I am a big fan of James Patterson novels. I have enjoyed his books for years and follow several of his series of books, always looking forward to the newest book. While looking through his newer books from the library, I came across one that came out earlier this year. It was co-written with J.D. Barker and in reading the description on the cover I was very curious about the book. The cover has the claim "You'll Never Forget the Ending". I decided I needed to read that book and I was not disappointed. The book keeps you guessing on who the killer is the entire book. I thought I had it figured out several times, but boy was I wrong. In the final chapters of the book there is a real twist that I would have never guessed. Wow! What an ending!
Thursday, July 24, 2025
Review of The Writer-James Patterson
I am a big fan of James Patterson novels. I have enjoyed his books for years and follow several of his series of books, always looking forward to the newest book. While looking through his newer books from the library, I came across one that came out earlier this year. It was co-written with J.D. Barker and in reading the description on the cover I was very curious about the book. The cover has the claim "You'll Never Forget the Ending". I decided I needed to read that book and I was not disappointed. The book keeps you guessing on who the killer is the entire book. I thought I had it figured out several times, but boy was I wrong. In the final chapters of the book there is a real twist that I would have never guessed. Wow! What an ending!
Saturday, June 21, 2025
Rolling Toward Clear Skies by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Book Review of a novel by Catherine Ryan Hyde, a favorite author who combines relatable dilemmas and interesting characters who often tug at your heartstrings. This is a heartfelt novel of hope and second chances.
A Synopsis of Rolling Toward Clear Skies
Maggie Blount is a California GP and divorced mother of two teenage girls. In addition to her private practice with 3 other physicians, she also works with Alex, her professional (and romantic) partner, running Doctors on Wheels. Their mobile non-profit vans provide free medical care in the aftermath of disasters.
The story begins as Maggie & Alex get ready to head to Louisiana where a hurricane is about to make landfall. Maggie’s daughters, Willa and Gemma, go to stay with their father for the duration, complaining all the way, as they have grown up to be very entitled, spoiled girls.
During their time in Louisiana, Maggie and Alex treat 2 loving teenage sisters whose parents were killed in the storm that destroyed their home. There is also a terrified puppy who becomes as attached to the girls as the girls do to him.
When it is found that these sisters' only remaining relatives are very elderly grandparents who are unable to care for them, Maggie decides to foster Jean and Rose. After some preliminary paperwork and home visits by social services, Jean & Rose come to live with Maggie and her family.
It is an emotional story that eventually finds Maggie’s new blended family in chaos. The foster sisters, Jean and Rose, are polite and appreciative and feel blessed to have found a safe new home. Maggie’s own daughters are self-involved teenagers who have grown up always having everything they wanted and who resist this intrusion by strangers into their privileged lives. Maggie knows she has made some mistakes in parenting her daughters, giving them too much to make up for her long work hours and the divorce.
Maggie seeks help through a therapist to admit her role in Willa & Gemma’s entitled upbringing, and to learn how to teach her daughters about gratitude and empathy. She begins to learn to undo the damage and anticipate the needs of all four girls, Alex, and the puppy.
Summary
Wise words and insightful observations combine to bring about a satisfying conclusion to this topical, thought-provoking, and appealing story.
Related Reviews:
For more reviews of Catherine Ryan Hyde books, click here.
For a review of author Catherine Ryan Hyde, click here.
For more book reviews on ReviewThisReviews, check out ReviewThisBooks.com
*Review of the book “Rolling Toward Clear Skies” was written by Wednesday Elf
Thursday, June 12, 2025
Reviewing The Good Left Undone
If you love historical fiction, like I do, this wonderful story of a grandmother near the end of her life will be one you will enjoy. She spends time with her family filling them in on the family history and secrets from years gone by. In this story you will also learn of history from World War II and what life was like in Italy, France, England and Scotland as told through the grandmothers' stories.
Adriana Trigiani has long been one of my favorite authors of historical fiction and she does not disappoint in this novel.
Story Summary
Historical Fiction Books I Have Reviewed
Tuesday, June 3, 2025
The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder, A Book Review
THE STORY
Freya, a former antique hunter, is pulled back into the world of antiques after the mysterious death of her friend and mentor, Arthur. With the help of her odd but interesting Aunt Carole, she deciphers clues Arthur left behind—his way of ensuring that, should anything suspicious happen to him, someone would investigate. Their search finds them at an antiques retreat in a grand manor, where the furnishings are actually replicas rather than originals, and the guests seem to have questionable motives.
