Review: Sweet, but also intense.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2014
I found this book through a Facebook friend and decided to give it a try because I'm a history/genealogy fan myself. I'd never heard of any other books by the author before but decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did."Finding Eliza" is a really sweet story with a lot of underlying themes. The main character definitely has some issues that she has to deal with and move forward from. I found the "young at heart" crowd (aka her grandmother's genealogy circle) a sweet comic relief to the intensity of the plot.The only thing that didn't quite jive with me on the book was the MC's reactions to news. As they uncover events of the past, the MC freaks out. They all seem very affected by a tragedy that happened years before. That being said, I recognize that everyone responds to tragedy and grief differently. It helped that the author makes it clear that the MC is also mourning her own ghosts on top of the ghosts of her family's past. Despite that, her rabid anger and frustration on behalf of her ancestor just surprised me, especially near the very end.Truly, that was my only moment of surprise in the book. Other than it was a well-orchestrated plot with forward movement, character development. Fishman was a surprising find. I would read more of her work in the future.