Brilliantly Observed - simple story that says so much about society of the era.

I love Von Armin and this is an interesting exploration of the meaning,and different interpretations or manifestations of love through mixed age marriages. Five main characters play out the story, a religious one, 2 young, 3 old who represent values, class, morality, issues of female medicine, etc. it is beautifully written and a joy to discover the subtlety of her writing. The plot is uncomplicated but effective, though I felt she slightly lost her way towards the end. Did she stretch it to meet a word count. Memorable for its precise observations of psychosocial matters and underlying feminist message.

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Cracking good read

Why have I never heard if this author before!
These are the extra six words

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Wonderful book

Loved this book and one I would enjoy reading again. It was well written and a very clever but in a way sad story.

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3 people found this helpful

Captivating

This story was great as an audible book. I think I’d have got bored if I’d read it. It is beautifully narrated and is a wonderfully reserved tale that is relevant today although society is more accepting.

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The writer excellent

I thought this was brilliant the writing the reader the message so modern and write so many years ago

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Like sinking into a comfy sofa

I loved this book. Old fashioned, funny and sad - all at the same time. Read beautifully - it felt like sinking into a soft comfy sofa. I was sorry when it ended.

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A gentle, entertaining read

One of those books to intersperse heavier reading. Very enjoyable and light. A good one to take on holiday.

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Hated it... Loved it

Any additional comments?

After an hour I wanted to put it down, I had no idea how, it attained a 5 star rating from a reviewer I had happened upon. On it’s opening it reads as I would imagine a bad Mills and Boon but without the sex. The main female character is always giggling and happy and the man appears to be slightly less than a man, more a boy, let’s not call it LOVE, maybe it should be more appropriately called CRUSH, or FOLLY. Why did I not like the beginning, had it been the accent and intonation of the narrator? No the reader’s voice only matched the lack of emotional depth in the text, the one hundred year old text does seem dated, while I don’t doubt that people did used to speak in that frightfully correct way, I do not believe that people thought frightfully correctly, this rankled me as the characters were not real and rounded. All this said I had paid for the novel so I was going to listen to it. However after a few hours something happens and that’s that an engaging story starts to emerge, the characters begin to flesh out, unexpected turns of events come about and some of the fluff disappears. The female lead becomes a real woman with real emotions, the male character finally does something other than just fawn. Finally the societal pressures that are talked about all throughout the book become real and have real life consequences for the characters and I found my self intrigued and a firm fan of the novel from at least half way through to the ending. I found my viewpoint flipped around from one ‘side’ to another and then to the point that I didn’t know what I thought but finally like the characters in the novel I realised that life and love is complicated. A worthwhile read, it’s a story called Love but it doesn’t read like a love story, I hope you enjoy it if you decide to give it a go.

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18 people found this helpful

Thoroughly enjoyable

Thanks to audible I was led to this author and loved this book as well as the narration and story.

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Holy moly all over Roly poly!

lovely book, beautifully read and just oozing von arnims story telling charms! absolutely loved it!!

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