Helpful Score: 6
Not bad: Very "Great Gatsby-ish", but lacking a structured story line. Character development is full and deeply engaging, but the story lacks a build up and a climax - unless you want to call the opening of the truck the climax; if that is the case, the exploration of how that affects Viva is shallow and disappointing, as if the author just tried to hurry and finish the book. Worth a read, but don't expect any earth shuddering revelations.
Helpful Score: 6
A nice look into the time when India was a British colony. The book looks into the lives of three women traveling thru India and their struggles to adjust. The beginning of the book is quite intriguing at the beginning. I think it was a little dragged out and could've been shortened with unneeded detail but overall is a good read. I enjoyed the parts involving the character Tor. The book concentrates on the story of Viva. Rose's story is a bit depressing especially for such a likable character. Overall a good read.
Helpful Score: 4
Very good, longer read. I read in approximately 14 hours. A little history, a little love. The author put out some very recognizable Indian culture. There was a strong sense of romance-but nothing repulsive or smutty, and finding "home". Like-able characters.
Helpful Score: 2
Great story set in the waning colonial days of British India. The three main female characters, Rose, Victoria, and Viva, are three young Englishwomen who travel to India looking for love, adventure, and in Viva's case, a job. I really got caught up in the story and had a hard time putting this book down.
Helpful Score: 2
This is a book everyone can enjoy, the story in 1928 of three women who travel to India, one to wed a man she hardly knows. They try to take care of each other and of themselves and struggle with the lack of rights women had at that time and the dangers they had to face in India.
Helpful Score: 2
A story of three young women who leave England as part of the "fishing fleet" going to India to find husbands. There is no single strong plot line, but several tales of women that weave together in the heat of Bombay. Their down-to-earth tales, all in different circumstances, describe with detail life in England and India at the decline of the Raj and the beginning of the Ghandi era. Lots of good character development and realistic description of daily life in both settings, rich and poor. I really enjoyed watching the characters play out their lives. A very satisfying tale, marred only by the story of a disturbed young man, Guy Glover. Although it added an element of danger, it seemed a little too on the fringe. But a great read nonetheless.
Helpful Score: 1
A story of India during the 1920s when the British ruled but the "home rule" movement was gaining ground. The story is told through the perspectives of three British women all in India for varying reasons. The story was reasonably interesting. However, one part - centered around the characters on a young man - did not really fit with the rest of the book. Still not clear on what, if anything, that added to the story.
The book was also rather long. I think the same story could have been told in a more concise manner.
The book was also rather long. I think the same story could have been told in a more concise manner.
Helpful Score: 1
Really liked this book! Great descriptive writing of what it must have been like during this time in India. I can imagine this one will be on my top 10 reads for 2010!
This book takes you on a trip to India! Overall it was a good book. Basically follows a group of women over a several year period. Some excitement... some romance...
I could not put this book down! A wonderful story about 3 young women who travel to India in 1928...one to be married to a cavalry officer, one as her bridesmaid and the last as their chaperone. This book is surprising, exciting, mysterious and full of action. It brings to life the characters and beauty of India during Ghandi's influence. They live through the unrest and rioting in protest against British rule. I highly recommend this book!
Excellent historical romance fiction set in India.
This novel features three British young women whose deep friendship is forever entwined as their lives unfold in India. Viva Sowerby decides to chaperone 2 girls and a boy on a ship from Tilbury to Bombay in order to pay for her own passage. Her parents have died there and left her a trunk that she needs to retrieve. Her two female charges are Rose, who is engaged to be married to Jack in India and Tor, her maid of honor who desperately needs to find someone to marry. The boy needing to be chaperoned is Guy, a teenager who has been kicked out of his private school for stealing. It is beautifully written and a definite page turner. Loved this! I was simply swept away by all of it.
I read East of the Sun for book club. I liked it, but had a hard time keeping the characters straight. I felt like the author dragged the story at times, then hurried up by leaving things out. The story centers around a young woman who chaperone's two younger women and a teen aged boy on a trip to India. All of them have personal issues they must come to terms with. The author did a good job of describing the scenery, and customs of India.
Good story about three young women who go to India from Great Britain during the time of unrest in the 1920's.
Very interesting learning about another time & a foreign country.