REVIEWS
Goodreads reviewers give the book 3 1/2 stars calling it a mixed bag with good marks for the look into the world of antiques but lower marks for writing style.
Amazon readers are a bit more generous, granting 4 stars and calling it ‘a very good read.’
Consensus amongst the many reviews that I read seems to be that the writing was a bit distracting, with some finding it a bit hard to get used to. I agree though I will add that I did get used to it and I did find the book more engaging as I went along.
RECOMMENDED
Who will enjoy this book? I recommend it for someone looking for a cozy mystery that is a bit more complex or for someone who is interested in antiques and the antique underworld. I will be reading the second book in the series, The Antique Hunter’s Death on the Red Sea.
Another strong pick? If you are also interested in a similar look into art and the art world, Jeffrey Archer’s False Impression is a riveting must-read. A real page turner. Read my full review of First Impression here.
See you
At the bookstore!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
The Boys From Biloxi ~ John Grisham ~ A Book Review
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
The Taverner's Son by Leslie Park Lynn ~ A Book Review
The Taverner's Son is a well written deeply moving novel that has a beautiful story line that everyone can really sink their teeth into. Family secrets, tragedy and a small village help to make this book a real page turner. I love the characters and each one of their with own "quirks".
What family doesn't have some sadness and misunderstandings that get in the way of family connections? I don't think there is one family out there who can't relate in some way.
So it is with Will Kendrick. He has lived most of his adult life away from the small town that was his home. Misunderstandings and pride make it difficult to get through to the part where we still love each other. And sometimes it's too late to do anything about it!
Will gets a phone call letting him know that his father has passed away. Living on the west coast for many years, Will had not given his father too much thought. Now he is in shock and trying desperately to make sense of it all, realizing that there is no more time left.
Will makes the plans to return to the little fishing village of Apalachicola. First he had to make his way from California to Tallahassee and then drive from there to what had been his home. As he drives the roads back to his "home" memories come flooding back to him.
Of course there are the people of the town whom he had known growing up and many that had left the small town for bigger and better opportunities. But there was also one of his oldest and dearest friends from his childhood who remained. Jess, his long time friend from grade school, who had always been there during his childhood, made her life in the small town of Apalachicola.
Will is making his way around town and sees the tavern where he spent many days helping his father. Homework was done on one of the small tables in the back. Penny, the cook and keeper of the kitchen took Will under her wings when Will's mother had died. Will was only 3 years old when his mother died. Penny and her husband were the imaginary parents that Will wanted. His father had become distant and depressed, withdrawn from his son and anything that reminded him of his beloved wife. Will was the spitting image of his mother. So that made things even harder for Will's father. And now Will is standing in the Tavern that now belongs to him.
Will has a lot to learn about the father he didn't know so well and more about his mother too. When you lose your mom at 3 years of age, you really don't know too much about her. As you get into the book, the story takes on a life of it's own and you will be hard pressed to put the book down. So many questions that Will has and so few answers, yet, there is something going on that doesn't make sense.
I don't want to give too much of the story away, but, I would encourage you to pick this book up. It really is a riveting story of family, family secrets and how they impact the people who are being "saved from the truth". This book is masterfully written, a love story with twists and turns that you will not see coming. It is a page turner that you won't want to put down.
I received this book from VoraciousReadersOnly with the promise of sharing a review. It was my pleasure to read this book and review it for you here.
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
Katherine Faulkner's Greenwich Park Book Review
Helen has been described as someone who has everything including “a perfect husband, a perfect brother and a perfect sister-in-law. When she meets Rachel, she also has the perfect nightmare.”
FAST FACTS:
Author – Katherine Faulkner
Format – Hardcover, paperback, Kindle, audiobook, audio CD
Genre – Domestic Psychological Thriller
Pages - 375
Publication Date – September 13, 2021
Publisher – Simon & Shuster
ISBN Number – 978-1-9821-5031-0
If you love a good thriller, you will enjoy Greenwich Park. The book is definitely dark, looking into the world of pregnancy and early motherhood, of friendships, of privileged lives lived and, of course, of the secrets that people keep. I think that it is an excellent first novel, which the author wrote while she herself was on maternity leave. The rights to the book have been sold and I will be watching for a movie or television series as well as for a second book by Faulkner. Meanwhile, you can order your copy of Greenwich Park from Amazon by clicking right here.
See you
Brenda
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Sunflowers Beneath the Snow - A Book Review
Sunflowers Beneath the Snow, by Teri M. Brown, is a wonderful novel that will keep the reader interested and involved with the characters. All the characters in this novel have strong opinions and follow their dreams and yearnings, often causing some danger, grief and sadness in their lives. But great joy when all is revealed.
