October 2010Monthly Archives

Summary from GoodReads:

It is 1903. Dr. Ravell is a young Harvard-educated obstetrician with a growing reputation for helping couples conceive. He has treated women from all walks of Boston society, but when Ravell meets Erika – an opera singer whose beauty is surpassed only by her spellbinding voice – he knows their doctor-patient relationship will be like none he has ever had.

After struggling for years to become pregnant, Erika believes there is no hope. Her mind is made up: she will leave her prominent Bostonian husband to pursue her career in Italy, a plan both unconventional and risky. But becoming Ravell’s patient will change her life in ways she never could have imagined.

Lush and stunningly realized, The Doctor and the Diva moves from snowy Boston to the jungles of Trinidad to the gilded balconies of Florence. This magnificent debut is a tale of passionate love affairs, dangerous decisions, and a woman’s irreconcilable desires as she is forced to choose between the child she has always longed for and the opera career she cannot live without. Inspired by the author’s family history, the novel is sensual, sexy, and heart-stopping in its bittersweet beauty.

My Review:

It’s always amazing to me when I read a book that accurately reflects circumstances in my own life.  But.. I’m getting ahead of myself here.

First of all, this book, is lavish, beautiful, sweeping, haunting, lush and sensual.  There’s no mystery and within the first few pages you know exactly in which direction the story will head, but that does not detract from the story at all.  I hungrily devoured each page, wanting to know exactly what would become of each player, from Erika – the beautiful opera singer to Dr. Ravell, the haunted, emotional doctor to Peter, Erika’s enthusiastic husband.

Adrienne McDonnell writes beautifully and developed her characters well – but there was one thing that did not add up.  I understand the need to move the scene from the wintery Boston to Trinidad, but the methods with which McDonnell did so seemed hasty and a bit sloppily put together.  Once they reached Trinidad, however, things started flowing smoothly again.

I began the book thinking I would sympathize most with Erika and Dr. Ravell, but I found myself leaning more in the direction of Peter, the husband.  His real life circumstance is one that I can identify closely with, as it mirrors my own life, and, as a result, I found myself feeling resentful of Erika which interfered with my enjoyment of the last half of the book.  I think for someone who wasn’t living the life of Peter, the book would invoke sympathies on behalf of Erika and Dr. Ravell, but.. for me, it just stirred up some angry emotions.  That’s not to say I didn’t like The Doctor and the Diva, because I did – I read it all the way through and turned the pages quickly to get there, I just ended up being in the minority who did not sigh over the romance of Erika’s decisions and, instead, found her to be selfish and vain.

So bravo to Adrienne McDonnell for writing something that evoked such an emotional response from me.  If you are a historical fiction lover, this would definitely be something to put on your list.

Check out these review(s):

Booking Mama

Lovely Little Shelf

Take Me Away