REVIEW - The Life She Wanted

OVERVIEW

I had seen mention of this book somewhere and the cover looked familiar so I decided to read it. I attempted to request it from the library, but it wasn't available yet. In early July 2023, I posted about Amazon Prime First Reads which are FREE books! When I started searching my big backlog of First Reads books, I found The Life She Wanted. It was a First Reads choice for June 2023! YES!!!

This is my third book by Anita Abriel. She is a historical fiction writer who writes about very strong women in the early 20th century. This novel's time period is the late 1920s to the early 1930s which was a boom market for the stock market and then the Depression. What a dichotomy!

The main character is Pandora Carmichael who is the daughter of a tennis pro living on an estate in the Hudson Valley. She is "rich adjacent" not coming from wealth herself. She grows up among the uber-wealthy in the area and it is her life story that we uncover. 

REVIEW: 3.5 stars

Writing: 3.0 stars

The writing was just okay for me. The writing just wasn't beautiful enough for me. It may partly be due to the recent book hangovers I have from some exceptional novels recently!  

Character development: 3.0 stars

The character development was the weakest part of this novel. The only real character was Pandora Carmichael. Her character got weaker as the book progressed and I really disliked her by the end. There was a whole cast of characters but nothing was really learned about any of them in any great detail. There was a big plot twist that bothered me as it just didn't seem to belong in this story. 

Storyline: 3.0 stars

It started out interestingly as a rags-to-riches storyline, but it went all over the place. The ending did not do it for me. 

Book cover: 5.0 stars

Gorgeous!

Book title: 5.0 stars 

The title was perfect!

Gut feeling: 4.0 stars

I was disappointed as the book wasn't as strong as I expected. 

Suggestions: 

A name index as there were so many characters and places mentioned.

RECOMMEND

INFORMATION/LINKS

The Life She Wanted by Anita Abriel 

287 pages

3 days to read it (very easy read)

Read as an Amazon Prime First Reads

Release date of 07/01/2023

Anita Abriel website

Goodreads review

Lake Union Publishing

Happy reading,

Dorothea 💜