Does this pique your interest? It should. Teri M. Brown has written a book that truly is a page turner. As with many novels some of the places and happenings sound like they could have happened in real life. The author makes it clear that this is a work of fiction.
This story surrounds some very strong willed, strong bodied, and strong minded women. Ivanna and the love of her life, Lyaksandro! Their daughter, Yevtsye and her daughter Ionna are all part of the focus of this novel.
The country of their birth, the Ukraine has been under Soviet occupation for many years. Always the government is promising that things will get better. Lyaksandro Hadeon Rosomakha is a university employee and husband of Ivanna. He, by wanting better for his family, has started a downward turn in the family's fortunes. By becoming an informant (after witnessing the stranglehold the government had on free thinkers) he unwittingly puts his family in danger. Early in the story he is whisked out of the country under cover of night, after having done the work of passing information to interested parties. It was one of two choices he had. Leave or die, lest the government of the day would get him and "dispose" of this troublemaker in one way or another.
His wife of the last dozen years, whom he loved with all that he was, is informed that her husband has been killed when he tried to undermine the current government of the day.
His daughter and wife were left behind even though he tried to get them out while he was being hurriedly removed from the country. Had he known that they would not be coming with him, I'm not sure what would have happened.
Life is hard and takes many twists and turns. Suffice it to say that not a day goes by that Ivanna doesn't miss her husband and his daughter, Yevtsye, misses her father too. There is no time to waste energy on what could have been, too much energy was needed just to survive!
Yevtsye becomes a university worker and meets and marries a like minded man named Danya. Together they worked hard and were able to give their daughter (Ionna) enough that she was thriving. But both Danya and Yevtsye were very unhappy with the political climate in their country and wished for a better life.
Life is never straight forward and there are many twists and turns in this novel. I don't want to give away too much more of the story, it really is a book that you should pick up yourself and read. You will be taken on a rollercoaster ride that is quite amazing. Emotionally you will be able to connect with the characters, which for me made the story that much more captivating.
What is the most interesting thing about this book is the fact that it has it's basis in a true story. So while fictional, it has elements that are true. You will be amazed and taken on a journey through three families lives!
Teri M. Brown has done an amazing job writing this book as her debut novel and I'm sure looking forward to more of her writing. It is truly an wonderful, harrowing, uplifting, and fulfilling story.
**I was given a copy of this book by the author in return for a review on ReviewThisReviews.com.
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Review of The Keeper of Happy Endings
![]() |
Book Review: The Keeper of Happy Endings |
Soline
Rory
Other Books by this Author
Thursday, February 11, 2021
Review of Historical Novel....West with Giraffes
![]() |
Photograph my sister Julie took while in Tanzania |
West with Giraffes is one of the best books I've read in a long time and I have read some books I've really enjoyed lately. But you know how some books just resonate with you, well that is how West with Giraffes was with me. I usually read before I go to bed for about 1/2 hour. With this book, I would wake up in the morning thinking about the book and of course I had to make time to read more during the day.
Setting
Characters
Tuesday, January 26, 2021
Jeffrey Siger's The Mykonos Mob (Island of Secrets) Reviewed
My accidental introduction to Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis via Jeffrey Siger’s tenth book, The Mykonos Mob, came about because of the pandemic. Limiting trips to public places means that my husband has become the designated library picker upper. Most of our library books are requested in advance online and then picked up when they are available but on this particular day I felt like reading something different and my husband left home with instructions to find me something different to read. Maybe something that was recent. Maybe a mystery or a thriller.
He came home with a number of options including this one, The Mykonos Mob, which follows Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis who leaves Athens for the Greek island of Mykonos. To those not very familiar with Greece, like myself, Mykonos is a Greek island with a thriving tourist industry and a reputation. That is, a reputation for a busy beach scene and lots of nightlife. It is considered an international playground and may not necessarily be the kind of vacation I would be looking for but is interesting as a destination nevertheless.
In this book, Kaldis works to solve the murder of a corrupt former police officer who now runs a protection racket on Mykonos. We meet the main players who include Kaldis, his Special Crimes unit, his wife and an interesting American woman who has transplanted herself to Mykonos and who plays piano in a bar at night and solves local crimes during the day.
