sarahj13's reviews
433 reviews

2.5 stars maybe. I think I am done with Dan Brown...

3.75 stars, only because I found it be very slow paced and repetitive. But ahhh would I give anything to live in the mountains: all the crisp air, goat milk and toasted cheese! This really transported me to the Alps. It's the perfect read for a dreadful flu season.

I'm very conflicted about this book because although it had all my favourite buzzwords and themes (eccentric family life, castles, protagonist wanting to become a writer, fancy parties and fancier descriptions of countryside, did I mention a ruined castle?), I did not find the story or any of the characters appealing. In fact, I felt quite frustrated reading it for the most part, and no amount of hot chocolate can fix that. At first, I was really mad at Cassandra for wishing that Simon would fall out of love with Rose (almost every character is selfish in one way or another), but at the end I couldn't really blame her, for she really was only a naive 17 year-old girl who thought she knew how the world worked (like many 17 year olds), and she had the constant internal conflict of whether she should really act on her feelings or shove them down. Simon, who started off as a gentleman, was probably the worst character, somewhere along the Father. Playing with the feelings of a 17 year old girl, whom he initially referred to as a child, while being in love with someone else ans not having the guts to make a decision, can't put him in the category of a hero or even a decent man. Stephen, on the other hand, was probably the least infuriating character, and there were many time when I felt truly sorry for him. Even at the end he acts on good intentions, something which Simon (a grown-ass man) always somehow failed to do. Well, screw you, Simon!