• Home
  • About
  • Archives - Wading Through
  • Archives - The Craft Sea

Wading Through...

  • Home
  • About
  • Archives - Wading Through
  • Archives - The Craft Sea

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes

417NJAWTcIL.jpg

Title: The Peacock Emporium

Author: Jojo Moyes

Publisher: Penguin Books 2004

Genre: Historical Fiction

Pages: 389

Rating: 2/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library Love; Monthly Motif - Through the Years;

In the sixties, Athene Forster was the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she was also beautiful, spoiled, and out of control. When she agreed to marry the gorgeous young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme, her parents breathed a sigh of relief. But within two years, rumors had begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman.

Thirty-five years later, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her notorious mother's legacy. The only place Suzanna finds comfort is in The Peacock Emporium, the beautiful coffee bar and shop she opens that soon enchants her little town. There she makes perhaps the first real friends of her life, including Alejandro, a male midwife, escaping his own ghosts in Argentina.

The specter of her mother still haunts Suzanna. But only by confronting both her family and her innermost self will she finally reckon with the past--and discover that the key to her history, and her happiness, may have been in front of her all along.

This was one big confusing bore. There were too many time periods, jumping back and forth, but also spending too much time in one period. I wasn’t super engaged in the storyline. And was super confused for the longest time about the meaning of the first chapter and then the first section. I figured it out by the end, but was utterly bored with the story. On the other side, the characters were self-absorbed and whiny. I just couldn’t find myself liking any of them at all. I thought this was a new book by Jojo Moyes, but it turns out it was published in 2004 in the UK. It’s come to the US only this year.

Library Love.jpg
Monthly Motif 2019.jpg

Next up on the TBR pile:

service model.jpg stolen.jpg lovesickness.jpg frankenstein.jpg jujutsu5.jpg jujutsu6.jpg jujutsu7.jpg alley.jpg deserter.jpg water moon.jpg liminal.jpg sensor.jpg tombs.jpg
tags: Jojo Moyes, historical fiction, 2 stars, I Love Libraries, Monthly Motif
categories: Book Reviews
Tuesday 07.09.19
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

After You by Jojo Moyes

Title: After You (Me Before You #2)

Author: Jojo Moyes

Publisher: Viking 2015

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 352

Rating:  4/5 stars

Reading Challenges: Library; Women Authors

Louisa Clark is no longer just an ordinary girl living an ordinary life. After the transformative six months spent with Will Traynor, she is struggling without him. When an extraordinary accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started.

Her body heals, but Lou herself knows that she needs to be kick-started back to life. Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group, who share insights, laughter, frustrations, and terrible cookies. They will also lead her to the strong, capable Sam Fielding—the paramedic, whose business is life and death, and the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and hijacks all her plans, propelling her into a very different future. . . .

For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings. But here Jojo Moyes gives us two families, as real as our own, whose joys and sorrows will touch you deeply, and where both changes and surprises await.

It took a few chapters before I really dove into this book. But once I did, I read the entire thing over two days. I dove right back into Louisa's life and I really enjoyed reading about how she's moved past Will's death. There were a few times that I got a bit choked up, but no instances of ugly crying like with the first book. Still, I really did enjoy it. Definite recommendation.

tags: 4 stars, fiction, I Love Libraries, Jojo Moyes, women authors
categories: Book Reviews
Tuesday 04.19.16
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

me-before (1920).jpeg

Title: Me Before You

Author: Jojo Moyes

Publisher: Viking 2012

Genre: Fiction

Pages: 400

Rating:  5/5 stars

Reading Challenges: 52 Books -- W49; Bingo -- Free Space; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: Library loan (book club selection)

They had nothing in common until love gave them everything to lose . . .

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will has always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is.

Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

Our book club selection for December.  After the last one (Middlesex), we needed something more readable and likable.  This one was the perfect choice.  It took me awhile to finish (baby time), but that doesn't me I didn't enjoy it.  I looked forward to the few minutes each night I could pick up the story of Lou and Will.  Amazingly complicated characters (in a good way).  A great storyline.  Lovely ending.  I was concerned that the ending would be too predictable and sappy.  Thankfully the author gave the story a real ending, something I could completely get behind.  I really enjoyed this one.  I will have to put the author on my TBR list.

tags: 5 stars, 52 books in 52 weeks, book bingo, fall into reading, fiction, Jojo Moyes
categories: Book Reviews
Tuesday 12.03.13
Posted by Tobe Buffenbarger
 

Powered by Squarespace.