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Larkswood Valerie Mendes 9781409129387 Books

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Larkswood Valerie Mendes 9781409129387 Books

It is a hot contender for the worst book I've ever read. Having paid for it, I feel obliged to read it to the bitter end. Mind you, I was very close to declaring a jibbering surrender by midway. I was torn between laughing and crying at the unlikely story line, the steriotype characters and awful dialogue. I won't be a spoiler in giving away the plot but dear readers, save yourself the angst and disbelief by leaving this book well alone. However, there were times I did have a good belly laugh at the idea of a girl/woman (eighteen, going on five) skipping about the house, a very wealthy, influentual grandfather(owner of Larkswood), whose favourite saying was "holey smokes", and the addled headed mother and sister. I often had to stop and think, now did I really just read that? Indeed I did. Like I said, a good belly laugh, unintended as it may be. I particularly enjoy books set in that era or earlier. Why aren't there more good authors writing about that period with stories like The Forsythe Saga, Downton Abbey etc. The Australian author Kate Moreton is a standout but she must feel lonely at times. Why isn't a half star or even a quarter star available?


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Larkswood Valerie Mendes 9781409129387 Books Reviews

Started off great guns, I was hooked but a very unconvincing latter half, implausible scenarios. Disappointed.
I read this is October 2015 and sadly never got round to reviewing properly. I know I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Proof of this is that I stayed awake to finish the last 100 pages when I should have been asleep! Recommended to anyone that enjoys a family saga with plenty of drama and intrigue.
I won this book in a goodreads first reads giveaway and what a privilege it was for me to be able to read this book before it became generally available. The cover feels right-tempting you to find out what secrets the homes and families will tell. I wasn't too sure about the first short chapter, in the past. Having looked at Valerie Mendes' website she seems quite proud of it so I will read this chapter again but I felt it could have come later. I would have rather she went straight into 1939 with Edward as that seemed to get going straight away and then later she could have flashed back to Harriett. It just didn't seem to start off quite right for me. I didn't feel the emotion coming through but to be fair I did start this book with the TV on in the background so that could have had something to do with it. I like the idea of chapter headings and dating the action of each chapter. Also a good tool is the inclusion of letters from one character to another. This all adds up to more realism. The story starts in the build up to the second world war. The people in the book live in luxury, enjoy excesses/coming out parties etc. I am quite a stickler for detail and, as this is written in the past, when anything was mentioned such as Rolls Royce Phantom III, and the price it would have been then, Ryvita, Sanatogen Health Tonic-I checked and all these were around then and everything accuate so this has been really well researched. Just what I like. The book soon pulls you in. Intrigue, you soon see that Edward has a past and wonder what is going to emerge. The pace of this book never falters, I was kept well interested all the way through. This is a very wholesome, comforting, intriguing and luxurious read without exhaustive detailing, yet it's obvious lots of work has gone into this. Everything I looked up eg. song titles/dates all accurate for summer 1939, lemon Barley dates from 1934 so everything very precise. The writing mentioning food evokes the smells of the meals. One of Milly's letters brought a chuckle to me yet some of the book was so sad. I can picture this book as a TV Mini series, it's that good. It's such a polished book as, even though I was given an Author's Uncorrected Manuscript I didn't find one mistake. Having finished this book, I still stand by my earlier thought in that I feel the first scene 'Dawn Chorus' would have been better coming later in the book. It would have been even more intriguing, you just wouldn't have seen this coming, not that the author tells you everything that's going to happen, but I think it would have been more effective just starting off the action in 1939, introducing the past later, getting to know Harriett, Cynthia and Edward and then Boom, hit the reader with the big one.
It is a hot contender for the worst book I've ever read. Having paid for it, I feel obliged to read it to the bitter end. Mind you, I was very close to declaring a jibbering surrender by midway. I was torn between laughing and crying at the unlikely story line, the steriotype characters and awful dialogue. I won't be a spoiler in giving away the plot but dear readers, save yourself the angst and disbelief by leaving this book well alone. However, there were times I did have a good belly laugh at the idea of a girl/woman (eighteen, going on five) skipping about the house, a very wealthy, influentual grandfather(owner of Larkswood), whose favourite saying was "holey smokes", and the addled headed mother and sister. I often had to stop and think, now did I really just read that? Indeed I did. Like I said, a good belly laugh, unintended as it may be. I particularly enjoy books set in that era or earlier. Why aren't there more good authors writing about that period with stories like The Forsythe Saga, Downton Abbey etc. The Australian author Kate Moreton is a standout but she must feel lonely at times. Why isn't a half star or even a quarter star available?