sexual violence,etc., if it had the right people portraying the characters.  Overall certainly worth reading, but misses the mark as a top-ten novel on my list, which I very much thought it would be.
581619
For a book that could have been the Holy Grail for wordies everywhere, Emily Arsenault's The Broken Teaglass was a let down. The setting for a brilliant mystery novel is there: an intriguing job, a saucy love interest, an unsolved murder, creepy neighbors - books greater than you and me have been built on a foundation of far less. Yet somehow with Teaglass, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts.

The tidbits divulging the behind-the-scenes secrets of dictionaries are priceless. For word-lovers and budding linguists, the questions of "who gets to decide which words are real?" is finally answered, complete with counter-theories and the philosophy behind the process all tied up with a neat little bow: in a thoughtful piece of dialogue, characters debate whether to search for new words only in text, or to include conversation as well. Arsenault uses her characters wisely to explain some very murky ideologies.

But the rest of it, the side stories and the intrigues surrounding such a rich setting, are poorly executed. The novel, it seems, exists in two disjointed acts. Act One focuses on our protagonist Billy's neighbors who offer him conversation and a beer at the end of the day and offer the reader an unsettling feeling that maybe Billy should lock his door at night. This sentence on page 14 sets it up:

"Maybe it was a sort of omen that my first encounter with Tom was on the very first day of work... He was bald but for a few long clumps of hair growing out of the sides and back of his head, all pulled into a then ponytail at the back. His body matched his hair - stringy, skinny, and formless in his lawn chair."

Scary, right? Well, not scary for long. By the half-way point in the book, we never really hear from Tom or the rest of the neighbors again. They have dropped off the pages. The "omen" of the first meeting is never revealed.

Instead we are introduced to Billy's unfortunate struggle with cancer during his senior year of high school. Now five years later, he spends the second half of the book in the throes of an existential crisis as he begins to accept his remission with copious amounts of booze and a lackadaisical approach to dictionary editing. Arsenault makes sure the murder mystery is solved by the end of The Broken Teaglass but for this one tidy knot, there are several loose threads left dangling.
389113
I was extremely excited for this book to come out. Really. Unfortunately, the excerpt and back blurb of the book didn't quite do the twists and turns in the book justice.

Marguerite Lyndon, daughter of the stiffy Earl of Wycliffe, had grown up learning how to be a virtuous wife to a member of the nobility. She is the second oldest sister in a family with 5 daughters, but is the most responsible and sensible among them. She is also the family's black sheep in a way; her dark looks considered inferior to her sisters' blond locks and angelic beauty. When the dowager duchess of Temberlay arranges a marriage between her eldest sister, Rose, and the notorious "Devil" Duke of Temberlay, Nicholas Hartley, Marguerite unexpectedly steps into her sister's shoes as Rose eloped to avoid marrying Nicholas. Nicholas, having inherited the title at the death of his brother David, is angry. He is angry of his fate, of his brother's death, of having to return home and marry a bride he's never before met. Suffice it to say, Marguerite, having only married Nicholas out of a obligation to her family, started off on the wrong foot with the furious Nicholas, who disliked his future bride before even meeting her.

This series started off great. It was filled with tension, and we are allowed glimpses into the thoughts of Marguerite and Nicholas, and find sympathy with them both for having each carried a heavy burden. Marguerite had to step up and take care of her weak-willed mother and sisters after her father's untimely death, bearing both a financial as well as emotional burden as a voice of reason in her family. Nicholas was the unneeded second son, and according to his snake of a grandmother, he's also the one who ruined them all. This is no easy burden for either character to bore, so it becomes clear that the central conflict in this story is not precisely love, but rather trust.

Marguerite is a wonderful character, and I loved both her responsible side as well as her wild, hoydenish side. She is only 20, after all, and having grown up under heavy restrictions to suddenly transition to care-taker of the family was bound to instill a few rebellious streaks. Throughout the story, she constantly puts the needs of others above her own, and gradually cares and loves the angry stranger she married. Her fierce protectiveness of her family made her an outstanding character, yet with enough intelligence and good sense to shine like a jewel.

As for Nicholas, I was really liking him and wanting to comfort him until around the middle of the book, where he lets a mistaken notion fill Marguerite's head, and does not resolve it until much later in the story. He had several chances to tell her, and he contemplated doing so, except that he did not. There is a huge incongruence in his wanting his wife to believe his words and his continuing to let her believe he is an adulterous rake; this does not agree with me. He said he didn't want to hurt his wife, but he was doing so anyways, knowingly! I don't know whether to account this to his pigheadedness, or to the crafting of his character, but it dearly hurt the quality of the book. Even at the end, I wasn't able to forgive Nicholas for all the emotional hurt he gave Marguerite.

Then, there's the ending of the story. This was one of the weirdest twists I have ever read, and I just want to ask Mrs. Cornwall why she chose to end it thus. I won't give away any spoilers, but the ending is just out of place! I had to skim over the last part of the novel because it made absolutely no sense why Nicholas did what he did. And poor Marguerite, she was once again given no explanation from Nicholas, yet resolved to follow him anyways. I was willing to give this 4 stars just for Marguerite's character, but due to the hacked and utterly confusing ending, I'm giving it 3 stars.

