Book Review: The Violets of March
Book: The Violets of March
Author: Sarah Jio
Genre: Fiction/Mystery/Romance/Historical
Summary: In her twenties, Emily Wilson was on top of the world: she had a bestselling novel, a husband plucked from the pages of GQ, and a one-way ticket to happily ever after. Nearly a decade later, the tide has turned on Emily's good fortune. So when her great-aunt Bee invites her to spend the month of March on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, Emily accepts, longing to be healed by the sea. Researching her next book, Emily discovers a red velvet diary, dated 1943, whose contents reveal startling connections to her own life. -Plume, 2011.
After enjoying Jio's novel The Last Camellia, I picked up a few more of her books. I decided to start with this book because I knew I would be reading it close to March. Like the previous novel, I read this book within a day or two. It's very easy to read and the plot lines are very easy to follow.
That being said, this is Jio's first novel and, as such, I can see all of the pitfalls of a first novel. The pacing is much too fast, the main character is a borderline Mary Sue (seriously - there is not a single person who dislikes Emily), and the formatting for switching back and forth between past and present is clunky and a bit of a pain to read.
In spite of these pitfalls, I did enjoy it. It's a nice guilty pleasure read of a plot that you might find on the Lifetime or Hallmark channels. Is it overly saccharine and melodramatic? Yes. But will it warm your heart to read about the adorable, clumsy city girl and her exploits into discovering the mystery of her family while winning hearts everywhere? Quite possibly! You can see the potential of a really good story, I just don't think anyone told her she needed to work on pacing during revisions. I can see that she's grown from having read one of her later novels so I'm not going to penalize her too harshly for anything.
If you want a nice guilty pleasure book, give this one a try.
I give The Violets of March a B+.
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