Customer Reviews

Place of Peace

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I wanted to like this book, but I was completely distracted by unlikable characters and a lack of cohesion to the story.

The story starts with Genny Romayne being annoyed with her family, and the demands they place on her. She sees herself as a commodity, and not a loved member of the family. So she does what anyone would do... runs away from home. With a great deal of unbelievable coincidences and a few well-placed lies, she becomes a nurse/receptionist/bookkeeper for a respected doctor. Although she has no training as a nurse, she quickly finds herself a part of the household. When the doctor, Ethan Carey, discovers the truth, they decide to run away and get married. It is not all wedded bliss, but rather than confront the problems, first Genny, and then Ethan decide running away is the best course of action... ending up in Memphis in the middle of the yellow fever epidemic.

Genny is an unlikeable character. She is selfish, lying and manipulating things to suit her fancy. At one point, the author goes into great detail about how Genny wishes to manipulate Ethan. Her solution to any problem is not to solve it, but rather to run away. She is childish, and doesn't grow up until the last fifty pages or so. At that point, it felt required rather than natural. Ethan himself isn't above avoiding things, and his love for Genny seems superficial. He struggles with dark demons of his past thanks to a faithless fiancee and his participation in the War of Northern Aggression.He doesn't grow and change as a character until the last handful of pages, and the change is rather inexplicable. At several points throughout the story I felt the desperate wish to shake some sense into the characters. No one had any depth.

The constant changes of setting were abrupt, and interrupted the flow of the story. There were parts that went right from "I'm going away" to "I've been here for a month and am on a first name basis with everyone". Time kept passing, and nothing happened. People weren't met, they were just suddenly best friends or beaus... there was a lot of telling what happened rather than have it happen. It was frustrating that there was so little to keep the story moving forward. The few attempts at suspense were lackluster and felt out of place.

As much as I wanted to enjoy this story, I found myself deeply disappointed in the writing.

This is another Christian fiction book (although this is not apparent until about half-way through as in "Woman of Sin") by Debra Diaz. Complex characters and good historical detail. Not for the queasy when you get into the part about the epidemic. I have read all the books by this author and they are highly recommended.

The character of Genny Romaine is reminiscent of Scarlett O'Hara; vain and self-centered. Being somewhat more independent and willful than most women were "allowed" to be during that time period, she leaves home to avoid an arranged, loveless marriage.

Arriving in Nashville, she accepts an offer of employment from the eligible Dr. Ethan Carey, as his receptionist/nursing assistant - a dubious position in which many untrained women found themselves both during and after the Civil War.

The story weaves together the tortured past of Dr. Carey, and the personal struggles of Genny, who develop a troubled romance. Genny undergoes subtle, badly needed, character changes which culminate in following the doctor to Memphis, during the height of the yellow fever epidemic.

The reader travels the post war roads of Tennessee eventually witnessing the aftermath of the war, in the advent of the yellow fever epidemic. We experience the sights, sounds and smells of this horrfying time period as seen through the relatively innocent eyes of Genny, who finds herself in a situation that she cannot manipulate with her beauty or resourcefulness.

The book reveals only gray shadows of the former South and concentrates on the events of a country turned inside out. It explores the spiritual and emotional crises of its leading characters and makes us thankful that our nation survived that time period.

The one thing that could, in my opinion, have been different in this story, would have been to lengthen the events at the end of the novel, as it seemed to end a little too quickly.

Overall, I thought it to be an entertaining combination of southern charm and some darker elements of history.

This story will make you laugh, cry and love. It is well written and told. You will not want to stop reading once you have started. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The chacters come alive and make you wish you could help them on their journey.

quite a few chapters were boring and a lot of "fillers" that were not necesary & to me irrelevant.With that being said, I still enjoyed the book and believe it is very relevant to the times now with natural disasters happening all over and people losing faith

This book is Historical Christian Fiction. I enjoyed it. The book description on Amazon really only sums up the first part of the book though. The other part of the book is actually more about the yellow fever outbreak in Memphis in 1878 - something which I had never heard much about, so it was interesting to learn more about that and it inspired me to read additional information on that subject.

I really enjoyed this story. It was easy to follow and I looked forward to curling up with my Kindle at night till I had finished the book. I had no idea of the serious yellow fever epidemic in Memphis after the Civil War. I enjoy history so that was a plus for me. The author did a good job of writing this book; however, I wished there would have been more of an ending. I also did not understand the supposed hatred Geoff felt for Ethan all those years. I kind of felt like that just came out of left field. Also, I wish that the character Valerie would have been given a bit more attention. I would recommend this book to teenage readers and up. The romance in it was not smutty. Good for history buffs too!

From the first word, book did not hold my interest, causing me to skip ahead. It only got worse. I got the book as free ebook..I guess you get what you pay for.

Slow to start but then you do get into the plot. Very predictable and the ending seemed abrupt. Other reviewers have covered what I found. I did not mind reading the book I just expected a bit more explaining the title!

This is a story of a disease~ridden city, Memphis, Tennessee, in the year 1878. Genny has run away to Nashville, Tennessee, my hometown, to escape pressure from her family to send her into an unwanted marriage. A marriage for love, & subsequent events lead her to Memphis. So much of a vivid picture is painted, with particular attention paid to the details of the disease & the effect it has not only on the people but the city itself. It is a romance with a lot of tragedy & heartache in tow. Not for the faint of heart.