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Tracy Chevalier – Girl with a Pearl Earring | Review

Title: Girl with a Pearl Earring

Author: Tracy Chevalier

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 266

Rating: 5*/5

Tracy Chevalier – Girl with a Pearl Earring

I read this book because I watch a YouTuber called Hannah Tay who has an Etsy store where you can buy a mystery package of one of her favourite books. I bought it, and this is the book that arrived. And the good news is that I loved it.

This is historical fiction, except it’s written in a way that could appeal to everyone and so it’s not just for people who only read historical reads. It’s also a great read for people who are into art because it features Johannes Vermeer as a character, although one of my favourite elements of the story was the fact that it was sent in Holland.

The story itself follows a girl called Griet, the penniless daughter of a blind tile maker who’s taken on to provide household help for the painter, and we get to watch as her role gets more and more important until it all comes to a head. But I don’t want to say too much about it because I don’t want to spoil the plot.

Suffice to say that this was a beautifully written book with fantastic pacing that was just a genuine pleasure to read, and it’s easily accessible no matter what kind of reader you are. I was surprised by it, and I really couldn’t fault it. It’s just a great concept that’s well executed, and it just has that feel of a classic story. Read it.

Tracy Chevalier

Click here to buy Girl with a Pearl Earring.

Jeffrey Archer – Be Careful What You Wish For | Review

Title: Be Careful What You Wish For

Author: Jeffrey Archer

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 466

Rating: 8/10

Jeffrey Archer – Be Careful What You Wish For

Disclaimer: While I aim to be unbiased, I received a copy of this for free to review.

This is a bit of an odd one, because although I was sent this book for free to review, it wasn’t from the author or one of his publishers. In fact, it was sent to me by StressFreePrint as part of their stress free reading package, and so the same book went out to a bunch of different bloggers who’ll all be reviewing it on their sites.

Now, I’m not a fan of Jeffrey Archer, but I base that entirely upon his history and personality. It turns out that his writing is impressive, and I begrudgingly admit that I really enjoyed reading it, despite that it’s the fourth volume in a series, the Clifton Chronicles. It’s refreshing to read a book from a series that d0esn’t rely on the reader having read the other volumes, and so despite the fact that many of the members of the two family trees have appeared in previous novels, I settled in to it easily.

In fact, despite the fact that it’s largely set in the sixties, the setting of the novel is easy to understand, and you can really picture yourself there in London or in Belfast as a great cruise ship is being built. The building of the ship itself is central to the story-line, although the highlights are the deaths which are scattered throughout the novel, masterminded by Don Pedro Martinez, the novel’s antagonist.

Jeffrey Archer

In fact, I was surprised that so many characters which are central to the story-line ended up dying – if this is part of the series, surely Archer isn’t going to have many characters left for the next novel, unless he’s planning on introducing some new ones. That said, it made it genuinely exciting and the constant twists and turns left you gagging for more, and I’ve gone from being a ‘hater‘ to, at the very least, a mild admirer. I wouldn’t mind reading more of the series, so perhaps I should go back and start at the beginning, to see what I’ve missed.

So all in all, I’m almost ashamed to say that Jeffrey Archer has impressed me, and I’m not a convert – his writing is pretty good, and although my feelings about him as a person haven’t necessarily changed, I do have a newfound respect for him. I’ll be interested to see how the Clifton Chronicles series continues to evolve over time, and to see what in the world could possibly happen next after the cliffhanger ending in this book. Oh dear, did I forget to mention that?