January 2023 Wrap up

                                   

Read books: 

read: 6 listen: 3 pages: 2767 hours listened: 16h44m
1. Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley 3H29m ****
2. The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton p.504 ****
3. Above All Things by Deborah Raney 8H29m ***
4. A Memento for Istanbul by Ahmet Ümit p.583 ****
5. All of Me by Heatherly Bell 4H46m ***
6. The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides p.352 **
7. Still Life by Louise Penny p.400 ****
8. In Harmony by Emma Scott p. 544 ***
9. Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio p.384 **

Challenges overview:

1. Read 100 books 100/9

2. Read 5 classics 5/1

3. Read you bookshelf challenge 12/1

4. Read 5 Russian books 5/0

5. Finish 5 series 5/0

6. Read 5 translated books 5/1

7. A to Z challenge 26/6

8. Listen to 25 audiobooks 25/3

9. World of Literature TR

10. Booker Prize Project 7

11. Buzzword Challenge 12/1

Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio

Author: Sarah Jio
Original title: Blackberry Winter
Edition Language: Russian
Series: no
Format: e-book
Genres: Romance
Goodreads

Pages: 384

Blurb:    
   Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, goodnight and departs to work the night-shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May-Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying face-down on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks, or the perpetrator's.

Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 "blackberry winter" storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways...

My thoughts: 
    It was quite interesting to read about snowstorms in May when you are in the middle of January. But  the book is not about the weather, it is about what people do when the weather gets bad.

    We have two storylines about Vera and her little son during the storm in 1933 and Claire in 2010 time with her one-year trauma. I did not like this book at all. The plot might be of slight interest, but the writing style was very boring and I didn’t enjoy reading the book. During all the time I struggled through the book I constantly asked myself what the point of the story was? Why did the author choose to write it this way? And in the end, the answer was nowhere. I had a feeling that I was stuck in a pink fluffy cloud, and  even the topics discussed were farfetched and not realistic enough to be even remotely connected to reality.

    Somewhere in the middle, I predicted the ending and I was 90 percent correct. That was the only reason I finished the book because I wanted to see where it all ends and how the author is going to tie everything up in the end. Maybe I expected too much from the book after all it was just supposed to be a piece of fiction. Nonetheless, it left me with a bitter taste in my mouth which I cannot wash away for a long time. There are so many questions left unanswered that it makes me wish I never read the book in the first place!

   This was my second book by Sarah Jio and I will definitely not be reading another one by her ever again.

 Rating:  

    2/5