Reviews

Where the Light Falls by Allison Pataki

wadezone's review

4.0

A great story related to the French Revolutionary and Napoleon and how bloody the war was. The fiction characters and events were very interesting. and kept me engaged.

mnm16's review

challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

badmaamajaama's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

ashlynne23's review

adventurous sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

pam2375's review

4.0

This book was very good. I loved reading about the lives of our 4 protags along with the gruesome details of The French Revolution and more. If you are interested in French history, this is the book for you. This was an excellent historical fiction with lots of detail without being overdone.

Thanks to netgalley and Dial Press for this advanced readers copy.

dotreadsbooks's review against another edition

3.0

I waited for this book on hold through my e-library forever! My star rating might be a little low only because the anticipation did not quite meet my expectation. My main goal in reading this was to learn more about the French Revolution. My only frame of reference comes from watching "The Scarlet Pimpernel" when I was a kid. It was pretty intense and left me scared for life with the images of French aristocrats being beheaded by a guillotine. So then after reading through the Outlander series which takes place a few decades before this but is mentioned in the series, my interest was sparked. Then, after studying the American Revolution while homeschooling my kids I was struck by the realization that the USA ignited a worldwide revolution. Anyway...that's why I wanted to read this and I achieved my goal and learned a lot about the history of the French Revolution. The fictional side of the story was good but not great. I imagine it was probably pretty realistic though.

janmaj's review

2.25

Read this to learn about the French Revolution before a trip to Paris.  I knew very little, but while reading this book I sensed that this wasn’t going to be especially realistic.  One dimensional characters and dialog that seemed to be modernized. Skimmed the last half of the book. 

smpaul's review

informative reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

book_worm_13's review

2.0

Seriously had to stop reading it at page 45.

byashleylamar's review

2.0

After reading "The Traitor's Wife" by Allison Pataki I became a huge fan. I loved her take on Benedict Arnold and the circumstances around him, his wife, and his treachery against the United States. I forgave the minor historical inaccuracies in the book because I loved her storytelling. I forgave her again in The Accidental Empress about Empress Sisi despite the historical inaccuracies being even more severe but my forgiveness has run out and all I can say about Where the Light Falls is that it's a travesty of historical fiction. If Pataki sold her books as "alternative historical fiction" I'd be more lenient but the historical inaccuracies are so severe I can't overlook them.

The historical inaccuracy that bothered me the most was

Spoiler

the beheading of General Christophe Kellermann. Granted, she addressed it in the author's notes at the end of the book while insisting it was critical to the story but it wasn't. A good author could have found dozens of other ways to move the plot along without doing that and violating history. It was ridiculous but the fact that she did address that one thing is the only reason I gave this book 2-stars instead of 1-star.

I also had issues with the war and fight scenes. They were so bad! I mean, so bad. I could tell they were trying to create the scene but they were painful to read. In fact, they would a great example of what NOT to do when writing action scenes. Common advice says to "show, don't tell" the reader but those scenes were all tell, tell, tell and they were awful. By halfway through the book I was skimming them to get to the dialog although, in this book, that wasn't much better.

The female leads (Marie and Sophie) were boring as cardboard and served no purpose other than to move along the storylines of their male counterparts (Jean-Luc and Andre). The author notes talk about the 4 major leads but really, it was the men that drove the story. Both Marie and Sophie had so much potential for significance in the book but the only real focus on either of them was how beautiful and supportive they were. Ugh. In the end we learn that Marie was

Spoiler

the writer Persephone that was writing the political pamphlets Jean-Luc was so fond of reading

but it was revealed in the very last pages in a throwaway sentence a reader could easily overlook. That should have been HUGE and could have (should have) been revealed to the reader much earlier.

I'm not saying I'm no longer a fan of Pataki but I am saying I'll be far more hesitant about her next books and I know now not to expect historical accuracy from her or her brother (co-writer on this novel). I'm so sorely disappointed.