This was what I think most people call a beach read. It even featured the ocean. It had some decent prose, an interesting premise, characters with pasts they want to forget, lots of drama, and an overall, neat ending. I have read a couple of other Australian novels like this, and I suspect these kind of novels are what they are good at.

This novel started off with a great hook, but then the narrative went backwards in time. I have become aware that I’m not a big fan of non-linear story telling like this. In many cases such as this, it changes the pacing. I really want to get back to the actual hook rather than the long background that happens. I would not call it a literary pet peeve, but I do not find it that effective as a narrative device. It makes me want to skim through so the book can go back to the original “hook”. At least this book’s pacing meant that things moved quickly to the drama.

The middle and end had a lot of drama and angst to the point. It was a bit too melodramatic for me at times because I struggled to feel sorry for Isabel at times. They have adapated this into a movie with three actors I adore: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Rachel Weisz. However, reading the middle of the book made me anxious not to read it since it is very difficult on the all the characters involved. I’ll probably still watch it because I did like that the ending was neat. It had to be otherwise it would leave the reader very dissatisfied with the tumultuous middle.

All in all, a decent and quick read. I did not love it, but I can see why it is popular.

Read January 10, 2016.

This was my fifth book of 2016. It was January 10th which means I finished one book for every two days of the new year. Go me! I don’t think I’ll be keeping this up, but I think my reading mojo is back at least a bit.