As an armchair traveler, I don’t think any of my ‘trips’ have included Greece. This book offered a look at the seedy underbelly of the island but also at some Greek culture. It is not a travel guide nor a travel book per se and some parts of the life reflected in this book might have you thinking you do not want to visit Mykonos but it was interesting to learn about some of the issues of life in Greece and in particular on Mykonos. The author, Jeffrey Siger, left a career as a Wall Street lawyer in New York to live on the Aegean Greek island that is Mykonos and to write books like this one. It is intentional that they share a fast moving story and some real life Greece.
RECOMMENDED?
I enjoyed The Mykonos Mob and yes, I do recommend it. I enjoyed the look into life in Greece, a place that I would like to visit one day, and I liked the main characters. I will be reading the rest of this series. I think this book would suit any man or woman who enjoys a good murder mystery as well as someone with an interest in life in modern-day Greece.
BOOK LIST
Here’s the order you should read the books. Note that this book, The Mykonos Mob, is number ten in the series. Starting with number ten is not my usual style and I doubt it is yours. Another important note is that the book name was changed to Island of Secrets when it was released in paperback.
Murder in Mykonos
Assassins of Athens
Prey on Patmos
Target
Mykonos After Midnight
Sons of Sparta
Devil of Delphi
Santorini Caesars
An Aegean April
The Mykonos Mob (Island of Secrets in paperback)
A Deadly Twist
Find your Jeffrey Siger book on Amazon in hardcover, paperback or Kindle by clicking right here.
Do you like a good murder mystery? Have you read any good fiction books set Greece that you would recommend, mystery or otherwise?
See you
at the book store!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
Quick Links:
Buy The Mykonos Mob (or any of Jeffrey Siger’s books) here on Amazon.
Jeffrey Archer’s False Impressions Reviewed.
The Coffee House Mysteries reviewed.
Death Takes A Spin: An Upcycling Mystery reviewed.
Tuesday, January 12, 2021
Jeffrey Archer's False Impression Book Review

Anyway, it turns out that the difficult year of 2020 has had a very real impact on my reading choices. I seem to want well-crafted page turners, which give me a break from the simple, everyday routine of a life that is home bound. I work online, run essential errands, take plenty of walks and, like so many that are privileged to be able to stay home to stay safe, I do not do much else or see family or friends. A book to escape with has proven essential and Jeffrey Archer has fit the bill.
I spent a large part of the spring and summer with his mammoth seven book series the Clifton Chronicles so this is the eighth Archer book I have read this year. When recently I could not settle in with any of my own book choices, my husband magically produced Jeffrey Archer's False Impression. I expect my husband was remembering how much I enjoyed the previous Archer books and that he picked this one because it includes a good look into the art world, which I do enjoy learning about.
THE STORY
The story? Well, start with a woman murdered in England the night before 9/11. Add in a brilliant art expert currently working for a crooked banker who is obsessed with owning various masterpieces at any price with his current choice being Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear. Finally, add the banker's unlikely secretary, an honors graduate, and a handsome FBI agent.
The trip follows these characters around numerous bends that takes us on a trip that includes the cities of New York, London, Bucharest and Tokyo until the Van Gogh painting finally has a new owner.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
I could not put False Impression down. I read it for hours in the middle of night. I read it when I woke up in the morning. I gave my husband a good laugh when hours later I was still reading. Not surprising really given how much I enjoyed the previous Archer books but definitely surprising given that I am usually up bright and early every morning preparing eBay parcels and working online
Yes, this book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED by me. It does a good job of sharing a bit about the twin towers, art history, English aristocracy and it includes a nasty villain, a female assassin and the FBI. The story keeps you wanting to know what happens next and it does so until the end of the book. I particularly enjoyed the armchair travel, the art and art history and the occasional humor, which mainly arose between the two main characters.
MORE REVIEWS
Well, this is when normally I say "but don't take my word for it" and give you a few stellar quotes from other online reviews but it turns out that this book received mixed reviews from the professionals so I cannot do that. However, Artis-Ann of The Yorkshire Times did like the book saying "she realizes and admits that you can enjoy the most erudite (knowledge filled) compositions alongside a jolly good yarn which doesn’t require very much concentration. After all, each to his own and the world would be a poorer place if we all liked the same thing." She also said that "she enjoys the temporary escapism that books offer and their variety and that this is another example." I think she summed it up nicely.
Amazon readers liked False Impression with 88 percent of them giving the book a 4 or 5 star rating and Goodreads readers gave it a score of 3.81.
If you're looking for an easy to read in the form of an entertaining book with art, art history and travel, you should add False Impression to your list. You can see all of the versions available on Amazon by clicking right here.
