About the Book:

I’ll not ask you to be mine …I will never seek to blunt the fury in you, never, and will honour your will as my own. What say you? Can you be a soldier’s wife? New England, 1673. Martha Allen, a young woman reviled by her family because of her refusal to marry, is packed off to be a servant in her cousin’s home. She takes charge of the neglected household and annoys everyone around her – including a mysterious Welshman who works for the family, a man whose forceful nature matches her own. As they both gradually let their guard down, a fragile, uneasy friendship grows between the pair. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, a band of assassins, driven by the will of Charles II, charter a ship to the New World. They have a single aim: to capture Thomas Morgan, the killer of Charles I, and bring him back to London where he will face an excruciating death. The Royalists want to see his head on a spike outside the Tower of London. As Martha begins to fall for the tall Welshman, he reveals a little of his past. It soon becomes clear that his life is in grave danger. As the threat of the assassins grows closer, can Martha find it in herself to be a traitor’s wife?

Book Review:  ★★★★★★

I was first introduced to Kent’s writing when I read her book The Heretic’s Daughter, and with that one I knew that I had encountered a different writing style.  More immediate and direct in a minimalist sort of way.  And while I loved how that approach worked in The Heretic’s Daughter I was not as impressed with the results in this one.

There was much in the surrounding story that I felt has the potential for a very powerful story.  However, it never really seemed to get moving in any one, specific direction.  I felt like the minimalist approach did a real disservice to the story as a whole, and left me wishing there was more information, and more development.  I just came away feeling like there were huge gaps in the story that never really got resolved — which in the end only left me feeling like I wanted more.  Combined with the alternating pattern of the chapters, and the reader found they felt like they were being jerked from one place to another — and it was very difficult to remember which characters were which in the rapidly jarring book.

The character development was another area that the minimalist approach really hurt.  While Martha and Patience were very well developed in their scope, the male characters were almost shadows throughout the story — particularly the character of Thomas.  And while I understand that some of this lack of depth was due to the fact that many of the male characters are hiding pasts that they don’t want revealed — I found that it was carried to such an extreme that even when the romance develops between Martha and Thomas — it just seemed like there was no development at all — so much as it was suddenly there.  It taxed believability all the way around.

The men who are sent to hunt down the traitor’s to the crown were also another area that I felt was almost comically stereotypical in the presentation.  It was more like watching slapstick comedy — as opposed to reading a novel.  They simply can’t manage to do anything right!!!  Everything they try in achieving their assigned directive was pathetically inept — and yet they were suppose to be career criminals that were the best money could buy.  And yet, as a read I felt like they never get close — even though they are practically standing on the property of some of the traitors.  Adding to this problem the characters that are introduced as a means of assisting the bounty hunters and the reader just comes away shaking their head.  They just seemed to be introduced and then dropped with no background information — or even insight into what drives them. Overall I just didn’t feel that this was a book that quite got my attention.

Tags: America, Historical Fiction, Love, Murder, Mystery, Romance

Category: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Suspense/Thriller

About the Book:

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud tells the haunting story of a young man who narrowly survives a terrible car wreck that kills his little brother. Years later, the brothers’ bond remains so strong that it transcends the normal boundaries separating life and death. Charlie St. Cloud lives in a snug New England fishing village. By day he tends the lawns and monuments of the ancient cemetery where his younger brother, Sam, is buried. Graced with an extraordinary gift after surviving the accident, he can still see, talk, and even play catch with Sam’s spirit. But townsfolk whisper that Charlie has never recovered from his loss.

Into his carefully ordered life comes Tess Carroll, a captivating, adventuresome woman training for a solo sailing trip around the globe. Fate steers her boat into a treacherous storm that blows her back to harbor, to a charged encounter with Charlie, and to a surprise more overwhelming than the violent sea itself. Charlie and Tess discover a beautiful and uncommon connection that leads to a race against time and a desperate choice between death and life, between the past and the future, between holding on and letting go.

Luminous, soulful, and filled with unforgettable characters, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud is one of those rare, wise books that reveal the mysteries of the unseen world around us, gently transforming the worst pain of loss into hope, healing, and even laughter. Suspenseful and deeply moving, its startling climax reminds us that sometimes tragedies can bring about miracles if we simply open our hearts.

About the Book:  ★★★★★★

I have no idea what made me pick up this book and start reading.  At the time I was reading it, several people asked me what it was about, and I had a hard time answering that question without making it sound ridiculously sappy, or morbidly strange.  That is a question I still find myself trying to answer.

At first exposure, I thought the book would be about a boy that survived a car crash, but never recovered from the psychological effects of having lost his brother, in that same accident.  And on the surface, this would be an appropriate description of the story.  However, as I reflected on the story further, I found that there was  some interesting recurring themes found in this book.

Most of the topic deals with loss, grief, and the process of healing through letting go, following the loss of a loved one.  But it is told through story format.  I found it an interesting approach to this topic.  The story of Charlie St. Cloud, and his complete devotion to his brother — that forces him into a position to have to make a choice between letting Sam go, and going on living — or holding on, and losing his own life in the process, is touching — but frustrating at the same time.  At times I found myself wanting to scream “move on already!”

The relationship between Charlie, and his younger brother, Sam is interesting — if somewhat unusual.  Since the majority of this story takes place in a cemetery — it is a very abrupt shift when the real world intrudes into this realm of the dead, it almost feels like a violation, from the perspective of the reader.  I am still trying to decide if this was a tactic used by the author to get the readers attention — and to get the reader to identify with how difficult it is in dealing with things in loss, life and death; or if this was simply that the author just became so focused on the story in the cemetery, that he forgot about descriptions and the existence of the real town where Charlie “lives,” and therefore was a little gauche in introducing these elements in the story.  I am inclined to think it is the first, since it was an effective tool for forcing the reader into identify with Charlie, and the choice that he was facing.  But there are parts of the book that I still wonder about.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, but I think that there is a lot more to it — if the reader is willing to invest a little time and reflection on what the meaning behind the story is.  Since, like with all books, what you get out of this one is all determined by what you, as the reader, are willing to put into it.

Tags: Family, Friendship, Grief, Loss, Love, Memory, Suffering

Category: Fantasy, Fiction, Philosophy