This is a good story, and really would be made it on my keeper shelf if not for Nicholas's flaws and the ending.
4973425
I am torn over where to begin with this review. The author had the makings of a great book here with a promising plot line and what could have been great characters. Unfortunately, especially in the first half of the book involving Mary and Percy, the characterizations are uneven and undeveloped, and the motivations and actions don't make sense. The second half of the book, involving Mary's granddaughter Rachel, is somewhat better in these regards, or maybe I just got used to the author's writing and filled in the blanks for myself. I was astounded to read that Ms. Meacham was a former English teacher, as her use of similes and metaphors is strained and off-putting, and her failure to correctly provide an antecedent for her many pronouns is rampant. Further, some of her sudden leaps in place and time can be pretty confusing, as they are indicated by nothing at all other than all of a sudden someone else is speaking or the action is taking place somewhere unrelated to what came immediately before.  Maybe these missteps were present because I was reading an ARC, and they will be corrected in the final version of the book. I can only hope so, both for Ms. Meacham's sake and the sake of her future readers. A good editor would have been a godsend for this version that I received.

All that said, I was held by the storyline and the suspense until the last page, and I was never tempted to put the book down and not finish it. I think Ms. Meacham does capture the ambiance of small-town Texas (I grew up in a small town in West Texas myself) and it's entirely believable that there were two or three "ruling" families with immense wealth and property and also great respect from the town. She reveals the secrets of these families in a convincing manner and maintains plenty of suspense along the way. My earlier comments about characterization refer primarily to the fact that the actions of the characters are not sufficiently explained by what we've come to know and understand about them. For example, Mary's willingness to accept the vagaries of fate and not fight for true love does not square with her stubbornness about holding on to Somerset regardless of the consequences. Also, Mary's realistic and straightforward approach to the farm and life in general doesn't lend much credence to her devastating actions taken because of belief in a family curse. Of course, people are complicated and do have blind spots, but somehow the most critical step Mary takes is never justified at all by anything we've come to know about her. And Rachel's final decision regarding her law suit is never explained at all. I've tried to avoid any spoilers in the preceding but I felt that I needed to justify my own statements by giving a few examples.

I also think some family genealogy charts would have been helpful to remember who's in what generation and their relation to the rest of the family.

I hope the final published version of this book will have taken care of all my misgivings, and with that in mind, I recommend this book to anyone who likes a multi-generational tale of passion, suspense, and tragedy.
481057
A book written around a great premise, but sadly one that can't hold up an entire book.
2706053
First off I have to say that I was highly interested at the book by the sample chapter that I read and then it fell short on me. The Main Character was a great guy and an interesting one that I will agree.  I bought the book and left it on the shelf for a couple of days to read.
Once I started reading the book it was a very easy read. I read the whole book in a matter of 2 days. So being that said, it was a little off setting because it was nowhere near what I was expecting for a book that I had high expectations for.
The Main Character Alaeron  was a great one, I just wish that he was fleshed out a little more and some more thought given to his abilities and his skills.  The Secondary characters were a great addition to the party. It made the book readable. I think that there should have been more development into a structure as well.
The storyline was too short. There was enough to the point where I wasn't upset when book ended but there could have been a lot more done before the end. I really was not happy with the story between the main character and one of the side characters played out either, That really made me upset when I finished the book.

Over all I would have to say that I sort of liked the book and I was disappointed by it more then I was happy about finishing it. I was expecting a lot more out of this compared to what I have read in the past form other novels in this genre
123530
This is a good book that could have been a great book had it been edited with a sharper scalpel. The story of the Ephrussi family is incredibly compelling and the book gets better as it progresses into the propulsive stories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, WWI, and WWII and the annexation of Austria in 1938 with all its attendant horrors. But the book has too many self-indulgent show-offy apropos-of-nothing passages. I had to chuckle at the author's use of the word "longueur" in multiple places because his book sure suffers from such passages in too many places. Just because an author spent much time on something--such as his hands-on research into the Ephrussi's family's art--does not mean that memorializing such work should make it past the second draft when one is writing for the public. This is not to say that side stories are not important or that this reviewer does not like them. In fact, on issues the uninitiated would want to know about, such as what exactly a netsuke is, and how they are made, and whether men or women in Japan wore them, he leaves readers in suspense or to fend for themselves to learn.  The narrative about the author's great uncle and post-war Japan was wonderful and heartfelt.
2050686
I've been reading Juliet Marillier for more than 10 years now.  She has written some of my favorite books ever.  (Daughter of the Forest, Son of the Shadows and Heir to Severwaters in particular)  I really enjoyed this book.  The first chapter is absolutely riveting, a great beginning to the story.  I wish that the rest of the book had had more of the same interest though.  The flaw in this book is that it is too short and lacks character development.  Flint, the most interesting character in this book, was not given enough development in particular.  He is one of the best male characters Marillier has ever written (other than Cathal, my favorite) and I wanted much more detail about him, his life and inner conflict and his interest in Neryn.

Despite the lack of depth, I really enjoyed the book and look forward to reading the sequels.