FaithRaiderReads - The Queen of Hearts
One of my goals for this summer is to read & review as many of the books from Anne Bogel's Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide.
Anne Bogel's synopsis on her reading guide is as follows:
First of all, we really do need to talk about the cover. I love book cover design. I know, you might not guess it from the cover of my book, which I did myself in photoshop. However, in my mind, this is the cover that started a huge wave of copy-cat designs. You can find the title in a bed or wreath of flowers on at least half a dozen titles released this year. This one is the first and best of them all - it is super detailed and simply gorgeous.
Next, we need to talk about the characters in this book because ultimately that is the thing that endeared me to the book right away. Zadie's preschool-aged daughter Delaney was at the very top of my list of favorite characters. Obviously based on the author's youngest daughter, she is the most precious little person I have ever read in a novel. The cute little things that she says and her adorable mannerisms will stick with me for awhile. Emma's husband Wyatt was also a very vibrant, unique character. Graham was also one of my favorite characters. Some of the characters seemed rather flat and generic - all the other kids in the book were more of a blur in the background, their med-school friends were pretty cliche, Zadie's husband Drew felt like a placeholder character to me.
The story is told in alternating points of view between Emma & Zadie, alternating between past and present. To be honest, I struggled to distinguish between the voices of Emma & Zadie, their characters were unique but their voices were not. I loved the character of Zadie wholeheartedly. She is a beautifully flawed character with a big, soft heart. I also thought Emma's character was beautiful. She is complicated and yet relatable. Her struggle with anxiety and her striving to maintain an image of perfection resonated with me.
The plot revolves around Emma & Zadie's friendship, in the past as third-year medical students during their trauma rotation at a teaching hospital and in the present. They both experience major professional losses and lean on each other to get through them. There is also a romantic relationship with one of the resident chief's named Nick (or Dr. X). It is a huge part of the overall story and while most of this part of the story I did not like I was, in general, happy with how it all ended.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but with some reservations which I'll explain below. I agree with Anne's assessment - if you like Gray's Anatomy (and shows in that genre) you'll love this novel. However, if you don't like Gray's Anatomy, you may want to pass.
SPOILERS:
Everything under this heading contains spoilers. I've tried to keep them to a minimum, but they help understand why I said I enjoyed this book, but with reservations.
Sexuality throughout: for me, personally this was an overly-sexual story. You could have told the same story without that many scenes. A couple of the scenes are really sweet, but most are not and there is one scene of forcefulness which was a character development moment but I skipped over the scene and did not like that it was in the book. However, the scenes weren't overly graphic. If there weren't so many of them I would have been okay.
Suicide - it wrecked me. One of the characters commits suicide and I was sad about it for days. I felt like the suicide was just a plot point, and while I don't think the author was intentionally being callous or disrespectful I am really really sensitive about how suicide is portrayed in fiction. If you're going to write about it you have a huge weight of responsibility to bear in how you write about it. Romanticising suicide is not responsible.
So those are my thoughts about Queen of Hearts - if you read it I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!!
Anne Bogel's synopsis on her reading guide is as follows:
If you picked this book up because of the cover, I wouldn't blame you a bit. Zadie and Emma have been best friends since med school; now they're practicing physicians in Charlotte. But when an old colleague comes to town, he stirs up long-buried secrets from the past. This story hinges on love and medicine gone wrong, but it’s the female friendships that really shine. The setting hooked me because it's set alternately in Charlotte, where I spent some time last fall, and Louisville, where I've lived for years. If you love Gray's Anatomy, this belongs on your TBR. Publication date: February 13.Here is my review:
First of all, we really do need to talk about the cover. I love book cover design. I know, you might not guess it from the cover of my book, which I did myself in photoshop. However, in my mind, this is the cover that started a huge wave of copy-cat designs. You can find the title in a bed or wreath of flowers on at least half a dozen titles released this year. This one is the first and best of them all - it is super detailed and simply gorgeous.
Next, we need to talk about the characters in this book because ultimately that is the thing that endeared me to the book right away. Zadie's preschool-aged daughter Delaney was at the very top of my list of favorite characters. Obviously based on the author's youngest daughter, she is the most precious little person I have ever read in a novel. The cute little things that she says and her adorable mannerisms will stick with me for awhile. Emma's husband Wyatt was also a very vibrant, unique character. Graham was also one of my favorite characters. Some of the characters seemed rather flat and generic - all the other kids in the book were more of a blur in the background, their med-school friends were pretty cliche, Zadie's husband Drew felt like a placeholder character to me.
The story is told in alternating points of view between Emma & Zadie, alternating between past and present. To be honest, I struggled to distinguish between the voices of Emma & Zadie, their characters were unique but their voices were not. I loved the character of Zadie wholeheartedly. She is a beautifully flawed character with a big, soft heart. I also thought Emma's character was beautiful. She is complicated and yet relatable. Her struggle with anxiety and her striving to maintain an image of perfection resonated with me.
The plot revolves around Emma & Zadie's friendship, in the past as third-year medical students during their trauma rotation at a teaching hospital and in the present. They both experience major professional losses and lean on each other to get through them. There is also a romantic relationship with one of the resident chief's named Nick (or Dr. X). It is a huge part of the overall story and while most of this part of the story I did not like I was, in general, happy with how it all ended.
Overall, I enjoyed the book, but with some reservations which I'll explain below. I agree with Anne's assessment - if you like Gray's Anatomy (and shows in that genre) you'll love this novel. However, if you don't like Gray's Anatomy, you may want to pass.
SPOILERS:
Everything under this heading contains spoilers. I've tried to keep them to a minimum, but they help understand why I said I enjoyed this book, but with reservations.
Sexuality throughout: for me, personally this was an overly-sexual story. You could have told the same story without that many scenes. A couple of the scenes are really sweet, but most are not and there is one scene of forcefulness which was a character development moment but I skipped over the scene and did not like that it was in the book. However, the scenes weren't overly graphic. If there weren't so many of them I would have been okay.
Suicide - it wrecked me. One of the characters commits suicide and I was sad about it for days. I felt like the suicide was just a plot point, and while I don't think the author was intentionally being callous or disrespectful I am really really sensitive about how suicide is portrayed in fiction. If you're going to write about it you have a huge weight of responsibility to bear in how you write about it. Romanticising suicide is not responsible.
So those are my thoughts about Queen of Hearts - if you read it I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!!
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