Review: The Painted Castle by Kristy Cambron

The Painted Castle (Lost Castle, Book #3)
by Kristy Cambron
Release Date: October 15th 2019
2019 Thomas Nelson
Kindle Edition; 381 Pages
ISBN: 978-0718095529
ASIN: B07QK71PX9
Genre: Fiction / Contemporary / Historical
Source: Review copy from publisher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary
It was supposed to be a one-week job: survey an art find, collect a hefty fee, and use that to settle historian Kiera Foley’s life back into balance. But from the moment she sets foot in the East Suffolk countryside, the mysteries surrounding the old English manor and the enigmatic art thief who’s employed her stir more questions than answers. Then, Kiera finds the existence of a portrait captivating enough to upend all of her expectations. This one could be a twin—a painting so close in composition to a known masterpiece, it may be rendered priceless if it truly captured the likeness of a young Queen named Victoria.

My Thoughts
The Painted Castle is the last book in the Lost Castle Trilogy, and while I haven't read the first two books in this series, I still enjoyed it tremendously and had no problem following along.  

While this was the first for me in this trilogy, I have read other books by this author, and this one follows a similar pattern to her other books; the story was divided into three separate POVs from three separate time periods and eventually they all connect.  The timelines all work rather well together and I enjoyed them all, particularly the one from WWII, maybe because I have a soft spot for that time period.  However, I tend to be a sucker for anything to do with castles and secrets so the contemporary one was interesting as well.  That is the timeline where I felt I missed the most simply because events did carry over from the first two books into this one; it didn't affect what happened in this one too much, but it did raise my curiosity so I went hunting and found the first two books on my shelf. Who knew? So I will be reading them as soon as I have a chance.

So the book was separated into three separate time periods: Keira, sister to Quinn and Cormac (who featured in the first two books), decides to take a job in East Suffolk hoping to heal a broken heart and restart her career as a renowned historian; Amelia, her RAF husband died a few years earlier leaving her with a large estate to run and a broken heart; and Elizabeth, who as a young girl watched her father die in front of her eyes, spending the next few years bent on revenge.  All three of these women were interesting in their own way, and any one could have been a whole book on their own, they were that interesting.  Unfortunately, character development does get a bit lost when you are constantly switching POVs, so while I was definitely sympathetic to their plights, I was not necessarily empathetic, if that makes sense.  

The author has a wonderful writing style that really draws you into her stories and makes you feel like you are really there.  Because I've visited the area, I could visualize myself there, the misty rain, the glorious sunsets, and so on, and really wished I could back.  I really do love her writing style. 

Verdict
The Painted Castle is a light, wonderful read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in art history, intriguing questions and connections, and some light romance. 

Review: 300 Days of Sun by Deborah Lawrenson

300 Days of Sun
by Deborah Lawrenson
Release Date: April 12th 2016
2016 Harper Paperbacks
ARC Edition; 384 Pages
ISBN: 978-0062390165
ASIN: B0124OOJ2Y
Genre: Fiction / Contemporary
Source: Review copy from TLC Book Tours

4 / 5 Stars

Summary
Traveling to Faro, Portugal, journalist Joanna Millard hopes to escape an unsatisfying relationship and a stalled career. Faro is an enchanting town, and the seaside views are enhanced by the company of Nathan Emberlin, a charismatic younger man. But behind the crumbling facades of Moorish buildings, Joanna soon realizes, Faro has a seedy underbelly, its economy compromised by corruption and wartime spoils. And Nathan has an ulterior motive for seeking her company: he is determined to discover the truth involving a child’s kidnapping that may have taken place on this dramatic coastline over two decades ago.

Joanna’s subsequent search leads her to Ian Rylands, an English expat who cryptically insists she will find answers in The Alliance, a novel written by American Esta Hartford. The book recounts an American couple’s experience in Portugal during World War II, and their entanglements both personal and professional with their German enemies. Only Rylands insists the book isn’t fiction, and as Joanna reads deeper into The Alliance, she begins to suspect that Esta Hartford’s story and Nathan Emberlin’s may indeed converge in Faro—where the past not only casts a long shadow but still exerts a very present danger.

My Thoughts
300 Days of Sun is a tale of two stories, told in alternating parts. The story begins in contemporary Portugal where the main character is sort of escaping from her life by taking language courses in Faro and avoiding a boyfriend back home. The alternating story line is built into the story and is part of the mystery that surrounds Nathan, a student in her class. A reporter, Joanna stumbles across a mystery that involves Nathan as well as some missing children that may actually span decades.

As a history teacher and a fan of all things historical, the alternating story lines has never bothered me; in fact, I actually enjoy them and go out of my way to find books that contain them.  While I really enjoyed Joanna's story, I actually preferred Esta's as I find everything about WWII fascinating and love reading about it.  The events in Portugal, one of the few neutral countries during this time period, definitely had a rich history and many of its stories are yet to be told.  I know, for example, that Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond) spent some time there, and the Spanish royal family were exiled in Estoril. I think my biggest disappointment in this novel is that these sections, and there were only three of them, were too short.  I also really liked learning about the 1941 windstorm that struck Portugal as it was something I had never heard about so I found it quite interesting.  Apparently, in monetary terms today, the damage would have been around five billion dollars.

