I thought it was a good idea -- both the story and the way it was told, but there were times when the execution was poor. ( )

This was a quick read. The first half read like a mystery with 84 Charing Cross Road echoes. The protagonists, Stephane and Helene, uncovered more and more photos and evidence of their respective parents' connections, while growing closer themselves. In the second half the mystery was clarified more by way of letters 'to be read in the event of my death', and conveniently discovered journals, and it lost the mystery atmosphere and just became very very sad. ( )

This was a random pick from the library shelves, and I guess it was OK. It's a slowly unraveling mystery and to my mind the slowness of the unraveling felt a bit annoying. Highly unlikely plot devices were used to signal that something interesting was coming up but we weren't allowed to know. The main female character kept really important documents unread for unbelievable amounts of time. We were finding lots of mysterious aspects of the story and then a conveniently long lost letter or diary entry was found to fill in lots of gaps all at once and yet usually - and predictably - leave an important element unresolved. Further, the two main characters seemed to fall in love without any good reason - we didn't see enough of their relationship to understand why they fell for each other, and yet that seemed inevitable from page 1. ( )

While I admired and enjoyed aspects of this book I have to say I found myself underwhelmed by the end. I really didn't buy into some of the actions of the characters at the latter parts of the book.
( )

3.5 After her Father's death, Helene is sorting through his papers when she finds a photograph of her mother at a tennis tournament, with two unknown young men. Knowing very little about her mother except that she died in an accident when Helene was four, she places an advert with the photo in the newspapers. She receives a reply from a young biologist in Switzerland who claims one of the men in the photo is his late father.

From there, in a series of letter, e-mails and postcards, Helene and Stéphane attempt to solve the mystery of her mother and the fact that her father would never mention her name, and his father and his depressive, aloof nature.

I enjoyed this easy but poignant read. As they unravel clues, letters and at last journals from a friend of both parents and the letter left from her adopted mother after her death, they at last learn the true story. They also form a personal relationship, but will that survive the knowledge they now have on how their parents were connected? Can they forgive what they learn of their parents actions and can they now move forward? ( )