A Life of Her Own, With a View

Published:  January 27th, 2015

Love, Lucy

By: April Lindner

Poppy

ISBN-13:  9780316400695

While backpacking through Florence, Italy, during the summer before she heads off to college, Lucy Sommersworth finds herself falling in love with the culture, the architecture, the food and Jesse Palladino, a handsome street musician.  After a whirlwind romance, Lucy returns home, determined to move on from her "vacation flirtation."  But just because summer is over doesn't mean Lucy and Jesse have to be, does it?

Review

       I'll go right out there and say that I don't think this book is for everyone and it definitely could have been better.  The original source material for this retelling is A Room With a View by E.M. Forster.  It is a comedy of social errors and the class divide, somewhat reminiscent of a Jane Austen novel, but not quite.  This is less about following the rules of society and finding love with someone who might be slightly inappropriate, in terms of class.  But in say, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth at least has some social graces and knows how to act in society.  Also, she's not THAT far beneath Darcy, no matter what his pride says.  She's a gentleman's daughter.  Lucy Honeychurch in the original Room, falls in love with a young man named George who has no social connections, isn't rich and can't offer her anything other than his love.  She has to choose between socially unacceptable happiness and marrying a man named Cecil (for whom she feels nothing), who could give her every comfort she's used to and more - plus she'd still be accepted in society with her family/friends if she married Cecil.

       When you're adapting a story like that for a modern-day audience, set in the modern United States, it's difficult to translate quite what Lucy would have been giving up by marrying outside her social circle, in a downwards direction.  So Lindner tries to resolve this by making Lucy an actress, who is going to the college her father wants, majoring in business and never acting again, all so he'll pay for college.  That alone is somewhat far-fetched, due to the type of family she lives in and the time period.  It's an upper-middle class, caucasian family, with no obvious religious affiliations and no real obvious reason for this strict point of view.  Also, he forbids her to even continue acting as a hobby.  Alrighty then...and she's supposed to take a trip to Europe in exchange for forgetting her dreams?  On the trip, which she takes with Charlene (the daughter of her Mom's friend), she meets Jesse in Italy and he forces her to question how easily she's giving in to her parents about her future.  I did like the little love-hate thing they had going on at first, but once she's into him she ditches Charlene and is downright mean to her, which I wasn't super fond of.  Being a bitch to your traveling companion is just wrong, even if it's supposedly true love at stake.

       Probably the stupidest thing about this for me, was Lucy's romantic life once she gets to college.  While growing a backbone about being in plays/acting, she seems to lose all sense of self in regards to dating.  Thinking that it's over between her and Jesse, Lucy starts dating someone who seems like the absolute perfect guy.  Yet, she doesn't really have feelings for him.  But he's the perfect guy, so she should just stay with him anyway, right?  Then Jesse comes back to town, to be with Lucy, so she sleeps with him and goes on a date with the other guy the next day anyways, a "weekend away" on which he thinks they're going to have sex (I'm pretty sure it was the next day, I could be mistaken, as it's been a little while since I read this one).  It's like she just wants to miserable.  I think this novel should have been adapted in a different country/culture/place with other social expectations.  Or at least there should have been better reasoning behind Lucy's actions and lack of self-worth.  It made for an unlikeable protagonist which is never fortunate, unless it's on purpose.  Sadly, I don't think it was on purpose in this instance.  Overall, I give this one three stars because I could see the original glimmering underneath.  I also know what it's like to give up the direction of your life to the needs/wants of others.  But there was a lot of wasted potential in this one.  Maybe as a fluffy beach read, if you decide to pick it up?

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

Something There That Wasn't There Before...

Published: January 2nd, 2013
Catherine
By: April Lindner
Poppy
ISBN-13: 9780316196925

A forbidden romance. A modern mystery. Wuthering Heights as you’ve never seen it before.

Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad’s famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?

Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years—a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn’t die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her—starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.

Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.

Review

 

     This review is going to skip the usual recap of the plot summary and just dive right in people! :)  I had been waiting for this books release ever since I read the author's first novel, Jane and fell completely in love with her version of Jane Eyre.  I was a little bit wary though, because Wuthering Heights is a lot more melodramatic with the emotions, whereas although batshit insane stuff happens to Jane, she is usually collected on the outside through it all.  This one, I was prepared for it to be over the top - and maybe not in such a great way.  I did like the fact that the reader gets insight into both Catherine and her daughter, Chelsea unlike in the original novel.  However, it also detracted from the narrative because I felt like Chelsea was there mostly to investigate what happened to Catherine and not to be a character in her own right.  Split narratives are always very tricky and I give the author major props for a somewhat successful attempt.  The decision to set it in the punk music scene of the 1990s in Greenwich Village was interesting, and made the whole music royalty versus nobody conundrum work, in place of the gypsy verus semi-genteel family problem of the original.       Catherine has a very distinct personality and feels things very passionately.  Hence is kind of an enigma and we never really do find out where he came from, or why he left there in the first place.  All we ever know is that he loves his music and is obsessed with/loves Catherine just as intensely.  Catherine's Dad was an interesting contrast with his son, Quentin, in his absolute openmindedness and true love of his work.  Quentin was a bigoted, jealous, bitter jackass and verging on insanity for most of the book, before he finally went over the edge.  I felt like Lindner went a little too far with that characterization, because in the original you can see the brother character's metamorphosis a little bit more, as he loses the little kindness and depth he has as a person.  This was too cartoonish of a revisit for my liking.   

     My main problem with Chelsea is that she was a plot device.  By the end of the novel I still felt like I knew Catherine (at least a little bit) and only knew that Chelsea was missing her Mom, therefore searching for the truth.  This was an issue most likely with how short the book happens to be.  I feel like it flew past, almost like she was rushing into the different events.  This is one that could have stood to add at least another hundred pages just for some filler.  This is a book where the filler was necessary for some even build-up and just not there like it should have been.  The conclusion of what happened to Catherine was also a little too predictable and had me rolling my eyes in disbelief and annoyance.  Seriously, that's how she chose to wrap things up?  I loved the nugget near the beginning of the book when Chelsea was surfing Nico Rathburn's fansite.  That made me smile, with it's connection to Jane, however small of a link it was.  Overall, I felt like everyone in this book suffered from under characterization or cartoon personality disorder.  I still finished it because the plot was fairly well conceived and I wanted to see how it would play out.  I just wasn't satisfied though and wouldn't recommend it too highly to anyone.

 

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

 

* *No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**