Title: The Nature of Fragile Things
Author: Susan Meissner
Genre: Historical Fiction
Plot: Sophie Whalen is a recent immigrant from Ireland. She’s desperate to leave her deplorable position in NYC so she answers a mail order bride request in the newspaper in San Francisco. Soon she meets Martin and his daughter Kat. Sophie grows to love Kat but has no such feelings for Martin. She tells herself that he’s mourning the death of his wife. While Martin is traveling for his nameless insurance company, there’s an unexpected visitor, a woman named Belinda. Belinda sees a picture of Martin and says that’s her husband, not Sophie’s. While Sophie and Belinda try to piece together what’s really going on with Martin, or as Belinda knows him, James, an earthquake strikes. Now Belinda, Sophie, and Kat are running for their lives. But they’re looking over their shoulders for Martin. Who is Martin? What’s he after? Did he survive the earthquake?
Rating: 3.8 – an interesting historical fiction and mystery
Opinion: This was an interesting book. It was better than I was expecting. This book was a book club book so I wanted to read it, but I was unsure of it. There’s more interesting plot and characters than I was expecting. I liked learning about the San Francisco earthquake at the turn of the last century. The mystery was different than was expecting, too. I enjoyed thinking about the mystery. I thought one of the characters would come back in a different way with a more dramatic way. But this was a more fitting end for the characters. I was hoping for earlier justice, which did come, but I wanted all the characters to be there for it. I did enjoy the book. The main chacarera were great because they made you feel reel emotions and related to them. I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend this book for anyone who loves historical fiction.
A Bookworm's Book Reviews 