Wednesday, September 8, 2010

The Art of Devotion - Samantha Bruce-Benjamin


Genre: Fiction
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 378
ISBN: 9781439153949
Rating 3.5 Stars

I was one of the lucky ones who received this book for free from the author on The Next Best Book Club (TNBBC). This book not only has one of the most beautiful covers I have ever saw but it s filled will poetry, drama, scandals, twists, turns, and just plain ol' creepy-remarkable. It is told in 4 different voices; Sophie, who is the mother of Adora and Sebastian, Adora, who is the main center of attention who everyone seems to love but is crazy in her own poetic way, Miranda who I did feel sorry for in the beginning but grew to seriously hate her, she was the mother of Gigi and the former lover of Sebastian, and then the last voice was of Gigi who used to stay at the home of Adora on a Mediterranean island every summer. It gets confusing in the beginning to remember who is who and who does what but after the 30 or so pages you start to get the hang of it. There is so much melodramatic tragedies and so much scandal that it is amazing. No characters are really likable but I like that about the story. I rooted for no one. The closest person that I liked was Gigi only because I felt bad for her to be trapped in such a world with such people who really only cared about themselves or who were obsessed with something that they could not control.

There is so much going on in this book that it would take me all day to try to explain but it was a good read. This is definitely what people may call a good "beach read". I recall many times when I was reading this that my mouth was hanging open and people on the subway probably thought I was crazy or just plain ol' slow. I think that in every "chapter" I felt like "OH MY GOD, REALLY???" and I think that causes for a good book. I gave it 3.5 stars only because of being so much drama and no happy moments. I know that there were times when I wished for something and then when it happened I was mad. I never, or very rarely, do I give 5 stars and 4 stars bring it very close to 5 so I think 3.5 is a very good rating and I would recommend it to others.

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