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dabutkus's review against another edition
2.0
There were times this book dragged but I really very interesting story.
eclectictales's review against another edition
3.0
I received a copy of this novel as part of a book blog tour hosted by France Book Tours. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/05/13/review-a-star-for-mrs-blake/
A Star for Mrs. Blake is a wonderful tale following a number of Gold Star Mothers, mothers who lost their sons serving their country during World War One. Cora Blake meets a number of other women from different cultural and social backgrounds as they make their way to France to visit the final resting place of their fallen sons. It was interesting to watch these women interact. It’s a little awkward at first and it’s not a perfect fix–there are disagreements and sides taken–but there are also laughs and strange experiences binding them together as well as the common grief they share of having lost their sons.
The story itself had a bit of a slow start. Cora’s small town sets the backdrop to her life before the trip that ultimately changed her life but it was pretty slow; it felt like an overload of names and people and situations. It did however pick up for me when the group finally met in New York.
A Star for Mrs. Blake overall was a great read shedding light on an interesting project funded and supported for the mothers of fallen World War One soldiers. It was an interesting and delightful fellowship that was formed amongst the women where class and background are ultimately overlooked and replaced with a solidarity for what they endured and what they experienced. Readers of historical fiction and stories set in the early twentieth century and involving World War One will want to check out this novel.
A Star for Mrs. Blake is a wonderful tale following a number of Gold Star Mothers, mothers who lost their sons serving their country during World War One. Cora Blake meets a number of other women from different cultural and social backgrounds as they make their way to France to visit the final resting place of their fallen sons. It was interesting to watch these women interact. It’s a little awkward at first and it’s not a perfect fix–there are disagreements and sides taken–but there are also laughs and strange experiences binding them together as well as the common grief they share of having lost their sons.
The story itself had a bit of a slow start. Cora’s small town sets the backdrop to her life before the trip that ultimately changed her life but it was pretty slow; it felt like an overload of names and people and situations. It did however pick up for me when the group finally met in New York.
A Star for Mrs. Blake overall was a great read shedding light on an interesting project funded and supported for the mothers of fallen World War One soldiers. It was an interesting and delightful fellowship that was formed amongst the women where class and background are ultimately overlooked and replaced with a solidarity for what they endured and what they experienced. Readers of historical fiction and stories set in the early twentieth century and involving World War One will want to check out this novel.
casehouse's review against another edition
3.0
I read this book because it's currently the On the Same Page selection for the Cincinnati Public Library. The premise was intriguing, but the story never really gelled for me. Lots of little side storylines that didn't add much to the story and too many characters I didn't care all that much about took away from the story, imo.
magistratrium's review against another edition
3.0
The history of the Gold Star mothers was interesting but the characters were a little unbelievable, especially in their interactions with one another.
ashlylynne's review against another edition
I received a free copy of this book through Goodreads Firstreads Giveaways. I was so excited when I won this book because the story sounded compelling and completely interesting. But, upon actually opening the pages and starting to read, I quickly became disappointed and upset that the story wasn’t what I was expecting it to be. I had a few major issues with this novel that caused me to forgo reading the last 100 pages and skipping directly to the return home final chapter. I honestly didn’t feel like I missed that much by skipping such a large chunk of this story. But, before I get into all that, here’s a short synopsis.
This story follows main character Cora Blake on a pilgrimage she undertakes that revolves around traveling to France to visit her son’s gravestone after he was killed in battle during WWI. Cora chose to have her son’s body buried across seas and is travelling with many other mothers to visit the place he was laid to rest along with the children of the other group members. Cora must face the problems that arise and accept that not everyone has had the same experiences as her all while dealing with travelling and the new feelings stirred up by the loss of her son. This is Historical Fiction, but is indeed based on a real ordeal that gold star mothers were experiencing after the First World War. The characters are fiction but the story is real.
That being said, I will continue on a positive not for one paragraph, but one paragraph only, and probably not even the entire paragraph. So enjoy the next few positive sentences. I did not this the author’s writing was horrible. That was not one of any of the issues I had with this novel. The writing is decent and flows throughout what I read of the novel. Smith comes off as an educated woman, and writes descriptions that paint each scene nicely. Where this started to go wrong, though, is when the flowery descriptions started to eclipse the story. It hastily went from this is nice to this is way too much. The characters and the story both got lost in the heavy descriptive paragraphs.
