A really heartwarming tale in the midst of a war. The tragedies seems far away in the account of everydays lives and touching anecdotes. A really good read. Nothing deep or intense but just a really entertaining, quick read. I can see why this is such a popular book club book. And the format, written in letters, was a nice change of pace.

I really enjoyed this book! One of my favorite genres is this kind of historical fiction love story based in real history but developed with some fiction thrown in. And the Taj Mahal is such a great story of love that it provides the perfect setting for this saga of love. It was such a fun read and the author told the story so well. The language and pacing were perfect. The characters were all wonderful, multi-dimensional and well written, and I liked reading them, even the ones I hated. Though there were a few things that worked out maybe too "perfect" I would say overall the story was strong enough to absorb that and make it still more or less believable and definitely fun to read.

Wow. This is one of those books that I know I will have trouble getting out of my mind. I can't stop thinking about it, the characters, and what the truth really is. About blame. And about the stories people convince themselves are true in order to feel better about things they have done. I can't decide how I feel about any of it. Where were the problems here? With Noa's mom who taught her to lie rather than face any trouble the truth may (or may not) bring? With Sarah's mom, who was so over-involved in how she thought Sarah should live her life that she never considered the ensuing consequences from her attempts to steer things where she wanted them to go? And who used her influence on everyone to get what she wanted so that in the end she never actually got what she wanted as she may have if she just let things play out? With a father/lover with too many mistakes in his past to avoid blackmail? With psychology...a childhood trauma forced to bear alone or the loss of a child with no support? With Noa herself, just intrinsically? With the judicial system in the US? So many places to put blame...and in the long run where is the right? Where is the justice? O my gosh this was an amazing debut. The only thing I didn't like was the ending...I don;t know why I was not surprised that Sarah's mom never passed on the items Noa sent her, since that was her M.O. from the beginning, but it just left a very unsavory feeling in my mouth. Maybe that was the point. In which case, bravo author, bravo. This book nailed it.

There was something incredibly charming about this book. The story was epic but at the same time more than fun to read. The narrator's voice was fantastic, I loved the tone. And it was super interesting to read a book that was so...modern. So many technological ideas in here that I am sure I missed some and I can only imagine it would be out of reach for people past a certain age. It's a book about books for my generation and I was utterly fascinated by that. Plus, the cast of characters, a modern day fantasy gathering, was superb. I don't know if the goal was to make a modern, digital spoof of the well known fantasy quest, but that's what this was and, as I have mentioned, I enjoyed the hell out of it.