When I joined booksta in 2020, Augusta Hope was everywhere. An obvious favourite, it has taken me the next two years to finally get around to it, and I enjoyed it a lot. I liked Augusta’s character and appreciated her love of learning and words. She is a fun character to watch grow from a precocious child into the adult woman she becomes, and I liked that so much of her childish character traits followed her and grew through into adulthood. Her relationship with her twin sister reminded me so much of myself and my sister, and I particularly loved that.
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August is contrasted to Parfait, a character who dreams of life in Spain. His childhood is full of love and loss and grief, and yet his character remains upbeat for his siblings. His support of his family, his desire to become and artist, and his work in supporting refugees creates a well-rounded and lovely character. I thought he helped to bring a depth to the story that I was not expecting. His experience highlights the horrors of war, the difficulties in leaving your home country and the hardships of making the dangerous sea crossing in Europe
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I liked the way the chapters ran into each other, showing the very different lives the characters lead. Their paths to the same place in Spain are very different, and yet there are similarities in their characters and their desire for something different from what they grew up with. Their meeting is not rushed, but is inevitable and I was rooting for it to happen. Their relationship was sweet, and they are clearly intrigued by each other immediately – they are each other’s “other halves”
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The story vias a little too soapy at the end, for my general taste, but I enjoyed the book, and pleased I finally got around to reading it. It was an easy read/listen, but highlighted some important issues.
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August is contrasted to Parfait, a character who dreams of life in Spain. His childhood is full of love and loss and grief, and yet his character remains upbeat for his siblings. His support of his family, his desire to become and artist, and his work in supporting refugees creates a well-rounded and lovely character. I thought he helped to bring a depth to the story that I was not expecting. His experience highlights the horrors of war, the difficulties in leaving your home country and the hardships of making the dangerous sea crossing in Europe
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I liked the way the chapters ran into each other, showing the very different lives the characters lead. Their paths to the same place in Spain are very different, and yet there are similarities in their characters and their desire for something different from what they grew up with. Their meeting is not rushed, but is inevitable and I was rooting for it to happen. Their relationship was sweet, and they are clearly intrigued by each other immediately – they are each other’s “other halves”
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The story vias a little too soapy at the end, for my general taste, but I enjoyed the book, and pleased I finally got around to reading it. It was an easy read/listen, but highlighted some important issues.