See you
at the book store!
Brenda
Treasures By Brenda
Quick Links:
Buy False Impression on Amazon.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Ian Rankin's Knots and Crosses Book Review
When Rankin wrote Knots and Crosses in 1987 he thought he had written a standalone crime detective novel and had even planned on killing Detective Rebus at the end of the book. Success for Rankin and Rebus was not fast in coming. After publishing Knots and Crosses to little fan fare, Rankin put Rebus aside and moved on to write his next book with no idea that he would eventually return to Rebus' world and that he would still be writing books for the series in 2020
Anyway, I read Knots and Crosses. I really enjoyed it. I recommend it. Need I say more? Well, yes, I suppose I should because you may not have read anything by Ian Rankin and you may not have seen my earlier review of the eighth book in the series, Black and Blue.I wrote about the number of covers that the eighth book has had and you won't be surprised to hear that this book also has had many covers. I had to work a bit to find a picture of the original cover, which I believe the image at the bottom of this page to be since Rankin describes the original cover as having knots and crosses on it and this is the only one that fits that description.
Knots and Crosses is a classic detective story with a strong plotline. It was written in 1987 and based firmly in the Scotland of the time. It is considered British Realism Noir or Tartan Noir as it was written by Scottish writers and is set in Scotland. The Scottish story has style elements from other American and European crime writers of the same time period.REVIEWS
WHO WILL LIKE KNOTS & CROSSES?
Monday, March 16, 2020
Book Review: Chesapeake by James Michener
![]() |
Reviewing Chesapeake by James Michener |
"It was toward morning of the third night, when he had had only two small fish to eat in three days, that he came to those falls which his people called Conowingo, and here he faced the test which would determine the success of his escape. When he approached the white and leaping water he intended to drag his canoe ashore and portage it a long distance downhill, but as he paddled away from the middle of the river to the safety of shore.... "
Pentaquod's journey south by canoe from the Susquehanna River to Chesapeake Bay were stories that seemed familiar. The water and wildlife descriptions are similar to what can be experienced by those of us who sit along the banks or kayak these waters.
Pentaquod had never traveled as far as the open water of the bay. He chose an island on the eastern shore for his new home. There he is introduced to Blue Heron's, crabs, and the natural rhythms of life on the water. Later, he joins a part of the local tribe (later named the Choptank) and lives a long, mostly peaceful life living on the rivers and in the marshes of that area. Michener's descriptions of the flora and fauna make me feel as though I am sitting there, on the banks of the Choptank river.
In 1606, Captain John Smith brings ships and crews to the New World with a plan to "conquer Virginia". He also brings Edmund Steed. The Steed family is one of the families we follow over the centuries.
In Chesapeake, the focus is on a 400 year saga of these families who settled the area. Each of the families intertwine with the others over the years. While the characters, and an island on which one of the main families settle, are fictional the issues are historical. We are reminded how the people in the first colony barely survives. We are reminded that many of the first settlers are fleeing religious persecution and how that continues in the New World. As time goes on, "letter brides", indentured servants, and slaves join the growing population. Public whippings - including that of a Quaker woman - are the norm of the day. I was reminded that settling this country was no easy task. And this was just the beginning.
James Michener paints a picture of the area and of the families whose ancestry intertwine over time from the 1500s to the late 1970s. I will think of them every time I sit along the banks of the local waterways or watch the water spilling from Conowingo Dam.
Related Link:
Not long after I began reading Chesapeake, BarbRad reviewed The World is My Home by James Michener. She explains that in this memoir he shares stories of his life, travels, interests, and writing. I've added this memoir to my reading list and look forward to learning more about the author who wrote the engrossing story I'm reading now.
Sunday, June 30, 2019
The Quintland Sisters Book Review
The year was 1978 and the book was Pierre Berton’s The Dionne Years: A Thirties Melodrama. I remember enjoying that book and it began a lifetime interest for me about the subjects of the book, Canada’s Dionne Quintuplets. The quintuplets or quints as they became known were five baby girls born during the Great Depression and, because of their novelty at that time, were isolated from the world in order to protect them. This separation meant that the government removed them from the care of their parents and, as we now know, eventually exploited them for profit.
Berton’s book, however, is not the subject of this review. Rather, it is the 2019 book, The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood that I am writing about. I did definitely pick this book up because of the Berton book and I have no idea how I found it but nevertheless I have read it and enjoyed what for me was an interesting version of the story as created by this author. If you have not heard of the quints or you have and you would like to learn a bit more or simply revisit that time, you will enjoy this book.