This was the first thing that made the story boring; the second thing was that the characters were far from believable. There was not one of the gold star (war) mothers that I found fit what these mothers would actually look and/or act like. There personalities were left at the surface and every one of the women was beautiful and thin in their old age. It is unrealistic for every mother to be beautiful. I wanted diversity, and I wanted them to be realistic, but what I got was perfect bone structures and thin waists. Beauty seemed to be a greater focus than what the story was actually about. Everything was far too romanticized.
But not just the characters are overly romanticized, this entire story is romanticized to the max. There is nothing wrong with painting a bit of a better picture than what it was, but, especially in the time after WWI, everything was not beautiful and perfect the way this novel makes it out to be. There was so much that could have and maybe should have been touched on that wasn’t because Smith didn’t want to taint the romantic atmosphere she created. I wanted more grit to this story; I wanted so much more grit. I also have the problem with romanticizing since it devalues the struggles and losses that women actually went through during this period in time. I wanted a true story, not an flowery one.
Another thing that made it hard to connect with the characters, besides them having bare minimum personalities, was the fact that the narrator was omniscient, switching sometimes from one paragraph the next (usually mid chapter with absolutely no structure to it (Smith simply changed views whenever she felt like it)). This made it hard to connect with any of the characters. Especially since this story focuses mainly on Cora’s perspective, but then randomly switches away from Cora’s perspective. Not having a clear focus on a main character and then also not giving all the characters’ perspectives equal time makes it impossible to empathize with anyone. I did not like this aspect of the novel. Even when one of the characters dies, which I found out during the final chapter since I skipped so much, it didn’t affect me in any way. I felt no need to go back and read what happened to her because I just didn’t care.
These characters were not as good as they should have been, and another thing that really bothered me about them, was the way Smith writes their accents. If you want to have characters have accents, you need to do your research on the accents you want them to have. Smith’s accents are not consistent for the characters and fluctuate from heavy to light. This is not realistic and exceptionally bothered me. If you need some examples of great accent writing, read any of the Harry Potter books. J.K. Rowling does some phenomenal accent writing. Smith should have done her research with her pencil before sitting down with her pen.
Coinciding with the horrible accent work, I found that Smith often loses the time period she’s writing in and inserts a bounteous amount of modern-day slang. This is an issue for me, since I often lost the type of story I was supposed to be reading. This overall was another contributing factor to make this novel so unbearable and so unbearably boring.
Finally, combining all of this together, Smith needed a bit more research on this subject before attempting to write an entire novel about it. Although Fannie Flagg, an actress who is most known for being on the panel of the game show Match Game from 1973-82 (age 70 now), wrote, “A beautifully written, meticulously researched slice of American History.” I am not compelled to believe that this was that meticulously researched. Which is sad, because I was so looking forward to this interesting story. In my opinion, this story might have been much better suited for a short story or novella, since nothing of true importance happens throughout this drug out novel. What do I always say? Tension. What does this story have nothing of? Tension. A 20, maybe even 30 page story would have been much more fitting than the superficial novel Smith creates in an attempt to bring back to life a piece of American History often forgotten.
I don’t think I would ever be coerced enough to pick up any of Smith’s other novels. This one was a boring (not tough) but long read. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up this novel for anything and when I finally did, I’d put it down in a matter of minutes to check facebook or browse tumblr. A good book would have me ignoring the technological, and regular, world.
Thanks for reading and make sure you stop by and check out my Facebook page. Keep up on my latest reviews and follow for other bookish posts! –https://www.facebook.com/dreamingthroughliterature
This story follows main character Cora Blake on a pilgrimage she undertakes that revolves around traveling to France to visit her son’s gravestone after he was killed in battle during WWI. Cora chose to have her son’s body buried across seas and is travelling with many other mothers to visit the place he was laid to rest along with the children of the other group members. Cora must face the problems that arise and accept that not everyone has had the same experiences as her all while dealing with travelling and the new feelings stirred up by the loss of her son. This is Historical Fiction, but is indeed based on a real ordeal that gold star mothers were experiencing after the First World War. The characters are fiction but the story is real.
