Friday, February 10, 2012

Review: The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy + Giveaway


When Meredith Pincetti learns news that her cousin has passed away and left her family farm behind in financial ruins she's determined to go back and sort through her family's belongings and history. But it's not such an easy task. She's been out of touch with her family and the history at the farm is extraordinarily painful for their family. So as she begins making her voyage back, she also starts remembering and coming to terms with her own sins of the past.

There were a few things I liked about this book. I liked that it was set in Iowa where I spent my first years of memory and certain things that happened felt very small town midwesternish to me. I thought it was interesting that it was built around an estate where the family literally made blood oaths of allegiance because I think the concept of tying identity to land and property like that can be really interesting. The idea of a complicated family history with a strong matriarch also has a lot of potential.

But ultimately this book just didn't do it for me. I felt like the foretelling of the doom and tragedy of the past was too heavy handed over the earlier parts of the narrative so that the things that actually happened couldn't live up to it. I mean most of what happened ended up being really predictable. Also because Meredith was telling her family's history and not her own, it felt like a lot of telling and not showing to me. I could never really feel the characters she depicted because her narration was too detached and too prescriptive throughout. I was told to see certain characters in certain ways instead of being allowed to get to know them and form my own opinions. I also didn't like that every transgression that occurred was sexual in nature and that there were no really close relationships. I don't know just nothing about the actual story worked for me, and I can't say why without spoiling it and since this book is built on the idea of mystery I don't want to do that.

I think the story would have benefited from deeper POV with the characters and less forced atmospheric telling.

Rating: 2/5
Source of Book: Received for review
Publisher: Mira (Harlequin)

GIVEAWAY

I do have a copy of the book to give away if you're interested in reading this and since most people really enjoyed it you should be!




Amy

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