At the Water's Edge in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Feb 25, 2015 Nadine in NY Jones rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction, romance, era-world-war-2, historical-romance, historical-fiction, scotland, r2015-in-2015, womens-day

This was a good book, but it was never a great book. At its heart, it's a romance, with a touch of magical realism - and I love romances, I read a lot of them, and it's possible that if I read this expecting it to be a romance I would be rating it higher. But I didn't, and so I'm rating it the way I'm rating it.

My main problem with this story: I hated the main characters. We're supposed to dislike Ellis and, to a lesser extent, Hank, but I don't think we're supposed to dislike Maddie, our protag This was a good book, but it was never a great book. At its heart, it's a romance, with a touch of magical realism - and I love romances, I read a lot of them, and it's possible that if I read this expecting it to be a romance I would be rating it higher. But I didn't, and so I'm rating it the way I'm rating it.

My main problem with this story: I hated the main characters. We're supposed to dislike Ellis and, to a lesser extent, Hank, but I don't think we're supposed to dislike Maddie, our protagonist. But oh, I did dislike Maddie! A lot. Maddie just sort of floated through life, she never took action or made a decision, things just ... happened to her ... and she passively reacted. Granted, she becomes less passive in the second half, but by that point, I was so worked up about how she put NO thought into anything, just floated along and allowed herself to be dragged into one inane situation after another ... And then when she DOES start to take some action of her own, I didn't always think those acts were very well thought out either. (Okay, fair enough, a person who never thinks for herself will make a few stupid decisions as she practices thinking for herself.) So, fine, this was GREAT character development, you really do see Maddie change. But I still disliked her, and I didn't understand what Angus saw in her, other than we are told she is beautiful. And I was disappointed that the plot turned out to be the romance between Maddie and Angus (there was even the classic epilogue, (view spoiler)). So, initial character: grade F, hated her. Character development: grade A, excellently depicted change. Overall: grade C, because while I could see that Maddie's situation sucked, I couldn't see what motivated her to get a fucking grip and take charge. Was it the awful boat ride? the nasty things Ellis said? the beautiful blue eyes of the hotel manager?

While I liked the supporting characters, Anna and Meg, a lot, I couldn't really tell them apart. I think they were supposed to be two very different people. But other than Meg working one shift (and living in the hotel) and Anna working the other shift (and I just finished the book last night but already I can't remember which woman worked which shift), they were identical.

Angus, a critical character, central to everyone else's character development, remained a cypher. He's brave, he suffered tragedy, he performs noble deeds, he has blue eyes. Oh, and he has an awesome dog (a deerhound, I think).

The background: Scotland during WWII, was pretty well described. I had a sense of place. (Not a STRONG sense of place - this could have been better, if it was important.) I enjoyed the Loch Ness monster real-or-not story and how it was handled.

The ending was a bit too tidy, though it was better than some of the other endings I envisioned as I was reading and wondering how this could possibly be resolved. ...more

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Mar 04, 2016 Courtney rated it liked it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 10, 2017 Shauna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: book-club-suggestions, found-it-on-a-free-bookshelf

I liked it. The writer has a good sense of when to dwell on a subject and when to let it go. The characters do what they are supposed to do. I don't know if you would call this historical fiction, mystery, science fiction, or self awareness. I will give the spoiler that victims of domestic violence may be shaken by some of the images in this book. It's not a book for the innocent or young. ...more

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Feb 25, 2015 Heather Wescott rated it it was ok

I've been a fan of Sara Gruen since reading Water for Elephants. This book was a huge disappointment. I was tempted to stop reading but made myself finish hoping it would get better (it didn't). ...more

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Mar 18, 2015 Amy Richard added it · review of another edition

A great story!!!

To be honest, I wish this book was longer. The story itself was riveting but I feel the end was rushed. I admire this author a great deal. What a great writer!!!

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