Belle City by Penny Mickelbury is a historically rich interracial intergenerational saga of love, loyalty, family dynamics and the vicissitudes of everyday life. I looked forward to reading this book as I am a fan of family sagas and history. The book follows two characters from two different branches of the same family tree, Jonas Thatcher who is white and Ruth Thatcher who is black from when they are twelve-years old in 1917 until their dying many decades later both leaving wills that their relatives in 2005 do not quite understand. I enjoyed how Mickelbury skillfully threw unexpected curveballs into the storyline occasionally that allowed some of the secondary characters, such as Beau, to outshine the main characters. These sections provided the tension and excitement to keep the reader focus and to showcase the author’s mystery writing skills. While the even flowing plot nicely sets the tone of the eras and the character’s motivations, I thought some editing could have avoided the story dragging in places. The value of the story is the feeling that this could have been every family’s story and will have readers thinking how their families fared during times of historical upheavals and change.

Kryminały, które ostatnio czytam, charakteryzuje wyeksponowanie prywatnego życia osoby prowadzącej śledztwo oraz zarysowanie tła obyczajowego. Martha Grimes książką „Hotel Belle Rouen” także wkomponowuje się w powyższą zależność. Tytułowy hotel, a właściwie zgliszcza, które po nim pozostały, kryje w sobie zagadkę sprzed lat. Jej rozwiązania podejmuje się znana z dwóch poprzednich części trylogii bystra dwunastolatka. Mamy więc ciekawą sytuację: kryminał, w którym w rolę detektywa wciela się dziecko, a właściwie nastolatka. W pierwszej części owa nastolatka, Emma Graham, zajmuje się rozwiązywaniem dwóch spraw – dotyczącej śmierci innej dwunastolatki sprzed czterdziestu lat oraz morderstwa dokonanego niedawno, ale w tajemniczych okolicznościach. Oczywiście determinacja dziewczyny w dążeniu do odkrycia prawdy sprawia, że zagadka o wydarzeniach obecnych i minionych zostaje rozwiązana. Druga część to z kolei historia Bena Queena, który wkrótce po odbyciu wyroku za zamordowanie żony zostaje pierwszym podejrzanym posądzonym o zabicie własnej córki. Tylko Emma jest przekonana o jego niewinności i zamierza ją udowodnić...

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http://www.portalkryminalny.pl/content/view/5235/35/

All right, my wordiness is decreasing as the number of books I have yet to review increases. So, bullet points!

The Good:

• This was a fascinating glimpse into a different side of Belle Epoque life, and I think it works well as a counter-balance to the kind of glamorized image that one usually sees

• Maude was an engaging main character, and I liked her journey to discovering who she is and where she fits in the world
• The central theme of beauty versus worth was nicely done, I thought, and seemed good without being preachy--a hard balance to pull off
• I also think that the story would appeal to both historical fiction fans, and people who aren't normally that interested in historical fiction

The Not-quite-as-good:

• The sentence level writing was occasionally iffy--the use of 'whom' was distracting, annoying, and didn't always seem to be correct

• Although I liked this one a lot, it never flat-out amazed me, and I really wanted it to

• I wanted more about the friendship between Isabelle and Maude, which seemed to me to be at once the heart of the book, and the most under-developed aspect

All in all, this is one I would recommend to any number of people, though not necessarily in a super-gushy way.

Book source: public library
Book information: Delacorte (Random House), 2013; YA, historical fiction

I read this book for the 2013 Cybils. You’ll be able to see all of my Cybils reviews by clicking here.

Cover talk: I really have problems with the cover, which seems to contradict so much of what the book says about beauty. I know that covers are meant to sell books, but surely there’s a way to do that which doesn’t undermine the story inside? The overall packaging is gorgeous–all those lovely swirly lines–but I don’t believe that the girl on the cover is Maude, and that’s a problem.