The Day the Flowers Died by Ami Blackwelder
- The cover is gorgeous.
- I enjoy WWII stories.
- I like reading books by indie authors.
- A Long, Long Time Ago & Essentially True by Brigid Pasulka
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
- Night by Elie Wiesel
Summary from GoodReads:
1930 Munich, Germany. Two Lovers. Different Worlds.
A Crumbling Country. A Passion Set in the Time of Prejudice.
My Review:
I had high hopes for this book. The cover is stunning, the title beautiful and I have a weak spot for WWII-based stories.
The first thing that threw me was this: “An Historical Novel”.
That was written more than once. I don’t get it. Is it intentional?
I started reading the book and getting to know Rebecca and Eli. Perhaps it’s because I’m taking an English Comp class, and this weeks subject is Observation, but I noticed that every little thing had something describing it. Rebecca sitting down on a “white” couch, every article of clothing described by color, every outfit change detailed. It was so stilted in the description that I couldn’t enjoy the pictures being created and felt uncomfortable by reading them.
But the real breaking point for me was when Rebecca and Eli have a picnic on Valentine’s Day… and then go swimming in a nearby lake. Now, granted, I’ve never been to Germany, but I do have friends who live in Germany and there is not a single one of them who would be caught dead going swimming in a lake in February. I think the author may have lost track of the time in the book because she also described the sky as being the “spring” sky, and February is not generally called spring, here or there.
I’m chalking this book up to being another sappy, sad, average WWII story with some bad editing. Disappointing, I wanted to love this one.
Do you have a favorite WWII novel? What is it?
