Rate this book

Glittering Promises (2013)

by Lisa Tawn Bergren(Favorite Author)

3.91 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

1434764281 (ISBN13: 9781434764287)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

David C Cook

series

Grand Tour

review 1: I found this series to be very disappointing. The plotline of all three books was extremely repetitive. Cora, the female lead, is kidnapped and rescued so many times over the course of the series that it becomes annoying and predictable by the second book. There were a few unexpected surprises in this third book but not enough to redeem the series as a whole. It's just one long, drawn out story that could have been condensed down to one or two books.I also was disappointed with the ending of this third book. It felt so rushed. One moment, Cora was, again, being kidnapped and rescued, and in the next, the culprits had been caught, the tour of Europe was coming to an end, and she was getting married. There were questions about the characters that I felt were left unanswered.... more It was unclear exactly what Vivian planned for her future other than not getting married to her fiance, Andrew. Felix and Hugh were vaguely said to be slowly coming around to the idea of taking over their father's business together, mostly out of duty more than desire. The two younger girls didn't have much of any future mapped out at all. I guess they would eventually marry, as was expected of them.And Cora and Will got married (without him having ever met her parents beforehand which was understandable but was a bit saddening) with the understanding that Will was going to pay for and finish his own college degree in architecture without Cora's fortune to help him out. Cora, was now married and planning on trying to use her new fortune for the Lord but it was unclear, exactly what her plans for the future were. She was iffy about whether or not she planned to go back to school and finish getting her teaching degree, she had decided not to take a lead role in the mining business her father had given to her, and she was considering joining the suffragette movement and bringing Vivian along in her endeavors as well as possibly contributing money to help build an orphanage in Italy. Overall, it was like an ending with a giant question mark. The character's futures were vaguely mapped out enough to give you a glimpse into what the coming years might hold for them, but there wasn't anything very concrete being decided for the sake of the reader. Which left me feeling like I had just put together a five-hundred piece puzzle and discovered I was missing a few pieces. Nobody likes that. You put all that work into it and then you don't even get to see the whole picture?Adding more to this feeling was the fact that Cora's father, Wallace, dies before she has a chance to really fix her broken relationship with him. Which, I get that it happens in real life, but in terms of fiction isn't always a good choice. In this case, it felt all too convenient for the storyline and character's. Her father dies, making it possible for her to marry the guy she loves and everything works out great because now her father is no longer there to get in the way of true love. And even more convenient, now Vivian no longer has to deal with the pressure to marry a guy she doesn't love. I wished that Wallace had lived and been able to actually work out all of this with his children rather than simply killing him off to solve all the issues that had been created by him.Overall, this series should have been shortened to less books. The plotline was repetitive and weak in places, predictable and annoying in others, and the nice little snippet of godly wisdom near the end wasn't nearly enough to redeem all that was wrong with this series.
review 2: This was a wonderful conclusion to the Grand Tour series! I am a huge fan of Lisa T. Bergren and this was another great read from her! I loved the fact that this book was set nearly one hundred percent in Italy! I have been in love with so many if these characters since the beginning of the series and it was so much fun to be reunited with Cora, Will, Lillian, Felix, Vivian, Nell, and Hugh, once again! I really enjoyed this book, I would even go so far as to say I loved it! However, I don't think this was my favorite of the series, that would probably be book two Grave Consequences! For some reason I just didn't seem to connect to this one in the same way as I did the first two, I was a tiny bit disappointed that there wasn't as much action throughout the book as in the first two, but the climax was awesome and it made me really happy that there were a couple of plot twists that I had predicted and I was actually right about-love it when that happens! I also would have liked an epilogue, just because I wanted even more of the story!Overall, this was a great read which I highly recommend, but I would suggest starting with book one "Glamorous Illusions" as this is a series that is best read in order! less

Download links for: Glittering Promises

Advertising