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"No Safe Harbor" by Elizabeth Ludwig
Nov. 23rd, 2012 11:38 amCara Hamilton has arrived in America looking for her brother. The year is 1897 and this young Irish immigrant knows nothing of her brother's location or what drove him to cross the ocean two years before. She only has his letter, warning her of dire danger if she tells anyone that she is his relative. He'll find her, he insists. Now alone in New York City waitng for him, Cara forms new friends, some who are sincere and some who are befriending her for more sinister reasons.
I had several problems with this book. I had a very hard time getting into the author's narrative voice, as I kept getting distracted by thinking of how I would have changed sentence structure or word choice had this been a paper or report from one of my students. It just didn't flow well in my mind's eye. The use of similes was also overemployed, in my opinion. I didn't need to know how this or that was "like a wave on the sea," "like a wraith," or "like a sheet." My imagination doesn't need that much guidance. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I understand she has won awards and is an accomplished speaker, so I don't know why it seemed to me like she was trying too hard.
It seemed beyond incredible that Cara should meet, within hours of disembarking on Ellis Island, not one but two separate people who were trying to hunt down and kill her brother. That is awfully convenient. It bothered me morally that Cara spent so much time lying about who she was and why she was in America. I understand she was supposed to keep her brother a secret, but secrets and lies were quite emphasized all throughout the book. I saw another reviewer state she found all the secrets to be romantic, which I do not agree with at all. Keeping secrets from your friends is not a bonding force, and is in fact a relationship killer. I don't like seeing it portrayed otherwise.
The story did have an interesting and diverse cast of characters, some of whose stories were reserved for telling in subsequent novels in this series. The plot held a good amount of suspense to keep you turning pages. While the drawbacks kept me from being fully engaged, they didn't prevent me from enjoying the good parts of the story. Fans of historical fiction might find something to keep their eye on with this one!
I received my copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.
I had several problems with this book. I had a very hard time getting into the author's narrative voice, as I kept getting distracted by thinking of how I would have changed sentence structure or word choice had this been a paper or report from one of my students. It just didn't flow well in my mind's eye. The use of similes was also overemployed, in my opinion. I didn't need to know how this or that was "like a wave on the sea," "like a wraith," or "like a sheet." My imagination doesn't need that much guidance. This is the first book that I have read by this author and I understand she has won awards and is an accomplished speaker, so I don't know why it seemed to me like she was trying too hard.
It seemed beyond incredible that Cara should meet, within hours of disembarking on Ellis Island, not one but two separate people who were trying to hunt down and kill her brother. That is awfully convenient. It bothered me morally that Cara spent so much time lying about who she was and why she was in America. I understand she was supposed to keep her brother a secret, but secrets and lies were quite emphasized all throughout the book. I saw another reviewer state she found all the secrets to be romantic, which I do not agree with at all. Keeping secrets from your friends is not a bonding force, and is in fact a relationship killer. I don't like seeing it portrayed otherwise.
The story did have an interesting and diverse cast of characters, some of whose stories were reserved for telling in subsequent novels in this series. The plot held a good amount of suspense to keep you turning pages. While the drawbacks kept me from being fully engaged, they didn't prevent me from enjoying the good parts of the story. Fans of historical fiction might find something to keep their eye on with this one!
I received my copy of the book from the publisher in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.