That being said, I will continue on a positive not for one paragraph, but one paragraph only, and probably not even the entire paragraph. So enjoy the next few positive sentences. I did not this the author’s writing was horrible. That was not one of any of the issues I had with this novel. The writing is decent and flows throughout what I read of the novel. Smith comes off as an educated woman, and writes descriptions that paint each scene nicely. Where this started to go wrong, though, is when the flowery descriptions started to eclipse the story. It hastily went from this is nice to this is way too much. The characters and the story both got lost in the heavy descriptive paragraphs.
This was the first thing that made the story boring; the second thing was that the characters were far from believable. There was not one of the gold star (war) mothers that I found fit what these mothers would actually look and/or act like. There personalities were left at the surface and every one of the women was beautiful and thin in their old age. It is unrealistic for every mother to be beautiful. I wanted diversity, and I wanted them to be realistic, but what I got was perfect bone structures and thin waists. Beauty seemed to be a greater focus than what the story was actually about. Everything was far too romanticized.
But not just the characters are overly romanticized, this entire story is romanticized to the max. There is nothing wrong with painting a bit of a better picture than what it was, but, especially in the time after WWI, everything was not beautiful and perfect the way this novel makes it out to be. There was so much that could have and maybe should have been touched on that wasn’t because Smith didn’t want to taint the romantic atmosphere she created. I wanted more grit to this story; I wanted so much more grit. I also have the problem with romanticizing since it devalues the struggles and losses that women actually went through during this period in time. I wanted a true story, not an flowery one.
Another thing that made it hard to connect with the characters, besides them having bare minimum personalities, was the fact that the narrator was omniscient, switching sometimes from one paragraph the next (usually mid chapter with absolutely no structure to it (Smith simply changed views whenever she felt like it)). This made it hard to connect with any of the characters. Especially since this story focuses mainly on Cora’s perspective, but then randomly switches away from Cora’s perspective. Not having a clear focus on a main character and then also not giving all the characters’ perspectives equal time makes it impossible to empathize with anyone. I did not like this aspect of the novel. Even when one of the characters dies, which I found out during the final chapter since I skipped so much, it didn’t affect me in any way. I felt no need to go back and read what happened to her because I just didn’t care.
These characters were not as good as they should have been, and another thing that really bothered me about them, was the way Smith writes their accents. If you want to have characters have accents, you need to do your research on the accents you want them to have. Smith’s accents are not consistent for the characters and fluctuate from heavy to light. This is not realistic and exceptionally bothered me. If you need some examples of great accent writing, read any of the Harry Potter books. J.K. Rowling does some phenomenal accent writing. Smith should have done her research with her pencil before sitting down with her pen.
Coinciding with the horrible accent work, I found that Smith often loses the time period she’s writing in and inserts a bounteous amount of modern-day slang. This is an issue for me, since I often lost the type of story I was supposed to be reading. This overall was another contributing factor to make this novel so unbearable and so unbearably boring.
Finally, combining all of this together, Smith needed a bit more research on this subject before attempting to write an entire novel about it. Although Fannie Flagg, an actress who is most known for being on the panel of the game show Match Game from 1973-82 (age 70 now), wrote, “A beautifully written, meticulously researched slice of American History.” I am not compelled to believe that this was that meticulously researched. Which is sad, because I was so looking forward to this interesting story. In my opinion, this story might have been much better suited for a short story or novella, since nothing of true importance happens throughout this drug out novel. What do I always say? Tension. What does this story have nothing of? Tension. A 20, maybe even 30 page story would have been much more fitting than the superficial novel Smith creates in an attempt to bring back to life a piece of American History often forgotten.
I don’t think I would ever be coerced enough to pick up any of Smith’s other novels. This one was a boring (not tough) but long read. I couldn’t bring myself to pick up this novel for anything and when I finally did, I’d put it down in a matter of minutes to check facebook or browse tumblr. A good book would have me ignoring the technological, and regular, world.
Thanks for reading and make sure you stop by and check out my Facebook page. Keep up on my latest reviews and follow for other bookish posts! –https://www.facebook.com/dreamingthroughliterature
ms_aprilvincent's review against another edition
5.0
I didn't know the US government paid for WWI casualties' mothers to travel to their sons' graves in France. This is the story of four of those mothers.
