The Book Vipers discussion

The is the thread for Falling in Honey

I have just ordered this from the library and hope that it arrives soon!

My copy arrived this morning. I will probably read whilst on holiday in a couple of weeks, so will check back in later in the month. It is also one of my Summer Travel challenge books.

Finished this today. Is anyone else reading it?

It sounds interesting, but I'm afraid I won't have time to read it this month. I may catch up with it later.

I'm about halfway, Paul.

As a great Grecophile (well, Crete to be precise), I recognise much of what she's talking about. The sun, the sea, the warmth of the people, the food and the simple life that is still embraced by so many Greeks. For that reason I'm enjoying it greatly.

However, I don't find her style very engaging, nor her personality. In fact I want to slap her and tell her to stop being such a self-absorbed weed. And whilst I don't blame her for going to Tilos (who would!) name me one boss that would agree to remote working, on a tiny Greek island, because some random bloke has dumped you after a year ! Puhleeeese!

Susan I so agree!! I enjoyed the bits where she was in Greece but the self absorbed stuff just got on my nerves...way too much navel gazing and worst of all sharing it with the rest of us!

Still it has made me consider what I do when I get long service leave...I'm planning a bit of island hopping around Greece but I won't contemplate my life or relationships and I promise I won't write about it!

Finished it now.

It's made me very homesick for Crete. I so recognise the smell of the wild herbs; the feel of the sun on my back; the warm water lapping over me and those lovely, lovely kind and generous people who appear with eggs or oil or honey or vegetables, all produced from their own land - so I thank her for bringing me that, and wish her well.

However, her love life is seriously DULL. If she erased the word 'desperate' which is clearly tattooed across her forehead, she might just meet the right one, but till then ....!

Ooooh Linda, how wonderful - could life get better than hopping round the Greek Islands? I don't think so:)

I have read about a quarter of this, and while I feel it is a nice antidote for the traumatic "Kevin" read, I agree with the criticisms above. I have read quite a few French expat/travel books, and feel like this is more of the same, except in Greece.

I don't know much about Greece so some of it is of interest, but not necessarily culturally eye-opening. I suspected that Athens was suffocating and noisy; I could have imagined that Greek islands were strikingly beautiful, sometimes overrun by tourists, yet usually charming.

I think I will finish it because it's an okay summer read, but I'm hoping the plot will pick up because the descriptions are far from arresting.

I finished this last night and was never able to get into it. By the end I could have cared less about the vapid main character, and even the island started to grate on me! How many times can one mention feta, honey, yoghurt and goats in one book? It will be interesting to see if anyone else has this lukewarm reaction...

I am a big travel book reader, and whilst this was not an outstanding book, I quite enjoyed it. It only took a day to read too.

As the book isn't available in the vienna library system (which is surprisingly well stocked!) I decided not to pay the rather pricey 6.99 for a kindle book. When you can access so many fantastic - and not so fantastic books - for free or even just a couple of pounds, it has to be a worthwhile read for me to spend over 5 quid on a book. From these comments, maybe I made the right decision but i would maybe give it a go if I found it in a library back home.

I think your decision is probably right - unless you happen to have a passion for Greece.

It's an easy read though, Charlotte, and if you can stave off the waves of boredom around the author's crucifyingly dull love life, it goes well with a beach / pool, some sunshine and a gin & tonic:))

I guess as an expat having lived in France for 20+ years, I am especially sensitive to expat books that I find reductive. (To me this is more the expat genre than travel genre, although there is some of each.)

I hope this won't be considered a spoiler, but don't miss the recipes at the end! They looked pretty good...

Ugh. I am so bored by this book...

It makes me wonder why she felt compelled to write a memoir. I don't find her life the slightest bit interesting. I mean, if I knew her, of course I would care and be emotionally invested in her life. But the fact remains that I don't know her. Therefore, I'm having a hard time getting interested.

The picture she paints of Greece is nice, but I could just as easily look at an actual picture. I might enjoy it more.

Annemarie wrote: "Ugh. I am so bored by this book...

It makes me wonder why she felt compelled to write a memoir. I don't find her life the slightest bit interesting. I mean, if I knew her, of course I would care ..."

I quite agree with you -- see my comments above. I think her main problem was not being able to create compelling characters, though, as the story could have been interesting.

I have finally started this and so far, just fine as a light easy read. I've read 130 pages whilst also doing several other things and compared to my last book which required brain power, I"m quite relieved that this one does not!

I rather enjoyed this as a light summery read, though the main character is rather annoying in her naivety, or perhaps she just is very unlucky! But loved the descriptions of a Greek Island and its inhabitants and history.

I think you read it in the right spirit, Jo. Our protagonist is seriously boring,and has a deeply dull love life - but Greece and the Greek people come over so strongly - and that's what kept me with it. Aaaaah Greece - how I miss it :))

Susan - in one! I am with you!