A review by shahnamarie
The Way of Beauty by Camille Di Maio
5.0
This is my first Camille Di Maio book but I've been following her for quite some time on my bookstagram account. She's super friendly and I've been looking forward to reading her upcoming book and I'm so glad that I did. I'll be picking up the other two now as soon as possible. I always find my favorites in Historical Fiction and this is no different. It'll be a book I think about for a long time and although I didn't shed tears like many other historical fiction books, I closed the book so satisfied, happy, and overwhelmed with a feeling of warmth for not only the characters but the history that the characters had saved in the future.
I gravitate towards historical fiction and this is my first historical fiction centering around the women's suffrage movement. I also was connected regionally living so close to NYC. Lastly, I was connected to the German heritage expressed in words and and customs as my grandpa came over from Germany after WWII. I loved the setting and plot.
The book is beautifully written. Nothing goes without beautiful yet useful descriptions that help paint a picture better than many other books I've recently read. It's also written so well that the characters are lifelike. Part one is Vera's story. I had already felt like I knew and understood Vera in a short two pages even when this portion highlighted her life only as a child first arriving in NYC. As her story continues, the character development is wonderful. You really get to know her, Angelo, and Pearl. I felt for Vera the entire time. Her love for Angelo is so genuine and I felt so sad for her while reading even the happiest of parts between her and him.
All the feels I've had while reading this have been amazing. It's so great to continue to feel these connections. I also found it so interesting that in the first couple pages of her section, she mentioned how Germans and Italians and Spaniards were starting to mix. It is this exact time period where my grandfather sailed over from Germany and married my Italian grandmother. And then their son, my father, married my Spanish mother. Being from immigrant families (on both sides) this book really spoke to me. Pearl's dedication not only helped women get votes but those who were not born here in America.
I absolutely adored the first section of the book highlighting Vera so I was very excited to jump into Alice's story but also very sad that I had to leave Vera behind. I had so many questions. The great thing is that those questions are answered as Vera and Alice's story obviously intertwine as a mother and daughter pair.
As for the second section, I was immediately hooked on Alice and Emmett. He was so sincere and his actions when we first met him made me feel butterflies for Alice. However, as the story continued, I began to favor him less. There wasn't anything specifically wrong with him but I felt his courting of Alice was confusing, kind of selfish, and cold. He also was a little strange for my liking; however all of this is for good reason and when his story continued to unfold, he redeemed himself. With that being said, I still favored William much more. He was sweet and always seemed to have Alice's best interests in mind. His relationship with Vera and Angelo was also sweet and although this dynamic and situation with Vera and Angelo was much different than Emmett 's, for obvious reasons, it was more appealing to me. William's character embodied unconditional love which I was drawn to.
As the book dwindled down, I began to feel like I was going to have unanswered questions and be given a rushed ending but that wasn't the case. Everything comes around full circle and questions are answered. The answers made me feel sad a little but happy as well as I felt like everything that occurred although unfortunate, was for the better.
Also, I'm sure that our author, Camille Di Maio may have already stumbled upon some requests to write a story about Libby and I'm jumping on that bandwagon! I think that would be most interesting as a sequel to the lineage of amazing women she comes from. And if there is never a sequel, I will be okay and will most likely find myself re-reading this beauty some day!
I highly highly recommend reading this book. Its entwined stories are beautiful while full of love and of the horrors of the past here in America. This is a story where you are truly connected to the characters and just don't want them to go away. I'm more than happy that I dove into this book when I did. It's a perfect beach read because you're more than invested and most likely won't shed any embarrassing tears. Maybe one or two but they can be easily hidden! Read it, you won't regret it!
I gravitate towards historical fiction and this is my first historical fiction centering around the women's suffrage movement. I also was connected regionally living so close to NYC. Lastly, I was connected to the German heritage expressed in words and and customs as my grandpa came over from Germany after WWII. I loved the setting and plot.
The book is beautifully written. Nothing goes without beautiful yet useful descriptions that help paint a picture better than many other books I've recently read. It's also written so well that the characters are lifelike. Part one is Vera's story. I had already felt like I knew and understood Vera in a short two pages even when this portion highlighted her life only as a child first arriving in NYC. As her story continues, the character development is wonderful. You really get to know her, Angelo, and Pearl. I felt for Vera the entire time. Her love for Angelo is so genuine and I felt so sad for her while reading even the happiest of parts between her and him.
All the feels I've had while reading this have been amazing. It's so great to continue to feel these connections. I also found it so interesting that in the first couple pages of her section, she mentioned how Germans and Italians and Spaniards were starting to mix. It is this exact time period where my grandfather sailed over from Germany and married my Italian grandmother. And then their son, my father, married my Spanish mother. Being from immigrant families (on both sides) this book really spoke to me. Pearl's dedication not only helped women get votes but those who were not born here in America.
I absolutely adored the first section of the book highlighting Vera so I was very excited to jump into Alice's story but also very sad that I had to leave Vera behind. I had so many questions. The great thing is that those questions are answered as Vera and Alice's story obviously intertwine as a mother and daughter pair.
As for the second section, I was immediately hooked on Alice and Emmett. He was so sincere and his actions when we first met him made me feel butterflies for Alice. However, as the story continued, I began to favor him less. There wasn't anything specifically wrong with him but I felt his courting of Alice was confusing, kind of selfish, and cold. He also was a little strange for my liking; however all of this is for good reason and when his story continued to unfold, he redeemed himself. With that being said, I still favored William much more. He was sweet and always seemed to have Alice's best interests in mind. His relationship with Vera and Angelo was also sweet and although this dynamic and situation with Vera and Angelo was much different than Emmett 's, for obvious reasons, it was more appealing to me. William's character embodied unconditional love which I was drawn to.
As the book dwindled down, I began to feel like I was going to have unanswered questions and be given a rushed ending but that wasn't the case. Everything comes around full circle and questions are answered. The answers made me feel sad a little but happy as well as I felt like everything that occurred although unfortunate, was for the better.
Also, I'm sure that our author, Camille Di Maio may have already stumbled upon some requests to write a story about Libby and I'm jumping on that bandwagon! I think that would be most interesting as a sequel to the lineage of amazing women she comes from. And if there is never a sequel, I will be okay and will most likely find myself re-reading this beauty some day!
I highly highly recommend reading this book. Its entwined stories are beautiful while full of love and of the horrors of the past here in America. This is a story where you are truly connected to the characters and just don't want them to go away. I'm more than happy that I dove into this book when I did. It's a perfect beach read because you're more than invested and most likely won't shed any embarrassing tears. Maybe one or two but they can be easily hidden! Read it, you won't regret it!