More 4.5 than 5, because of an ending that seemed too pat
More 4.5 than 5, because of an ending that seemed too pat
cheryl1213's review against another edition
3.0
I never listed history as one of my favorite subjects largely because a poor memory for facts hindered my skills (I still rant about a Calculus test in HS that asked for memorized replies when I had managed to memorize half of the responses and knew how to derive the rest...that seemed reasonable to me and it balanced my strengths!). Still, I can't recall ever hearing about a federal government program that sent mothers (and wives too, but mothers are the focus here) overseas to see where children who had been killed in WWI (and later WWII) were buried (here, in France). It's a cool factoid to know.
Such a trip is the underlying setting of this book, opening with one woman receiving final notification of her impending voyage to her return. In the midst, we meet a group of thrown-together travelling companions including the primary protagonist from a small island in Maine very much feeling the Depression, an Irish immigrant working as a maid in Boston, a Jewish New Yorker, and an upper-crust New Englander. There's a fifth, but that takes some ironing out and the posse has a military escort and a nurse. The book deals with how the travelling group relates to each other and copes with an emotional journey. There's also a side story dealing with a reporter who was severely hurt in the war and now wears what sounds like a Phantom of the Opera mask but was the best potential option for covering burns and was painted to be as realistic as possible.
In general, this just hit me in the so-so ("meh" is a touch too negative") range. It was an easy read and I enjoyed the concept as well as the mini-history lesson. It is interesting to consider how such a random group would be pulled together and apart by such an emotional journey (and there's some hints to the role of the media that would certainly impact the trips today!). However, I just wasn't overly drawn in to the book or the style. It kind of hits me like Olive Garden...I can enjoy Olive Garden and believe it has its place, but it is not "real" Italian....the book held my attention, but didn't truly sustain me. Historical fiction meets chick lit (and, again, I DO enjoy chick lit time to time). Could be an easy train/plane read.
Three stars. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC copy (though it took a little extra time to get to on my shelf!)
Such a trip is the underlying setting of this book, opening with one woman receiving final notification of her impending voyage to her return. In the midst, we meet a group of thrown-together travelling companions including the primary protagonist from a small island in Maine very much feeling the Depression, an Irish immigrant working as a maid in Boston, a Jewish New Yorker, and an upper-crust New Englander. There's a fifth, but that takes some ironing out and the posse has a military escort and a nurse. The book deals with how the travelling group relates to each other and copes with an emotional journey. There's also a side story dealing with a reporter who was severely hurt in the war and now wears what sounds like a Phantom of the Opera mask but was the best potential option for covering burns and was painted to be as realistic as possible.
In general, this just hit me in the so-so ("meh" is a touch too negative") range. It was an easy read and I enjoyed the concept as well as the mini-history lesson. It is interesting to consider how such a random group would be pulled together and apart by such an emotional journey (and there's some hints to the role of the media that would certainly impact the trips today!). However, I just wasn't overly drawn in to the book or the style. It kind of hits me like Olive Garden...I can enjoy Olive Garden and believe it has its place, but it is not "real" Italian....the book held my attention, but didn't truly sustain me. Historical fiction meets chick lit (and, again, I DO enjoy chick lit time to time). Could be an easy train/plane read.
Three stars. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC copy (though it took a little extra time to get to on my shelf!)
cricket771's review against another edition
3.0
I find myself drawn more and more to historical fiction because it cultivates my love and learning and a good story. I was not aware of the US Gold Star Mother pilgrimages prior to reading this book.
mskristi4's review against another edition
4.0
The intriguing story about a Maine woman who travels to France to see the grave of her beloved son after World War I.
I ended up with this book when my mom passed it on after it was recommended to her; after which she read it, my grandpa read it in a day, and my older sister also read it. It has also become the required first book for my book club next year on my recommendation.
I ended up with this book when my mom passed it on after it was recommended to her; after which she read it, my grandpa read it in a day, and my older sister also read it. It has also become the required first book for my book club next year on my recommendation.
i_hype_romance's review
4.0
My fascination with this book surprised me. It is a wonderful mix tragedy and elegy. It serves as a tribute to the women it represents, and manages to chastise us for the folly of war. The characters are intricately woven, as are their relationships with one another. A very enlightening, yet sombering, escape for a snow-laden afternoon.