Review: The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes

Synopsis from Goodreads:

                                           What happened to the girl you left behind?

In 1916 French artist Edouard Lefevre leaves his wife Sophie to fight at the Front. When her town falls into German hands, his portrait of Sophie stirs the heart of the local Kommandant and causes her to risk everything - her family, reputation and life - in the hope of seeing her true love one last time.

Nearly a century later and Sophie's portrait is given to Liv by her young husband shortly before his sudden death. Its beauty speaks of their short life together, but when the painting's dark and passion-torn history is revealed, Liv discovers that the first spark of love she has felt since she lost him is threatened...

In The Girl You Left Behind two young women, separated by a century, are united in their determination to fight for the thing they love most - whatever the cost.

Review:

The Girl You Left Behind by Jojo Moyes is an incredible book. I became immersed in the story immediately. Spanning a century, the story is narrated by two women- Sophie and Liv- who are connected through a portrait that they both treasure. The portrait which is entitled The Girl You Left Behind, was drawn by Sophie's husband, the artist Edouard LeFevre. While Edouard is at war, Sophie runs the family hotel Le Coq Rouge with her sister Helene as best she can.

The lack of food and business makes it near impossible to survive in the small, isolated and occupied village of St Peronne. When a new Kommandmant arrives, Sophie sees in her enemy someone who appreciates art. This realisation causes her to hope that she may be reunited with her beloved Edouard once again. But how much is she willing to risk for her hope to turn into reality?

The first part of the book is narrated by Sophie in first person. I loved Sophie's narrative. I felt emotionally close to her and could visualise the emotional and physical hardships she and the community of St Peronne went through. It's not long after the learned Kommandmant takes an interest in her and her painting, that Sophie starts hearing her neighbours and friends turn on her, branding her a collaborator.

Nearly a hundred years later, Liv Hastings mourns the death of her husband David. Living in The Glass House which he built, Liv cherishes The Girl You Left Behind, the portrait gifted to her by David and which is of incredible sentimental value to her. The portrait of Sophie fascinates and comforts her through her most difficult times. But when Liv feels the first stirrings of a new love, it is The Girl You Left Behind which tears them apart.

Liv is shocked to find out that The Girl You Left Behind is the subject of a restitution case. More to the point, her beloved painting will be taken away from her as it was stolen a hundred years earlier. Is the painting rightfully hers? Or does the painting rightfully belong to the LeFevre family? The legal case that follows sets out to determine the answers to these questions. Liv knows that she will do anything to keep the painting and to do that, she will have to find out what became of Sophie.     

I loved the way Sophie and Liv's story intertwined as the novel progressed. I couldn't stop turning the pages to find out what would happen next to both women. There were so many twists and turns. In The Girl You Left Behind, nothing is ever as it seems. There was a great cast of characters who enriched the story and remain vivid in my mind after finishing the book; brave Sophie, the inscrutable Kommandant, ever-observant Edith, anxious Helene, angry Aurelien, passionate Edouard, loving, loyal Liv and so many more.

The restitution case was very interesting to read about and I was anxious to learn what the outcome would be. Moreover, I wanted to know what happened to Sophie. Together with Liv, we have a chance to find out. I cannot wait to read more from Jojo Moyes. Her books always include memorable characters, deep storylines and a wealth of emotion. The Girl You Left Behind is a stunning, passionate and moving novel from the author of the brilliant novel, Me Before You. 


Book Rating: 5/5

Author: Jojo Moyes

Honeymoon in Paris is a marvellous introduction to the characters in The Girl You Left Behind. Although I read this after The Girl You Left Behind, I was very interested in learning more about the couples in the story; Sophie and Edouard and Liv and David.

Sophie loves Edouard and he loves her. But Sophie wonders how long his love will last. For Liv, her honeymoon with David is not going the way she imagined. Is it a sign of what their life together will be like? The storylines were great and surprising in a way.

Honeymoon in Paris is a great contrast to The Girl You Left Behind as it is set years before the events in that book. Also, it allows the reader to learn a few interesting details about the couples which were not mentioned in The Girl You Left Behind and observe how the characters have changed. Honeymoon in Paris is a thoroughly enjoyable novella and precursor to the stunning The Girl You Left Behind which will make you want to pick up and read it if you haven't already devoured it. 

Book Rating: 5/5

Review: The Prophet of Yonwood (Ember #3) by Jeanne DuPrau

Synopsis from Goodreads:

It’s 50 years before the settlement of the city of Ember, and the world is in crisis. War looms on the horizon as 11-year-old Nickie and her aunt travel to the small town of Yonwood, North Carolina. There, one of the town’s respected citizens has had a terrible vision of fire and destruction. Her garbled words are taken as prophetic instruction on how to avoid the coming disaster. If only they can be interpreted correctly. . . .

