life_full_ofbooks's reviews
2518 reviews

Wow. I put off reading this book for so long because I was convinced it was a thriller and a suspense and I hate thrillers and suspenses. I have only read 2 other books by Ms. Hoover and both of them were romances, not suspense like at all. I wasn’t sure if Verity was a change of pace for her, or if most of her other novels were suspense. Curiosity about this book won and I decided to try it. It is definitely a suspense novel, there’s a bit of romance in it, but for the most part my heart hovered in my throat for a good chunk of the book. About halfway through I knew I was going to give it 2, maybe 3 stars, but then something happened. Around 3/4 of the way I couldn’t stop reading. I was scared and I didn’t want to keep going but I couldn’t put it down. When I did have to put it down to drive the dog to the groomer and my daughter to school I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That, in my opinion, is what makes a 5 star book. As soon as I came home I gobbled up the last 1/4 of the book. That, in my opinion, is what makes a 5 star book. I started it wanting to not like it, but it had me gasping from the get go and while I’m still not a huge fan of suspense books, I’m very glad I finally decided to give this one a try.

What an eye opening book. I understand there is much controversy over the author who wrote this but I don’t think her heritage takes away from the story at all. This is a story that needed to be told. Any book that teaches something and opens ones eyes to the atrocities that occur in different areas is a book that needs to be read. I only wish the ending took place further in the future because I would have loved to see what the future holds for Lydia, Luca, and the sisters.

I’m so sad this series is over. I fell in love with the characters in Winter in Paradise and I love how the trilogy takes place over 6 months instead of years. My favorite part, though, was being able to tell my family, “I’m going to St. John” every time I sat down to read. I hope Elin Hilderbrand decides to grace us with another glimpse into the Steele family because I’m not ready to let them go.

I’m giving this 2.5 stars but rounding down to 2 since there’s no option for half stars (yet).
I am baffled as to how this book won a Pulitzer Prize. It started off ok, but it’s not a cohesive story. Instead, it’s a story that follows Olive through her adult life, but peppered throughout are vignettes of other people that arbitrarily have Olive thrown in. Those were the parts of this book that have caused me to round down to two stars. They had nothing to do with Olive’s life. Had this book been called Olive Kitteridge and Other Town Folk than at least I’d know what to expect, but it wouldn’t have changed my feeling because the vignettes were poorly written and boring. The parts about Olive were mostly enjoyable and I wish the book was actually all about Olive instead of random people.