Review: Windfallen by Jojo Moyes

 Summary from Goodreads:

From the acclaimed author of Sheltering Rain comes an intensely moving story of two women whose lives entwine through a lovely seaside house.

The tiny, well-ordered seaside village of Merham holds little to interest the adventurous -- except for Arcadia, the breathtaking art deco house perched above the shoreline. Attracted to this magical place, young Lottie Swift surrenders freely to its temptations and ultimately must face the hard consequences of her actions.

Years later another young woman comes to Merham. A designer hired to make over the now-empty Arcadia, Daisy Parsons seeks a new beginning, as Lottie once did. Fleeing a broken relationship, Daisy finds refuge at Arcadia, and something more -- a love she thought she would never know again.

My Review:



What I Liked:

Characters. My favorite aspect of the novel, as it tends to be with Moyes, was the well-written characters. It has two sets of characters, one set in past and then in present time. My favorite was Lottie and I think I would liked the novel a lot more if it was told only from her point of view. Despite my dislike of the multiple POVS, Moyes did a great job of shaping all of the different characters. 

Writing Style. If this had been done by another author I would have put it down at 50%. However, I love Moyes and her writing style so I kept reading until the end. Her writing is still amazing it is just the format that was not a great as her current novels. 

What I Disliked:

Story Format/POVs. The novel felt like it had too much going on within it. I had two different stories, one set in the past and another set in present day. I felt like I was taken out of the story when the change happened. Also, I struggled with the amount of POVs and how it sometimes hard to tell who was speaking. 

Plot/Ending. I felt that the ending was bit anticlimactic for how long the novel was. I would have liked to have a more satisfying conclusion.  

Length. This felt like two novels pushed into one. I think it would have been better if the author had separated them into two novels. It would have been able to fully explore the characters in each section and would have been so lengthy/hard to get through. 

I recommend checking out this novel if you enjoy Jojo Moyes. It had some problems but still was solid read. 

My Rating:

3.5 Stars Out of 5 Stars