The Quintland Sisters is an easy to read book despite the not very nice subject matter. It has little that is offensive other than, of course, the fact that these babies were put on display before the world and taken away from their parents. There is childbirth in the book but not all of the details and there are sexual references. There is one very nasty and unexpected though not overly descriptive scene at the end of the book, which the author uses to fill in the blanks that had been skipped earlier in the book.
The book is a fictional story written diary or journal style from the perspective of a girl named Emma. Emma was present in the farmhouse as an extra set of hands to help the midwife who went to deliver a sixth Dionne child. Emma's introduction to midwifery was definitely an eye opener when not one but five two-month premature babies surprised everyone involved. The five babies weighed in at a total of 13.5 pounds. Take a moment and compare that to my first child who weighed 9 pounds and 5 ounces. Emma stayed on as a helper through the early years of the quints lives and as one of the primary caregivers in the farmhouse. She stayed on when they were moved shortly after their birth to what was known as the Dafoe Hospital and Nursery in Callender, Northern Ontario. Emma, by the way, is a creation of the author and did not really exist in Quintland.
The story covers the birth of the girls, the immediate days afterward when they struggled to keep them alive without medical equipment and supplies for five babies. Amazingly, they kept those babies alive with among other things, corn syrup added to milk and rum. Dr. Dafoe pronounced, “The babies will not live. It’s too soon for them. They’re too weak.” At that time, quintuplets were unheard of and of course, these ones were very premature. They were the first in recorded history to survive birth and the author says, they remain the only naturally conceived quintuplets to all survive.
In the book, when Dr. Dafoe ushered the first news reporters into the home where a newly graduated nurse and Emma struggled to keep the babies alive, he justified doing so by saying that they were it was "unlikely that they would all be alive tomorrow and that it was important to have a record.” This was a fairly innocuous beginning of the exploitation of the girls who would spend years under the glaring attention of the media. During the first five years of their lives, the public visited Quintland to see the girls at play at a rate of up to 6,000 people per day.
The girls went on to become the faces of and earn endorsements from many products including Palmolive, Colgate, Lysol, Karo Syrup and Baby Ruth candy bars. They greeted celebrity and royal visitors. They appeared in three movies, in the newspapers, on the cover of magazines and in calendars. In an age of economic downturn, the Quints earned money for themselves, for their caregivers and in particular Dr. Dafoe, for their parents and for the Government of Ontario. It is estimated that, as a tourist attraction, they helped to bring $500 million dollars to the Northern Ontario economy.
The CBC calls The Quintland Sisters "a novel of love, heartache, resilience and enduring sisterhood", which sounds about right. I do think that this book is more about the lives of the people surrounding the girls and less about their relationships with each other. We do learn a bit about their relationships and temperaments. The real world saw them as a unit rather than as individual human beings but in this book, the character Emma identified differences between the identical girls for us.
They were actually so popular internationally that the Toronto Star employed a reporter full time to cover their lives. It is sad that the press embraced the adorable girls but did not challenge their unusual living situation. The government had taken them away from their parents and their parents had strict visitation rules. They apparently did not even get to hold their babies. The parents were not particularly likable in the book and in the end, the author portrays the mother as broken and the father as a profiteer. In the long wrong many profited and it seems that no one considered the needs of the girls for real lives.
The author, who discovered the girls by accident, hopes that this book will introduce the story to a new generation. The two surviving quintuplets hope that their story will cause people to think twice before exploiting children but according to the Toronto Globe and Mail, they "question whether government authorities have truly learned from the past in living up to their responsibility to protect children from abuse."
Have you heard of the Dionne quintuplets? What do you think of their story?
See you
at the book store!
Brenda
Quick Link:
Order your copy of The Quintland Sisters on Amazon.
Most Recent Reviews on Review This Reviews
Search for Reviews by Subject, Author or Title
The Review This Reviews Contributors
Sylvestermouse
Dawn Rae B
MbgPhoto
Brite-Ideas
Wednesday Elf
Olivia Morris
Treasures by Brenda
The Savvy Age
Margaret Schindel
Raintree Annie
Lou16
Sam Monaco
Tracey Boyer
Cheryl Paton
Renaissance Woman
BarbRad
Bev Owens
BuckHawk
Decorating for Events
Heather426
Coletta Teske
MissMerFaery
Mickie_G
Review This Reviews is Dedicated to the Memory of Our Beloved Friend and Fellow Contributor
We may be apart, but
You Are Not Forgotten