2024 Reading Challenge

2024 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 1 book toward her goal of 285 books.
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2023 Reading Challenge

2023 Reading Challenge
Jill Elizabeth has read 5 books toward her goal of 265 books.
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Book Review: The Fifth Petal by Brunonia Berry

I was very pleased to see Brunonia Berry return to the world of The Lace Reader – I read it years ago when it first came out and really enjoyed it. Well, it had been a while, so I decided I had to re-read it before I could give this latest installment a go. I’m glad I did – I’ve seen a few reviews/comments indicate that you don’t have to read the earlier book to enjoy this one. That may technically be true, but you’d lose a lot I think – the mystery in this new book is not dependent on backstory or information from the earlier book, but the depth of the supporting characters would be completely lost if you had not read it…

I enjoyed this one. The mystery at its heart – what exactly happened to The Goddesses on the night of their murder, and who exactly was responsible – is wild and complicated and intense. The plot is engaging (although, I will admit, not quite as much to me so as that of the earlier book) and the secrets are thick on the ground. But, once again, Berry’s true magic is in her characters… And that’s where I think reading The Lace Reader before this one really turns this book into something special. She has an uncanny ability to write complicated, flawed, all too human characters that are likeable and believable even when they are at their most outlandish (or most badly behaved). The plot of this one occasionally felt a little distended to me – there were times when I just had to set the book down, because things felt a little draggy. But I always came back, and they always picked back up again. And the ending – wow. It really grabbed and held me.

All in all, I found this read a little more difficult than I hoped for, but it was still quite enjoyable to read – even when the story took me to some of its darkest places. I’m starting to think that may be a key element of Berry’s style – her lovely and fragile (and often broken, albeit not permanently so) characters are forced through the fire more often than I’m comfortable with, but they (and we, as readers) always manage to come out the other side. We – like they – just have to persevere…

My review copy was provided by NetGalley.

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