This story took a while to fully unfold, but when it did, it was exquisite.
To begin with, the characters were a little overwhelming - there are lots of them, and neither of the main characters referred to their parents as 'mum' or 'dad' or 'gran', so there were lots of names with not much context for who they were. But as the story develops, the characters that matter begin to stand out much more, and the not-so-important ones fade back.
I did notice that sometimes it was hard to place the timing of things, particularly at the start of a new chapter or paragraph. Some time adjectives to firmly place the characters would be helpful.
All that said, this book was wonderful. I am not someone who loves the opera, so the sub-story of La Traviata was not immediately obvious, but the author did a fantastic job of weaving that in, so by the time I connected the dots, I was impressed with the subtleties of the story and underlying themes.
The most invigorating point of the story for me was when it jumped back in time to fill in the gaps - this was the point at which it stopped being a generic contemporary fiction piece, and became a true page-turner. Towards the end, it hit me right in the feels, and I admit that a few stray tears leaked from my eyes...any book that makes me feel that strongly gets 5 stars!
I did notice that sometimes it was hard to place the timing of things, particularly at the start of a new chapter or paragraph. Some time adjectives to firmly place the characters would be helpful.
All that said, this book was wonderful. I am not someone who loves the opera, so the sub-story of La Traviata was not immediately obvious, but the author did a fantastic job of weaving that in, so by the time I connected the dots, I was impressed with the subtleties of the story and underlying themes.
The most invigorating point of the story for me was when it jumped back in time to fill in the gaps - this was the point at which it stopped being a generic contemporary fiction piece, and became a true page-turner. Towards the end, it hit me right in the feels, and I admit that a few stray tears leaked from my eyes...any book that makes me feel that strongly gets 5 stars!