3+ of 5 stars to Titania Hardie‘s novel, The Rose Labyrinth. Few have heard of the author or this book, but when I stumbled upon it in the book store, I had to give it a chance for a few reasons:
1. It was a book within a book. It’s a normal hardcover book, but in the front cover, there is a second book, a journal of sorts. In the real book, the main character uses a journal and a puzzle to decode the secrets from 400 years ago. And as readers, we get a copy of this journal, so along the way, we can try to figure it out, too. It sounds like a great concept, perhaps a bit of a gimmick. I didn’t find it particularly useful, and it probably caused too much of an increase in production costs.
2. It told the story both in current time and in the historical Elizabethan period. I love those types of mysteries, where we learn, as the character learns, how they fit into this whole puzzle.
3. I’d been itching to try a little bit of a romance book, just to see if I would find it at all interesting. And in this one, the main character’s story is about her own health issues and her subsequent falling in love with another. Eh… a few plot issues and mechanical (?) issues given she had surgery and well… didn’t seem like it would all work out that quickly. But who am I to judge?
4. I love the author’s name. I will check out another of her books to see how those compare. But I’m not in any rush.
Overall, I liked the book; however, it didn’t live up to my hope given the notes above. I imagine it is only in print, given the journal that comes with it, but that might be something to look into, if you’re interested.
I think the story is good, but there are other comparable stories. It’s a cross between Kate Morton and Dan Brown. But it isn’t as good as either of them, so… just do some review reading before you decide to take this one on. It may or may not be a fit.
About Me
For those new to me or my reviews… here’s the scoop: I read A LOT. I write A LOT. And now I blog A LOT. First the book review goes on Goodreads, and then I send it on over to my WordPress blog at https://thisismytruthnow.com, where you’ll also find TV & Film reviews, the revealing and introspective 365 Daily Challenge and lots of blogging about places I’ve visited all over the world. And you can find all my social media profiles to get the details on the who/what/when/where and my pictures. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Vote in the poll and ratings. Thanks for stopping by. Note: All written content is my original creation and copyrighted to me, but the graphics and images were linked from other sites and belong to them. Many thanks to their original creators.
Wonderful review yet again, James 🙂 Too bad this one wasn’t up your alley!