A review by sarahrara
The Butterfly Room by Lucinda Riley
3.0
This was a somewhat frustrating listening experience. It was partly due to the narrator, who had an unmistakable "old lady" voice. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but as the book starts out being narrated in first person by a young girl, the voice felt incongruous. It only really fit old Posey, and there's a bunch of other POVs in the story. I feel like it was at least part of the reason I had trouble getting into it, though she narrates the story well.
However, the main issue for me was the story itself, and to some extent the way in which it was told. It strikes me that a lot of (female?) writers writing mystery or historical fiction tend to base their stories too strongly around the idea of there being a secret that somebody cannot tell somebody else, but in the end the story doesn't really support it. In this case I can kind of see why the "main" secret was kept for so long, but there's also a couple of side secrets complicating other relationships, and it frustrated me to no end that people didn't just tell the truth rather than ruin their lives over some misunderstanding. It doesn't feel genuine.
Also, I would say this is mainly a romance (or indeed several romances), and it suffers from the same thing they all suffer from: people fall in love within 5 minutes and then have to spend the rest of their lives together. I know literally no-one who has gone on one or two dates with someone and then been irrevocably in love. Why can it not be built more gradually and realistically?
In short, I found it difficult to connect with the characters. There was also an issue that Nick brought up with Posey towards the end, about something that bothered him in his childhood (I will refrain from saying what it was to avoid spoilers), and it was glossed over entirely too quickly for my comfort.
My favourite parts were Posey's university days (for some reason I always enjoy reading about people attending prestigious universities in the past) and Amy's story arc.
Having devoured the Seven Sisters series, I can vouch for Riley being a great storyteller (and a prolific one, who does insane amounts of research), but this one just fell a bit flat for me.
However, the main issue for me was the story itself, and to some extent the way in which it was told. It strikes me that a lot of (female?) writers writing mystery or historical fiction tend to base their stories too strongly around the idea of there being a secret that somebody cannot tell somebody else, but in the end the story doesn't really support it. In this case I can kind of see why the "main" secret was kept for so long, but there's also a couple of side secrets complicating other relationships, and it frustrated me to no end that people didn't just tell the truth rather than ruin their lives over some misunderstanding. It doesn't feel genuine.
Also, I would say this is mainly a romance (or indeed several romances), and it suffers from the same thing they all suffer from: people fall in love within 5 minutes and then have to spend the rest of their lives together. I know literally no-one who has gone on one or two dates with someone and then been irrevocably in love. Why can it not be built more gradually and realistically?
In short, I found it difficult to connect with the characters. There was also an issue that Nick brought up with Posey towards the end, about something that bothered him in his childhood (I will refrain from saying what it was to avoid spoilers), and it was glossed over entirely too quickly for my comfort.
My favourite parts were Posey's university days (for some reason I always enjoy reading about people attending prestigious universities in the past) and Amy's story arc.
Having devoured the Seven Sisters series, I can vouch for Riley being a great storyteller (and a prolific one, who does insane amounts of research), but this one just fell a bit flat for me.