Royal Cornwall Museum
BOOK FAIRIES special.
Sometime earlier this year, we were away in Cornwall. We fancied some museum time, so headed to Truro to the Royal Cornwall Museum - http://www.royalcornwallmuseum.org.uk/
As a Cornish born woman, who has a rich Cornish heritage dating back to the 1600s, with ancestry of; miners, sailors and dairy men, the museum was fascinating. I was surprised by the many minerals and metals found in Cornwall as well as other intriguing history from around the world, and I urge anyone who is heading Cornwall to check it out. A warning from my boys though, if you are not keen on taxidermy, avoid the children's area.
Anyway this is a book review, not a museum review!!!
So we were enjoying the museum, when I saw that a book wrapped in green ribbon had 'appeared' upon the bench in one of the upper galleries.
Upon approach, I noticed the Book Fairies Sticker, and the instructions to take and read. I was pretty excited by this find, so of course obliged.
When we arrived home, I look up Book Fairies to see what it was all about;
Book Fairies
It is a fantastic idea, so I was even more excited to have been lucky to have found one.
I posted a thanks to my 'fairy' on their facebook page.
So, the book;
The Villa by Nora Roberts
Not a book that I would normally pick up, and the blurb on the back did not tell me much.
In fact within the first few pages, after some pretty derogatory remarks about a female character, her children and the baby at the breast, I very nearly threw the book in the bin!!!
But for you, I persisted.
The story was interesting, it was clear that the author likes, and even looks up to strong women, and yet these women have not to have female traits in order to be strong. I found this, coupled with the authors extreme negativity to all things 'motherhood', very hard to read.
It was as though she was trying to approach from a feminism point of view, but has kind of missed the point entirely.
The male characters, are extremely forceful, even the 'love interest' guys, who are offered to us as gentle creatures, but as soon as any romance is involved, become forceful and controlling.
I feel that this may be purely to satisfy the authors own fantasies, since almost all of the 'good' male characters are written like this.
There are some great manipulative characters (by great I mean well written), and they really make the book. They are creepy, hateful and you just know they are up to no good! I feel that these characters have had the most attention to detail, which is a shame, as other characters deserved that depth.
As a romantic novel, it is a bit 'Take a Break' for my liking, I would have preferred to have seen some variation in the male characters.
As a strong woman novel, it is not my kind of thing, I did however really like the main female characters, interestingly I find Sophia's Mum to have the most feminism depth, purely because she does what she chooses.
As a 'whodunnit' kind of novel I found it really good, very easy to read, and that was most captivating.
As a teen, I would have loved many of the characters, in particular Sophia.
The book centres around a wine villa and vineyard, and if you ever wanted to learn about wine production this book will teach you a thing or two, and if you didn't...well I am afraid you will.
A great read, you may have trouble putting it down in amongst train connections, but your journey will certainly go past quickly.
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