The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

Blurb

In a mystical place where violets bloom out of season and the air is salt drenched, a heartbroken woman stumbles upon a diary and steps into the life of its anonymous author.

In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after.

Nearly a decade later, the tide has turned on Emily’s good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life.

My Perspective

This is the seventh book I read from my post Credit Where Credit’s Due. I read about The Violets of March by Sarah Jio from Gina at GG’s World. You can read her thoughts on the book here.

The Violets of March is about Emily, a successful New York author who has been suffering from writer’s block for a number of years and is currently going through a divorce. Taking a break from life, she visits her Aunt Bee on Bainbridge Island, where growing up she spent her summers. However once there, hidden family secrets start to come to the surface and Emily starts to learn who her family really are.

I’m in two minds about this book. I really enjoyed the mystery and the family history. I felt the romance was actually quite tacky and unbelievable.

The story flowed well and the actual writing of the book was sound. It was a great premise and the two stories, Emily and Esther’s, interwoven throughout was really well done. You were constantly kept on your toes and the author did a good job in keeping you guessing – not until the very end though. I had an ‘AHA’ moment and realised I’d been barking up the wrong tree however I quickly figured it out and that was only two thirds to three quarters through the book so I read the rest without anymore mystery. There was a twist at the end however I suspected it due to the nature of the novel, and I was actually slightly disappointed in its predictability in that sense.

The characters were all likeable however I found them all a bit unrealistic and so I was unable to actually connect with them. And they were all so predictable.

I don’t want to give a spoiler so I won’t expand too much on my thoughts to do with the romance however if you read it you might understand what I mean. It’s not that Emily started dating straight away after her divorce or any of that…it was more just how it eventuated. Like I said, tacky and unbelievable.

Overall I did enjoy reading the story and I wanted to keep reading due to the mystery however I felt that the romance side of it really let it down. I would probably recommend it however not for the romance (unless that’s what you like!).

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Credit Where Credit’s Due

Obviously as a good blogger one must connect with and follow other blogs. To be honest i do find this challenging. As an introvert, i am quite happy to be by myself, drawing my energy from being alone. However even if i was happy having no one follow me, really the point of a blog is to connect, share etc. so as my personality also dictates, if i’m going to do something at all, by jingo i’m going to do it well! (And to be honest, much as it horrifies the introvert in me, i really am enjoying the connections that i have made so far)

Anyway, this post is meant to be about the 28 books that i have read about from a few of the blogs that i follow. From reading their perspective/reviews, i was interested in reading the different books, so i downloaded the preview for each book (if there was one) and i have to say that i am looking forward EVEN MORE to reading them!

They are:

~ Summers In Supino: Becoming Italian by Maria Coletta McLean

~ Lincoln’s Grave Robbers by Steve Sheinkin

~ Last Chance for Justice by Kathi Macias

~ Untangling the Knot by Deanne Wilsted

~ French Illusions: My Story as an American Au Pair in the Loire Valley by Linda Kovic-Skow

~ Sihpromatum – I Grew my Boobs in China by Savannah Grace

~ The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs

~ Rose Harbor In Bloom by Debbie Macomber

~ The Violets of March by Sarah Jio

~ Chose the Wrong Guy, Gave Him the Wrong Finger by Beth Harbison

~ The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

~ Gone South – A Novel by Meg Moseley

~ One Day In Apple Grove by C H Admirand

~ The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

~ Splintered by A.G. Howard

~ Rewrite Redemption by J.H. Walker

~ Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle

~ Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

~ Gaining Ground: A Story of Farmers’ Markets, Local Food, and Saving The Family Farm by Forrest Pritchard

~ Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by The Countess of Carnarvon

~ Terra by Gretchen Powell

~ Seraphina by Rachel Hartman

~ How To Be An American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway

~ The Wife, the Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon

~ Murder at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison

~ Rose Cottage by Mary Stewart

~ Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

There was also a book that a blogger mentioned that they want to read and it sounded so intriguing i want to read it now too!

~ London Under by Peter Ackroyd

Anyway i have placed all of these books on my various wishlists and so i have quite a supply of gift ideas for my family 😉 I will be sure to review each book and it will be interesting if i share the same views of the blogger who posted about them!

Also in case you didn’t know (you would if you followed my other blog www.thechefandthewaitress.wordpress.com – yes a shameless self promotion!), Kel and i will be traveling to Europe and the UK via China for the next six weeks. Yep, that’s right. So i probably won’t be posting anything while we’re away due to limited WI-FI access plus I’m hoping that i will be too busy having too much fun!