Category: Laura Tolomei’s Reading Reviews & Thoughts

Laura Tolomei’s Reading Reviews & Thoughts

Review by LallaGatta – 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan

Simply amazing, 31 Bond Street by Ellen Horan is well researched, well written, craftly developed and most enjoyable.

The setting is magnificently conveyed. The soot and grime of the expanding New York is a great backdrop to the horrific tales unfolding before the reader's eyes.

The characters are so real and poignant that they seem to jump out of the pages. I particularly like the love story between the defense lawyer, Henry Clinton, and his beautiful wife, Elisabeth. Their deep relationship and true partnership is the one bright spot that warms your heart amidst the darkness of the evils portrayed in this book.

I so appreciate this book that I highly recommend it to all crime and legal thriller fans!

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Review by LallaGatta – Memoirs Of The Senator’s Wife by S. M. Ford

I can't begin listing what I didn't like about Memoirs of the Senator's Wife by S. M. Ford.

First and foremost, the characters. Xavier and Estella are so two-dimensional that they hardly feel real. Nothing makes sense about their lives except perhaps their motivations. But even those cannot explain their odd behaviors and reactions.

Secondly, the style is flat and unemotional, which isn't the worst thing about it. What I can't stand are the patronizing tones, the underlying homophobia and chauvinism portrayed by this book. It's ironic that the same causes Estella is fighting for are the reasons this book should've never been written. As an example, I'll quote the misuse of Plato's theory of soul-mates. Originally meant to explain man's attraction to man, the author turns it into a heterosexual justification.

The many typos and grammar errors are a further discouragement in reading this book that, needless to say, I wouldn't recommend to anyone.

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Review by LallaGatta – Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee

True!

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee is nowhere near the excellence of her first book, To Kill a Mockingbird. But then, more than 60 years have passed between the first and the second novel. So, in a way, the Scout who is the protagonist of this book, like she was of the previous one, isn't just 20 years older. She's a lifetime older, which might explain why she feels so out of focus.

Or maybe the problem is with Mrs. Lee herself since she's obviously not an author in the traditional sense, having only one tale to tell and nothing else.

I also have an issue with the book's title, which is one of the worst I ever encountered.

Regardless of the book's shortcomings, however, there is a citation here that has made it worthwhile for me to read this book, and I'm going to share it for all:

"Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends."

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