As the people of Yonwood scramble to make sense of the woman’s mysterious utterances, Nickie explores the oddities she finds around town—her great-grandfather’s peculiar journals and papers, a reclusive neighbor who studies the heavens, a strange boy who is fascinated with snakes—all while keeping an eye out for ways to help the world. Is this vision her chance? Or is it already too late to avoid a devastating war?

In this prequel to the acclaimed The City of Ember and The People of Sparks, Jeanne DuPrau investigates how, in a world that seems out of control, hope and comfort can be found in the strangest of places.

Review:

I was highly excited to read The Prophet of Yonwood after having loved both The City of Ember and The People of Sparks. I didn't hesitate in purchasing a copy. However, to put it plainly, the third book of Ember was one of the most disappointing books that I have read in my life.  

I started reading the novel; the 'prequel' to the two previous books, expecting an explanation of how The City of Ember came about and that I would learn more about the disaster that had lead to the city of Ember being created. What I got instead was the life story of an eleven year old girl. 

There's nothing wrong with that. DuPrau could have made her into a phenomenal character and akin to the protagonists from The City of Ember, Lina and Doon. However, what I read instead was the trivial, boring and random happenings of the small, nosy neighbourhood Nickie moves to with her aunt Crystal for some months.


Unbelievably, Nickie's aunt leaves her, an eleven year old girl who doesn't know anything about her new surroundings, to her own devices, while she goes gallivanting around town nearly every day. I was seriously worried for Nickie's safety.

What would happen if a stranger knocked on the door and kidnapped her? What if the house was unsafe and she injured herself? More worryingly, this continued to happen throughout the entirety of the novel and therefore I didn't learn anything about Nickie's aunt, except that she gets married at the end of the book and I couldn't even care by that point.


So many aspects of this book continue to irritate me and I shall list some of them here. Her aunt didn't know of any of the random events that were taking place in the town and Nickie had to explain everything to her at the end which was rather exasperating to read as everything was repeated.


Nickie and her aunt always ate soup or drank herbal tea. This may seem like a little gripe, but it's not. How unrealistic is it that this would be the only things they would eat? I think you would get sick of eating the same thing after the second or third day.


This book was called 'The Prophet of Yonwood' and therefore one would assume that we would see a lot of this person and discover the meaning behind their prophetic messages. That was not the case. The 'Prophet', Althea, has a vision of a future apocalyptic world (something the reader figures out for themselves) and loses conciousness for the majority of the book. Her incoherent words are interpreted by Mrs Beeson, the local busybody. For some unstated reason, the whole town and even the police, take her word for what Althea might be saying and follow her laws, however silly they may be.


Nickie wasn't the curious minded, clever heroine I wanted and I found her lacking in every way. All in all, she was childish, bratty and annoying. She never sought out the 'Prophet' for herself to uncover the true meaning of her words and she never went against Mrs Beeson's strict rules (unless you count her hiding the dog).

It's not until very end-I literally mean the last five pages or so- that you see any connection whatsoever to The City of Ember and its sequel and that connection was rather frail and insignifant to me as I'd realised these obvious epiphanies from the beginning of the book.


Other random events include but are not limited to:


1) Nickie discovering a journal in which ghosts and siamese twins are mentioned. She would read about two sentences from the journal and then become bored, tired or have something else to do, sometimes it was all three. This added nothing to the plot and I'm still wondering why on earth it was included in the book.


2) A strange astronomer who reveals nothing and therefore adds nothing to the plot.


3) A boy named Grover who liked snakes.


The major problem was that Nickie was so, so far away from anything to do with The City of Ember. I would much rather have preferred the story to be from her father's point of view as he had much more to do with Ember. He sent her postcards about the building work he was doing. It was very obvious what his connection to the City of Ember was.


I really could go on as there were so many ways in which this book failed me. I would not recommend this 'prequel' to anyone at all. It added nothing at all to the plot or background information of The City of Ember.


The characters were dull, one-dimensional and cardboad cutouts with exactly one boring agenda each. It felt like DuPrau had just flung together random bits of material to create something that resembled a book. I'm sorry that I ever read this and will never read this again. In comparison, The City of Ember and its sequel were very good. I'm still hesitant to read the last book, The Diamond of Darkhold because it may turn out to be major letdown similar to The Prophet of Yonwood.


Book Rating: 1/5
Cover: 3/5
Concept: 0/5
Author: Jeanne DuPrau