Author: Josephine Cox
Type: Hardcover
Genre: Historical Fiction
Country of Origin: England
Pages: 320
First Published: February 2006
Synopsis: Barney Davidson sadly watches as his wife Vicky and their children sail away to America. His family will never know why he had to deceive them and do terrible things to make them hate him in order to give them this opportunity for a better life.
Decades later, Barney is now dead but Lucy Baker, the woman who stayed by his side, knows the truth about why Barney forced his beloved family to leave without him. As Lucy's health deteriorates the secret she keeps weighs on her conscience. She decides to finally tell Barney's wife the truth about what really happened all those years ago.
My Thoughts: I have to start off by saying that Josephine Cox is one of those authors that I can turn to for a good read. Nothing too deep but a nice romp through the English countryside with a good plot and fairly predictable ending. Sadly, this book didn't live up to my expectations at all.
Note: I do need to say that I didn't realize that "Journey's End" was the sequel to "The Journey" (I usually check on Fantastic Fiction for the order of series) so perhaps if I had read that book first I may have liked this book more (?).
I don't think I'm a really picky reader but I do need a well-paced book, solid characters, intrigue or something to compel me to keep reading. Sadly, I had to force myself to finish this book (I kept hoping it would get better) and I found this book too repetitive. Various characters reiterate the same information over and over again when once was plenty. For example, the reader understands that Lucy is mourning her dead husband ... we don't need each character to comment on it ad nauseum.
I also found the pace of this book extremely slow moving. The first 100 pages only focus on the fact that Lucy loved and lost Barney. Yup. Ok. Got it. Move on. From the synopsis of this book I thought there would be some great 'ta da!" moment revealing some hidden family secret but there was nothing! No 'ta da', just 'na da'. One of the most interesting characters (and the only evil guy in the bunch), Edward Trent, wasn't used enough in the storyline. It felt like the reader was teased with what Trent was planning to do ... but never used that idea to its full potential.
It was a little unrealistic too. The reason why Barney chose to do what he did (vague, I know, but I don't want to give it away) was a little too wishy-washy and dull for me. But the height of the unrealistic issue for me was that there was no confrontation between Lucy and Vicky. These two women loved the same man, had children by him and yet, when they meet up after 20+ years there are no fireworks or even mean words exchanged. They become friends. Really? I wasn't expecting an Alexis Carrington type cat fight (although those do make for a nice diversion in a book) but if I knew that another woman (and former friend) had kept a huge secret from me for all these years AND had a child by my husband I wouldn't just give her a hug and become 'besties'. Not gonna happen.
My Rating: 1.5/5 stars
Hi there, new reader. I was so pleased to have stumbled across your blog as I too am in love with baking & books. Now if you are a runner too, that would be the icing on the cake. Good review, I have never read anything by Josephine Cox, but I have come across her name. Good to hear what you had to say. Do you use the "Good Reads" site? You should be my good reads friend, that is where I review all my reads. Just finished The Book Thief. Great read. Have you read it.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have 3 children too. Love it when I find Mom's who know my world!
Sadly, Renee I am not a runner (unless a large animal is chasing me for some reason) although I do enjoy brisk walks. Does that count?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you found my blog. I'm learning that there are a lot more of us moms who read out there than I originally thought. ;)
Josephine Cox is usually a good, easy read but this one fell flat. I even checked to see if maybe it was one of her really early works but it wasn't!
As for Good Reads I have looked at it but I have a hard enough time finding time to update the blog let alone another book site. :) I have heard great things about it though.
I've also heard of "The Book Thief" but haven't picked it up yet. My 9 year old has a book he wants me to read (a Rick Riordan book) so that will probably be next on my list.
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I hope you find some great reads and recipes and we can chat again!