Customer Reviews

Sea of Lost Love: A Novel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Sea of Lost Love is an amazing book. I randomly shuffled through an 'end of the year sale' bin at a local book store and was pleasantly surprised. The author describes everything in so perfect of detail it doesn't seem like you're there, you really are. I absolutely loved how she described Italy. Also, her characters are the most developed I've seen and are so complex on many levels. Santa Montefiore is an amazing writer and I am definitely going to read her other works in the future. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a mystery along with romance.

Slow, boring story. The author has too many trivial descriptions of what several characters are doing. This does not develop any reader interest in any of them. The story line is not new, but rather predictable. (father disappears, makes it look like he drowned at sea, his poor, pouting wife feels dejected, their daughter chances to meet the other wife, but at first believes it is the father's business partner's wife... blahblahblah) I felt too many of the characters were flat, uninteresting, and unreal. The main character, Celestria, is silly. She gives away her virginity in a trashy moment and not once does she worry about an unwanted pregnancy but she doesn't like the boyfriend. Maybe the '60's were "carefree" but this is not believable. I couldn't finish the book.

This is my second Santa Montefiore novel. I must say that like, The French Gardner, Sea of Lost Love is absolutely wonderful. The plot is explosive -- continuously catching you off guard with interesting twists and turns. The characters are portrayed so clearly and with keen realism. There is great closure with the protagonists -- especially the ending! In all honesty, I was sorry when I finished the book. At the same time, I have to say also that there is one small flaw. I don't want to give anything away, so, I'll just say that the falling in love parts occurred too quickly and too often. Otherwise, I thoroughly enjoyed it -- so much so, I'm getting ready to purchase another one of her books, The Perfect Happiness.

It took some time for me to become interested in this story. The majority of the characters are written in two dimensions as their function is backround to the main character. However I must say that I did find the second half of the book very interesting.

I enjoyed the story and the writing, although not as much as The French Gardener.

Long winded boring book with a selfish, shallow main character that does nothing to inspire empathy, like or even interest. She is a flirt who uses everyone for her own selfish needs.

The story could have been interesting, unfortunately the only twist was obvious from the beginning.

SPOILERS***

2 points that annoyed me and left me feeling angry that I had even wasted my time reading this book.

1. After 2 weeks of seeing someone (not having spoken to him for more than 2 minutes and by him ignoring her for the most part) she falls in love, lets him sleep with her and betray his dead wife all of a sudden?
2. There is no ending, no-one finds out what happens to the father. He doesn't get what is coming to him, it doesn't explain how the mother feels, and all of a sudden the main character gets married and that's it.

I can't believe I wasted my time reading a book that left me feeling so annoyed at reading it.