Joanna's story was quite interesting in the beginning and her search for Nathan's family is something I always enjoy.  Searching for newspaper articles, asking questions, exploring areas that may contain clues, talking to people about the past, all up my alley.  It's certainly ground that has been covered before, and will probably be covered again, but that's okay.  Unfortunately, where I lost interest was in the mysteriousness of Ian Rylands as he was just too cryptic and 'mysterious' for me and for the story. I think the author was trying to add some secrecy, and perhaps some concept of deadliness to the story, and I just felt it didn't quite work.  Don't get me wrong, I love crime novels and read them voraciously, but it was jarring to the story and to the setting.

Verdict
300 Days of Sun is one of those books that started out quite strong for me, but kind of lost me towards the end.  I gave it the rating I did because I really enjoyed the author's style of writing as it made me feel like I was right there, and there were some elements that were quite engrossing.  I actually liked the historical aspect better than the modern tale, but I also felt like I connected better to Esta than I did to Joanna.  I was a bit disappointed with the ending, not because of what happened with Nathan and his family as it was sort of what I was expecting, but more about Joanna as I didn't feel like she developed at all throughout the novel.  Besides, I've always thought running away was a bit childish and she didn't seem like she wanted to face her problems.  Personally, if you are looking for a light-hearted mystery/romance, and a nice romp through sunny Portugal, then I would recommend this one for you.  It definitely had the added affect of adding Portugal higher up my traveling bucket list, and the cover makes me want to go snorkeling right now.  

Review: The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy

The Mapmaker's Children
by Sarah McCoy
Release Date: February 9th 2016
2016 Broadway Books (Hardcover published by Crown - May 5th 2015)
Paperback Edition; 336 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-385-34892-8
ASIN: B00N6PCX9M
Genre: Fiction / Contemporary / Historical
Source: Review copy from TLC Book Tours

3.5 / 5 Stars

Summary
When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.

Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance.

My Thoughts
The Mapmaker's Children traces the story of John Brown's children after his death as they continue his fight for the abolitionist movement.  While I am quite familiar with John Brown's story, I was definitely not familiar with the story of his wife and children after his death, so I found this to be quite interesting and fascinating.  The story is an alternating narrative following Sarah's story as she struggles with the aftermath of her father's execution and Eden's modern story as the deals with the after-effects of yet another failure to conceive and the discovery of a porcelain head in the root cellar of her new house.

First of all, I enjoyed Sarah's story much more than I did Eden's.  Learning about the sacrifices the Browns made after John's execution made me admire that family even more so than before; you certainly have to have a lot of fortitude to keep going when everything around you is destroyed.  I thought Sarah to be an incredibly strong and brave woman, and admired her very much.  She was very courageous, and even though she made mistakes and was very forthright for a woman of her times, she definitely grew and developed as a character; I liked her more for her mistakes and her misjudgements because she learned from them and became a better person.  I thought the integration of the dolls into the Underground Railroad was pretty interesting; I had heard of perhaps quilts being used for such a purpose, but I suppose anything could have been used if you really thought about it.  The concept was intriguing and its inclusion felt natural.  I was a bit disappointed at the lack of story about the Underground Railroad though, as I was hoping for more  surrounding that.  While Sarah did her part to help, she didn't play a role in the actual movement of people for the Underground Railroad.  The story was more about the Brown family coping after John's death, and the developing story line around Freddy and Sarah. 

While I was a huge fan of Sarah's, I wasn't a fan of Eden's.  I thought her quite irritating, especially in the beginning, and although I understood her personal issues and disappointments, I also never thought it was an excuse for poor behaviour.  She did however, grow on me a bit as the novel progressed but those earlier chapters were difficult to forget and overall, I thought she was a bit spoiled and whiny.  Cleo however, is a different matter altogether.  I enjoyed her character quite a bit, even if I wondered why it took months for Eden and Cleo's grandfather to meet considering how much time she spent at Eden's house.  I mean, she was barely eleven years old.  Do you allow your eleven-year-old to enter a stranger's house and visit regularly without knowing them or at least meeting them?  Strange.  That being said, Cleo was precocious and downright fun, which kind of took the heat off Eden. 

Verdict
The Mapmaker's Children was a good book, but I think it really had the potential to be really great, especially if it focused more on Sarah and left out some of the stuff about Eden, which failed to interest me.  Some people may disagree about that, but I honestly feel that there was enough material for a story about Sarah and her family which would have been quite interesting in its own right and would have allowed the author to explore some themes and concepts a bit more in depth, both emotionally and politically.  It's quite obvious the author did an enormous amount of research on Sarah, and I found her story to be quite riveting, and the writing style drew me in right away.  Cleo and the dog Cricket definitely had some fun and amusing parts that helped with Eden's story, but not enough to make me like her as a character. I definitely recommend this book for those who have an interest in John Brown and his legacy.

Author Information

SARAH McCOY is the New York Times, USA Today, and international bestselling author of the 2012 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction nominee The Baker's Daughter as well as The Time It Snowed in Puerto Rico and the novella "The Branch of Hazel" in Grand Central. She has taught English writing at Old Dominion University and at the University of Texas at El Paso. She calls Virginia home but presently lives with her husband and their dog, Gilly, in El Paso, Texas.

Sarah enjoys connecting with her readers on Twitter at @SarahMMcCoy, on her Facebook Fan Page or via her website, www.sarahmccoy.com.