A review by whimsicallymeghan
Map of the Heart by Susan Wiggs

3.0

Camilla has gotten used to her quiet life in her small town. After the tragic death of her husband she’s decided to play life safe. But life can’t always be played safe and when the opportunity of a lifetime comes up to visit her father’s hometown in France, she has to take it, reluctantly. From there she finds out so much about her family’s past, which sparks new life for her. This was a moving and touching novel that was fast paced, easy to read and easy to follow. The reader thoroughly enjoyed their read of this, but it didn’t wow them in any sort of way. The romance plot the reader saw coming from the first couple pages and as much as it was sweet, it was really predictable what it was trying to do. The plots that were supposed to be surprising or shocking, didn’t feel like they were worth the shock value the author was going for. The reader liked that the reactions to the shocking plots were met with love and admiration, because it could have easily gone the other way. This novel had so many elements to it, which was good because it did keep things moving and this could have gotten boring fast without them. Everything came together and played out well, but it also felt so neat and tidy; like everything was easily fixed or cured because they took a summer trip to France. The characters were really well created; the reader enjoyed reading about them because they had such deep roots and were developed really well. They had a lot of character to them, even the secondary ones, and there were a lot of them, were memorable in small ways. Characters who have deep pasts with a lot of passions and hobbies always stand out among the rest. In the end, this was well written with really good characters. If you’re looking for a quick, getaway type novel with cute towns and villages and endearing love stories, this is the read for you.