The Rossetti Letter - Christi Phillips

This book was one of my random library pickups. The title caught me and luckily the synopsis on the jacket flap sounded interesting too.
The story centers around a Venetian courtesan and a modern day woman researching her. With the magnetic backdrop of Venice, there is political intrigue, romance, history hunting, and a bit of suspense.
Although occasionally predictable, I found both the characters and plot enthralling. And as a long-time lover of historical fiction, it fit the bill of interesting and educational. The main character of the 17th century plotline, Alessandra is both loveable and admirable in her independence, maybe almost unrealisiticly so. On the other hand, Claire of the modern day, was not quite as undearing, but not so much that she was too annoying to bearable to me.
The narrative style of the two storylines interspersed was executed moderately well. Toward the beginning, there were many points that I wished she would not go back to Claire as the storyline was a lot less interesting, but as the novel continued it got more interesting and was not as frustrating.
A mild disclaimer: this book is about a courtesan so beware of adult themes and couple explicit passages, but there really are only two.

Positives: I was able to get into the plot and feel deeply about the characters. I would definitely be able to call it a page-turner. Also, it gave me a very good idea of the setting of Venice and made it very attractive.

Negatives: A few disjointed and seemingly random occurances in modern plot line. Also, some times of dragging and uninteresting story. A couple unrealistic moments that almost seemed silly. Definitely all things that did not stand out to me after finishing it.

Rating: 4 - this was a good book.

A Wedding in December - Anita Shreve

I had seen this author for quite a while but this was her first book I ended up picking up at the library. The basic premise is a handful of classmates get together after not seeing each other in twenty-seven years for the wedding of two of them. The weekend is full of regrets, unfinished business, and secrets.
I found this book to not be quite as captivating as expected. The author's main attempt at suspense, the circumstances surrounding the death of one of their classmates during their senior year, was pretty fully revealed early on. The confessions that finally happened at the "climax" of the novel were very simple to guess at.
One of the biggest themes of this book is regret, a what-if mentality, and therefore infidelity. I feel as though the author wanted me to truly empathize and rationalize with the characters who were involved in some sort of extramarital affair, but she did not succeed.
I found her narrative style interesting; weaving the plot in with another that was being written by one of the characters. At the beginning, the secondary plot felt incongruous and made me wish she would just "get back to the real story." However, at the end as both of the stories were wrapping up, they began to come together and I ended up feeling almost more emotionally moved by the "fake" story. Overall, for me, it lacked the emotion that she had probably intended.
A sidenote, I found it ironic that the story is set in December of 2001 and 9/11 is mentioned multiple times, while I read it over the eighth anniversary of the date. The emotion of 9/11 was portrayed well, however it was only thrown in occasionally.

Positives: the characters were believable, I have as clear a picture of them all as I would had I seen the movie

Negatives: at the end, I felt as though I had just read a 150 page book not a 300 page one, I suppose there was not enough plot for me; I was unable to empathize with the characters

Rating: 3.5 - it was ok, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Ratings

Here is a little description of my current system for ratings. I am doing a five-star method and also use halves.

• 1 - I wish I hadn't read it
• 2 - Not the best thing I've read
• 3 - Okay, but I wouldn't recommend it
• 4 - This was a good book
• 5 - This is one of my all-time favorites
  

Those give me a good idea of where it should be based on my feelings. Also, I have rated most every book I have read so I also rate by comparison. Was this book as good as that one? Worse?
I try to not artificially inflate the ratings, so although I know there are some awful books out there, I can only rate in relation to what I have read.

As always, feel free to disagree with any rating I give!

Introduction

Welcome to my blog! I'm hoping to use this as a way to share my thoughts and reviews of the books I read.

I've been an avid reader for years, which has only increased since completing my 16 years of education and am no longer required to read anything. You will find that I do not have the most refined taste in literature. I do not like Dickens and I have never read Tolstoy. However I will read many things from romance to classics, children's books, and fantasy.
I promise never to ruin an ending, keep an open mind, and give any book a try.

Thanks for reading with me!