Renée Goentzel

It sounded better than it was

Revisado: 03-27-25

I thought this would be a good story based on the description, but I found myself constantly frustrated by plot holes and the narrator making stupid and dangerous decisions. It got better as the book went along, but I found myself more annoyed with it than enjoying it. That being said, the narrator did a pretty good job, so it wasn’t her fault. I don’t think I’ll be reading any more books by this author again.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Fun and cute adventure romance

Revisado: 03-22-25

I wasn’t expecting much out of this book and it really surprised me. It had more depth than expected and a complicated plot that I couldn’t guess. It pulled me in early on and I just couldn’t stop listening. It has adult scenes, but nothing graphic. I enjoyed every moment of it and I would love more like this.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A romantic Victorian mystery with some paranormal elements

Revisado: 01-22-25

I enjoyed this book. The narrator did an excellent job and constantly reminds me of Lady Mary from Downton Abbey. The story is a mix of romance and mystery with a little bit of suspense, but I found it to be a nice cozy read. It has some adult sexual scenes, but doesn’t get super explicit.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A beautiful and artistic story

Revisado: 01-20-25

The story was really interesting and while I saw the mystery well before it was explained, it was still a great journey that I really enjoyed. It was interesting with beautiful imagery and I found it a nice cozy read

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

A haunting perspective on World War II’s other effects in Britain

Revisado: 01-17-25

This is four stories blended into one: the story of a newspaper reporter and her life/family and the story of three different little girls who disappeared during the war. As the story goes on you unravel the mysteries. The story is interesting and well told - I was hooked from the beginning - with a good narrator. But, without giving anything away, I will say that it’s darker than most of Rhys’ stories and some parts will haunt me for a while (but nothing too graphic and I don’t think it would set off trigger warnings).

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Meh

Revisado: 10-20-24

I got this book either for free or as a $1.99 daily deal. I like murder mysteries (and flowers) so I thought I’d give it a shot. The book was very formulaic and a lot of it did not make sense. A cynical New Yorker moves to a small town and almost everybody is very new agey. She participates in a seance really early on and in different mystical things and even though she calls herself a cynic she goes along with it all without question. There are lots of hints that she’s a witch, but that goes nowhere. Ditto for a creepy doll that was in the story for no real reason. The murderer confesses in the last 15 minutes or so with little to no reason to do so. The narrator is ponderous. The whole book is the worst example of this genre I have read. If the idea sounds fun, try Deadhead and Buried instead.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Great historical mystery

Revisado: 10-06-24

I was worried this book would be too creepy for me, but it wasn’t creepy at all. It was a great split time tale that involved ghosts and witches but wasn’t scary at all. The narrator was great and both stories were very interesting. I really enjoyed it

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

Very religious and a little too convenient

Revisado: 09-28-24

I was excited at the premise of this book and the plots showed a lot of promise, but I was pretty disappointed with both stories.

The story set during World War I is much more developed and interesting than the one set during World War II, but they both wrap up very quickly in the end because everything just suddenly falls into place for the main characters in both timelines thanks to them being good Christians who pray a lot. The talk about God‘s plans and praying is very heavy-handed and comes up constantly throughout the books. And because all the main characters are good Christians they still pray for their enemies and there are no bad consequences for anyone. It’s all incredibly unlikely and a lot of of it just doesn’t make sense.

As for the narrator, she is one of those people who pronounces ‘’wh’ like ‘hw’ and water like woa-ter. I liked her southern accent but her other accents needed some work. And I caught myself noticing her loudly swallowing at a number of points during the book and then emphasizing sentences in the wrong places. I don’t know what was going on with that but it was distracting.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

An enchanting and complex tale

Revisado: 09-15-24

I really enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. The book tells the story of three of women who are all tied together by one place, one family, and one beautiful wild garden.

I loved the fairytales, the depth of the characters, the settings, and how I thought I guessed how things turned out but I ended up not seeing the ending coming. I normally don’t enjoy a book where so many of the characters are miserable in their own way, but this book drew me in.

**spoiler alert**
The only thing I didn’t like was the part about Linus. Part of the story was told from his point of view and it seems like he was obsessed with his sister and then a little bit with his sister’s daughter, but that went nowhere. He never did anything other than try to take her photo And while I’m relieved that he didn’t get super creepy in the way I was afraid he might, I don’t understand why we heard from his perspective other than to find out what happenedto Eliza’s dad. The rest of his perspective made it seem like the only thing he cared about was his sister and then his sister‘s daughter, yet when Liza needed him and he could’ve helped, he didn’t. And he was so keen on finding Lisa and then didn’t bother to see her for a long time? That makes no sense. He even went so far as to not seem to really care what happened to her in the end. It didn’t fit with what his motivations were and I don’t really understand why we heard from him at all.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

I really enjoyed this book

Revisado: 08-27-24

This is a split timeline story about different generations of a family, one set during World War II and one set in the present. There are two very different love stories that are both enjoyable, although I preferred the World War II story. Both love stories include sex, although it’s not overly explicit. There is a sad part, but I think it makes everything more poignant. Now I’m just sad that the story is over.

The narrators were the only downside to this book. I like the female narrator and while her English accent wasn’t the best it was decent. The male narrator had a completely different and really bad idea of what an English accent sounds like. And he also did a weird New Jersey accent in the letters from Jamison, who was from Colorado. And then he didn’t do that accent at all when speaking as Jamison in the story. He was all over the place with his terrible accents, which detracted from the story. Luckily, the letters are at the beginning of each chapter and they’re short, so I didn’t have to tolerate his bad East Coast accent for long and most of the time the female narrator read for Scarlet.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña