I read WILDFLOWER HILL for the March 2016 "Flower" theme in my online book club, The Reading Cove.
I thought it was a deeply engaging story once it got going! I really enjoyed it, at times it was a true page-turner!
The dual narrative brought the wide-ranged settings to life, going back and forth from Glasgow in the 1920s to London, Sydney and Tasmania in 2009, it's a multi-layered and richly told family saga that features everything from adultery, abandonment, forbidden love, racism, pack mentality, long suffering and kidnapping. But there's also lots of perseverance, endurance and love to go around.
While I found Beattie's storyline quite a bit more engrossing than Emma's (which felt overlong in the third act), I thought the author did a good job of blending the narratives by the end. B+
I thought it was a deeply engaging story once it got going! I really enjoyed it, at times it was a true page-turner!
The dual narrative brought the wide-ranged settings to life, going back and forth from Glasgow in the 1920s to London, Sydney and Tasmania in 2009, it's a multi-layered and richly told family saga that features everything from adultery, abandonment, forbidden love, racism, pack mentality, long suffering and kidnapping. But there's also lots of perseverance, endurance and love to go around.
While I found Beattie's storyline quite a bit more engrossing than Emma's (which felt overlong in the third act), I thought the author did a good job of blending the narratives by the end. B+
I loved this book. A great story in the tradition like the "Orphan Train" by Christina Baker Kline - the story takes place in current times and back in 1930s in Australia. There are secrets to be discovered and heartbreaks to be endured. It is a story that I will not forget.
