The Seamstress - Frances de Pontes Peebles

"As seamstresses, the young sisters Emília and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, how to mend, and how to conceal. These are useful skills in the lawless backcountry of Brazil, where ruthless land barons called "colonels" feud with bands of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the cross fire.

Emília, whose knowledge of the world comes from fashion magazines and romance novels, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to a big city. Luzia also longs to escape their little town, where residents view her with suspicion and pity. Scarred by a childhood accident that left her with a deformed arm, the quick-tempered Luzia finds her escape in sewing and in secret prayers to the saints she believes once saved her life.

But when Luzia is abducted by a group of cangaceiros led by the infamous Hawk, the sisters' quiet lives diverge in ways they never imagined. Emília stumbles into marriage with Degas Coelho, the son of a doctor whose wealth is rivaled only by his political power.

In Recife, Emília must hide any connection to her increasingly notorious sister. As she learns to navigate the treacherous waters of Brazilian high society, Emília sees the country split apart after a bitter presidential election. Political feuds extend to the countryside, where Luzia and the Hawk are forced to make unexpected alliances and endure betrayals that threaten to break the cangaceiros apart. But Luzia will overcome time and distance to entrust her sister with a great secret—one Emília vows to keep. And when Luzia's life is threatened, Emília will risk everything to save her."

Hi Guys, really sorry there has been a long gap between reviews. The whole Corona thing threw me for a loop. But we will now be back to normal regular reviews. 

This book is well-written if overly long, tending toward a slight bloat of historical fact. Though the story is interesting even compelling, it's also dark, tragic, and contains a lot of gruesome, brutal violence.

The story and the characters, especially the two sisters, but other side characters too, where highly interesting. I wanted to know more about them and fully understand what they where going through, their motives and backstories. But despite the incredibly long nature of this book, here is a strange and unexplainable distance between the characters and the readers. I didn't feel like I knew any of them, even after the book had ended. I found it difficult to really connect with the characters.

I wasn't especially fond of Emilia or Luzia and I think part of that came from the split perspective nature of the book, wherein it switched from Luzia to Emilia and back again. I felt as though every time I was just warming up to one of them, the book split and went to the other and by the time I returned to the first I had also returned to a state of not caring. So in the end it didn't really matter what happened to them in my mind. I was also a bit frustrated we didn't get to learn more about some of the secondary characters like Antonio and Degas. However, ultimately, the biggest problem I had with this book was the there was really almost no action after Luzia's "life change" (to keep it spoiler free) in the early first quarter/third of the book. I kept on going, hoping something would happen to hold my interest or endear the characters to me but I just never got there.

I really enjoyed the setting of 1920's, 30's Brazil. It is something I am not knowledgeable about at all and was excited to learn more about. You do get a very good idea and feel for the time and place. I would say that was my favourite point of the book. I was truly impressed by the knowledge of the history and culture of 1920's/1930's era Brazil that the author presented. 

A quick note about the writing style, I enjoyed it but didn't find it anything to write home about. There where a few sentences and phrases that really stood out but most of the time it was pretty basic. Just an overly long book. Would have been better, with more emotional punch, if the word count had been reduced. 

Age Rating 14+. Some quite brutal violence, marital rape, threat of sexual assault. 

The Seven Sisters (#1) - Lucinda Riley

"Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.

Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again."

I was recommended this book by my Grandmother. If that doesn't tell my enough about this book already... 

To be honest while I was reading this, it didn't feel that terrible. I was reading very quickly however, and in a bit of a pain fog. Only when I finally put the book down and thought about the plot did I realise it had some significant problems. 

Firstly lets talk about the writing. It was poor, trite and awfully sentimental. The characters spoke to one another as if they barely knew one another, despite being a family. Then Maia talks to another character, an actual stranger like she has known him all her life. I know this is not impossible but who wants to read it? The characters themselves are limp and unlikable and the stilted writing for the characterisation didn't help. Our heroine was wet, self-pitying, unexplainable dowdy and thoroughly unrelatable. Izabela was boring and lacked any personality other than pining. 
The plot itself was strange and improbable. Pa Salt collecting baby girls from around the world to be brought up in, I kid you not, "Atlantis." I mean... if that doesn't raise alarm bells.

The plot also set out several false trails that were never developed or explained. The mystery of Pa Salt is started but never again hinted or delved into. How did Pa Salt know about the secret romance? What happened to the young boy Izabela rescued? Why did Pa Salt adopt Maia if he knew her grandparents wanted to adopt her? However, if you think I am going to read 5 more books of bad romance and historical fiction to find out, you are sorely mistaken. 

Romance plays a large role in this story, way more than I was expecting, but I unfortunately found the romances of the past and the present to be weak. Izabela and Laurent told me they were in love, rather than allow me to feel much of anything. I don't know why or how they are in love and they never act like they are in love other than having sex. Maia and Floriano have the most stilted conversations, I never saw what made him appeal to her at all or vice versa. It was also very much insta-love, after only know each other for 3 weeks you want to live together? The love story of the past was also something that I had read numerous times before, absolutely no originality or anything even remotely new. 

I did like the setting of 1920's Rio however as it is something I know nothing about. The settings felt rich, fully fleshed out and was actually a redeeming aspect. 

Overall, this book is overly sentimental and trite. The writing was okay in description, terrible in emotion and characterisation. The plot was obscure and unoriginal, the characters bland and weak. 

Age Rating 16+ Izabela is raped by her husband repeatedly. Sex is described and heavily alluded to.