Review: Award Winning Author????
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 3, 2014
I selected this book as I love historical fiction and in particular anything decent about New Orleans and The Great River Road. After reading the glowing reviews, I was certain I had found a winner. I can't say when I have been more disappointed in a book. The story itself could have been wonderful. However, due to the authors style of writing, I could only get by 19% of the book.The story is told from two different story lines. The first being from the 1800's pre-Civil War, and the latter from 2005. The story lines were well entwined, and easy to follow. The location of New Orleans is always a plus for any book. The characters seemed to be real and believable when I started the book. This quickly changed as they became more and more ridicules page after page.In the beginning the author gave vivid physical descriptions of the characters which was expected and welcome. What was not expected nor welcome was the way in which she returned in following chapters to give the same descriptions almost verbatim. How many times did we have to be told that Maggie's husband was 6 feet 2 inches tall? Was it necessary to repeat the color of the characters eyes chapter after chapter? The author mentioned repeatedly that the gardens Maggie was planting were designed after those she saw on her honeymoon tour of Europe. Hearing this once should have been sufficient. Was the author looking for word count, or did she not give her reading audience credit for being able to comprehend that information after the first or second time?What I found very annoying was that in conversation which one another, and also in dialog to tell the story, the characters always had to pray for everything. I'm not speaking of actual prayer, but as an example "I pray the rain stops. I pray we will be safe. I pray Noah returns in time." Over and over it continued page after page.The final straw for me was when Cammie married Noah after having returned to the planation after only one week. This was explained by the author under the guise that the two had been close friends as children. They were going to wed to take in as a foster child a boy who's parents had been killed in the flooding of Katrina. Was this supposed to be historical fiction at it's best or science fiction? The story and style simply became too absurd to waste more time on. There are many good books available that have New Orleans and the Civil War playing major roles in the story lines. It wasn't necessary to continue reading this book. All I can say is all those 5 star reviews must have been given by less discerning readers, or by those with plenty of time to waste.