"Do you want to live in Arizona, Tatia, the land of the small spring?"

I have no idea how to write a review for this book. True to form, it was just phenomenal. I have NEVER read a book that has affected me like these Tatiana and Alexander books have. I have not been able to sleep well in days since finishing. There is something so raw, so real, about these characters. They are perfectly created, perfectly written, perfect in their love and faults and needs and failures and successes. And I have never been so lost in characters before in my life. Their whole story is heartbreaking and heart-lifting all at the same time and I do not know how that is possible. I truly have no words to say what I want to. Wow.

"But really, Deda, I'm not sure of anything anymore. Everything seems so muddled this summer." She heaved a sigh out of her shoulders. Deda nodded again, "And what did I tell you to do to unmuddle whenever you are unsure of yourself, whenever you are in doubt, ask yourself these three questions. What do you believe in? What do you hope for? And most important, ask yourself, what do you love?' His arm was around her. "And when you answer, Tania, you will know who you are. And more important - if you ask this question of the people around you, you will know who they are too." p.-370

And THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ENDING I COULD HAVE IMAGINED TO WRAP UP, BRING HOME, FULL CIRCLE THIS MOST INCREDIBLE OF ALL LOVE STORIES:

"To cross the street. To follow her. And she will give your life meaning, she will save you. Yas, yes - to cross. "We'll meet again in Lvov, my love and I..." Tatiana hums, eating her ice cream, in our Leningrad, in jasmine June, near Fontanka, the Neva, the Summer Garden, where we are forever young."

This was a wonderfully touching story. Touching on such themes as a second chance at love and the generational connections of family (both good and bad) and particularly the challenges faced in crossing cultural lines, the whole thing was put together so cleanly and maturely. The characters were developed well and the dry British tone kept things interesting and amusing. There were many facets to this story that I think played very well into each other to create the whole. An overall sweet, touching story.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a really fun retelling and mixture of two very famous fairy tales...and the twisting of them together was done very smoothly. (And I enjoyed the hint at the end of the book that Mathena's future would be as the witch in Hansel and Gretel.) I enjoyed the adult themes that were thrown into the mix: love and betrayal, incest, bandits instead of dwarves, and of course the magic. And I like what the author did with the "huntsman" Gilles and I super enjoyed Mathena's character as well. I feel like there were a few things that could have been developed a little more though. The characters were all fairly one dimensional and parts of the plot seemed to go so fast that the only reason I understood how the characters changed was because I already kind of knew the story and what was coming. However, the overall effect was good and like I said, it was a very fun read.

This book was incredibly well developed. And I think that's why it's so good...it goes back to the classic writing tradition of the characters being the most important things, as opposed to the plot. While the book does have a plot, it really only serves to move the characters forward and really help us get to know them. I feel like, having finished, I could predict most of the characters reactions to an event, even one that never happened in the book, and I think that says a lot for the level of writing the author has attained. I enjoyed very minute of this book and was really impressed with the depth of time and subjects covered. Totally worth the 3 month wait at the library.

This book was fascinating. A superb mix of scifi and futuristic dystopia, humor and cultural commentary. The concept was fantastic, using color vision as a hierarchical system for society to be based on. The book jumped in right away and the first few chapters were a bit hard to follow as you kind of have to puzzle out terminology on your own. However, the attention to detail and accuracy in Fforde's writing is masterful. Language is manipulated in a great way and the imagination here is great. I also enjoyed the little touches, like the Rules that open each chapter. It adds to the absurdity of the story but at the same time, the believably. Amazing and fun read. I'm thinking I'll definitely look into continuing the trilogy.

I enjoyed this book..it was a fun read. I don't know much about Jane Austen's personal life and family, so this was a great fictional introduction to them. I enjoyed the intrigue that the author created and also was very impressed with the sprinkling of character inspirations for her novels from Austen's own life. I liked Anne as a narrator and of course I loved the way Jane was written. The one thing that was hard to follow was the generous number of characters, especially ones with similar names. I know that's realistic for the time, but if some of the extra children who were really not important or necessary to the story could have been left out (or left unnamed) that would have been nice. However, overall, a very creative historical fiction/nonfiction/mystery mix.

Well this book was over too fast. If I didn't have to go to work, it would have been a one-sitting-read. It pulls your in right away and keeps pulling you along until all of a sudden its over and you are sitting there thinking, "what just happened?" The characters in the books were fantatic. The narrator was so well written and all the Hempstock women were phenomenal. The world created was so real and so strange all at the same time and it was written in the obscure "Neil Gaiman" way that leaves you convinced and confused all at the same time. One of my favorite parts was at then end when the narrator finds out that he has come back over the years to Lettie's Ocean and has remembered, but upon leaving forgets the story, and his part in it, until the next time. It leaves you with a wonderful sense of the circling story and wondering how many times this same story has been remembered, and told. Crazy cool abstract feeling of time. And what an amazing nostalgic look back at childhood...and though this "forgetting" was fabricated by otherwordly 'not-really-witches', how many magical stories from our past have we forgotten? Haunting to think about. I highly recommend this read.

This book left me feeling strangely unsatisfied. I think maybe the author got lost in his words sometimes (I know I certainly did) and the story itself lost out for it a bit. I think perhaps he was caught between two different goals: a more beautiful historical interpretation with flowery descriptions that transport you into another world VS. the popular current genre of historical mysteries and new discoveries a la Dan Brown. However I have a huge soft spot for King Arthur and there was some very interesting lore here that I had not heard much about before, so that was very redeeming. I also was sometimes frustrated with the love story situation. I like the Guinevere-Arthur-Lancelot love triangle that he created, though I was disappointed that it was every outright mentioned...something like that should stay subtle and be there to enhance the story only for those who recognize the reference. It was well done, though it was difficult to read...it's so hard when there are two "good" guys in a triangle. All in all, interesting read, but perhaps not pulled off as well as it could have been.