Have been reading a bit

Leslie recommended this book - said her book group had read it.  It was pretty good - and all the reviews were excellent.  It was entertaining and somewhat compelling.  But there was something missing - not sure what - a little too "pat" or something.  A book collector loses his wife, goes to England and finds a mystery.  Then he solves the mystery.

And apparently they all lived happily ever after!

 

They started a new book group at church for the "older" ladies - and I qualified!! They seem to be going for crime or mystery novels so far.

This is a prolific author I had never even heard of - but the "older ladies" all knew him very well! Apparently his books continue to appear because his son writes them under the same name. Kind of a geriatric Nancy Drew series I guess!

But this was a better read than the one above - very fast paced - I read it in an afternoon - did not have it figured out either.  I might get another one of his - there is a whole shelf of them at The Book Rack - for the next plane ride!!

They always involve horses apparently - the main character is an accountant - and an amateur steeple chase jockey - in London.

Forever and ever and ever!!

Saw something on FB once that said, What was the number one selling book when you were born?  Seemed intriguing, so I looked it up - and it was Forever Amber by KathleenWinsor.

So I gave it a look see - and it was actually hard to find - it has been out of print for many years. The libraries I checked did not have it - and the copies on Amazon were a little trop chere, if you get my drift.

But then Harry found it on Kindle and loaded it for me.  The book is 973 pages long! And believe it or not, the first draft was 13,000 pages - and that's not a typo!!

Turns out Kathleen Winsor's first husband - she had four - was a graduate student doing a dissertation on the Restoration and the reign of King Charles II. She was helping him with the details and started reading some of the material he had researched.  She became fascinated with it and decided to write a novel - and I will say this about the book - I did some checking - and it's historically accurate, down to even minute details of fashion and room decor!!

But it's long - too long in fact.  After about page 500, I was wondering when it would all end - the action and intrigue started to be repetitive rather than compelling!

As a historical romance, the first 500 or so pages are quite entertaining and illuminating.  But it just goes on and on - and the reader gets fatigued - at least this reader did!

But the book was a smash hit bestseller - and quite controversial - was banned in Boston!  It was considered racy by the standards of 1945 - but then, Restoration England and the court of Charles the 2nd was pretty racy!! It's not graphic and exotic - everything is left to the imagination.  

It does start out as a pretty entertaining piece of historical fiction - but Ms. Winsor just didn't seem to know how to put an end to the action.  As it is, the ending is not well-planned - and not very believable.

Maybe this is the time for a Cliff Notes version if you are really interested - or watch the movie - with the heartthrob Cornell Wilde!!

P.S. The story bore many resemblances to Gone With the Wind!  Hmm - wonder what that tells us??