Welcome to The Book Club of Two!
One of my best friends from High School (RachelKiwi…the one on the left) happens to share my own addictive love of reading…She even owns a Nook and everything so we share and trade and do lots of texting about bookish things while we should be working. Every so many weeks we get an itch and decide to do a book together. Our reading abilities are about the same so there’s no problem with finishing the text in a day or two…we both read that fast. Since RachelKiwi is a great gal I thought I’d give you guys a little peek into our exclusive club 😉
We’ve been waiting for The Wild Rose FOR EVER, lol. We did the first two in the series together and you couldn’t stop us from tackling this one together either. When we were finished we traded 4 questions…RachelKiwi asked me 4 and I asked her 4. Watch out these answers contain MAJOR *Spoilers*. But if you’ve done The Wild Rose you’re gonna love our breakdown…We covered all those nagging questions you’ve been dying to talk to someone about!
With out further ado…The Questions…
RachelKiwi Asks, TheLibrarian Answers…
1. I read on Donnelly’s blog that Willa is the character that she has created that she identifies most with, because she isn’t perfect, she’s damaged and broken. of the heroines of this series, Fiona, India, and Willa, who do you identify with most and why?
I’ve always been a Fiona girl. I think the way that she responds to the trials in her life is the same way I would. I mean, I suppose I’m probably not starting a worldwide tea industry or anything. But the way she picks herself up. Fiona doesn’t wallow in her losses, she makes the best out of her situations…she remains happy with what the world has given her. I like that response better than India’s resignation and Willa’s depression and addiction. I’m more of a deal with it and move on kinda gal.
2. I don’t think either of us were satisfied with Wild Rose, compared to the way we passionately adored the other two books. What do you think Donnelly did differently this time? what would you have changed to make this a 10/10 read for you?
I think it was huge that Donnelly started Willa and Seamie’s story in The Winter Rose. The beginning of The Wild Rose felt like we were halfway through a story. A single book didn’t start with the love that the other two had. So for 99% of the book we were stuck in that lost period where each character lives their separate life. In the other two stories only about a third of the book was spent apart. Because we saw the two characters fall in love in the beginning. It just made The Wild Rose a little more depressing for the bulk of the book.
To make it a 10/10 I would have like to either see Donnelly mix up her plot patterns or given her main characters a few more happy breakthroughs. Maybe they could have come together (not in an illicit affair) for a bit during Part 1 before losing each other again. They could have found a happy relationship, or more happiness in their accomplishments. Even the beautiful photos Willa takes, or the achievements Seamie makes in the Navy are brushed over in a way that makes them seem meaningless to the characters. Like a shoulder shrug instead of a huge grin. There just needed to be a little more “happy” in this book. Even the ending is a quiet coming together. No big, hug/love/kiss/shebang.
3. what do you think of the ending with Max von Brandt’s 11th hour confession that he was a double-agent working for the British? satisfying? believable? unforgivable? or no?
This felt very rushed to me. It was almost like I was waiting for someone to jump out of the closet and disprove his innocence. NOTHING in the rest of the book gave any merit to his double-agent status. There wasn’t one scene that proved he was good…not even a situation where his actions could have been for the good. I kinda felt like Donnelly pulled that out of her you-know-what. Wouldn’t the ending have been smoother if Albie had saved the day and taken in Max for the war criminal he was? Why did they even let him go?…heck, Joe and the head of the Navy were arrested earlier in the novel and they had identification on them. It seemed a little too easy and made me feel worse about loosing Gladys, Maud, and Jennie under the circumstances we did. Their deaths are now in vain! None of them had to die. Even Maud could have been dealt with had Max explained himself. Jennie died thinking she was righting a wrong, now we find that in those last moments she was actually hindering a good spy. Poor Gladys had a horrible life alone because of Max, who sent the picture that caused her to commit suicide? Then who was this spy master we searched the whole book for? Why did Donnelly drop that hint that Max was back in town to mend his chain?
UGH!!!!! The more I think about it, the more I really needed Max to be a villain to right all of these wrongs…and these plot points! What was the point of him if he really wasn’t a bad guy…
4. Seamie and Willa’s love is defined by several people in the book as being destructive… destroying everything and everyone it touches. do you think that is true?
I don’t know that their love destroys. Honestly, I think Willa was the destructive person. There I said it. Had she been more in tune with her feelings; Had she stayed and had a conversation with Seamie all could have been righted. I think the difference from the first two books was that these two didn’t have to lose each other. No one was escaping a murderer or the law like in the last two books. They were pushed apart by Willa’s stubbornness. And held in that position because Willa is a depressive addict. She really did wrong them as a couple and the repercussions of her inability to accept a lost leg rippled and ruined how many lives?! Jennie, Albie, Max…etc. Willa is a little too prideful for my taste, and selfish, there I said it. I just didn’t agree with her viewpoint on life. Had she softened a bit think of how many more good years she and Seamie would have had…
xxx
TheLibrarian Asks, RachelKiwi Answers…
1. How do you feel about the Seamie/Jennie relationship? Neither was honest – but they didn’t have the success of Fiona and Nick or the tragedy of India and Freddie…Do you think Seamie and Jennie’s marriage was a working plot point or a fail on the part of Donnelly?
It was hard to see Seamie pick such a sweet girl to marry. It’s easy to condone adultery in characters when they are married to horrible people. But for him to cheat on Jennie was hard to watch. Even though she wasn’t honest with him, either, it was out of love for him. She was scared of rejection, and rightfully so, cause she ended up being rejected anyway when he turned to Willa. I think their marriage was a device to keep Willa and Seamie apart… again. If she was gonna use it, which she did, obviously, I think she needed to develop it more. Pretty much as soon as Willa came back, Jennie disappeared from all plots involving Seamie. I wanted to see inside their marriage… see it deteriorate, or see the tension there. Seamie didn’t love Jennie at the beginning, but he respected her and liked her and was attracted to her. Next we know he’s thinking about how he doesn’t love his wife and what a horrible man he is. How did we get there? I would have loved to see Seamie and Jennie fighting… or giving each other the silent treatment, or whatever. We don’t know what happened there, because Donnelly didn’t show us and I think that was a mistake.
2. Did you think there was a moment in the end of the book where Max could have been the better choice for Willa?
Oh I hate your question, because yes. Seamie never felt “wild” to me like Willa was. They talk about how they are such a destructive force together, but they weren’t… they just shared a common passion. Max, however, is as broken and wild and untamed as Willa is. Life has hardened both him and Willa. I don’t know if that makes for a better choice for her, though. Maybe Seamie can gentle her, free her from everything that torments her. But I do think Max and Willa could have had a good connection if Seamie had really died. I wanted the ending to be where Max saved them, not because he was a double agent and a “good guy” after all, but just out of selfless love for Willa and still be the “bad guy.” I thought that might be more compelling than throwing in this espionage twist at the end.
3. Why do you think Donnelly chose to make this tale so much darker than the two previous? Yes, the other couples had hardships but they were allowed moments of happiness as well…Why do you think Seamie and Willa had none? Or do you disagree…did you see happiness in their lives?
I don’t think Seamie and Willa had moments of happiness after the accident on Kilimanjaro. Even when they were reunited in London 8 years later, those hours together were tainted by guilt and secrecy. Even at the end, when they are together with no more obstacles, it isn’t a joyous ending like the endings of the previous two books. It’s like a tentative happiness… one where they know that at least they are together, but there is this “terrible love” and life to be conquered. But I appreciated this grimmer book. The other two, though I loved them to death, were like unbelievable fairy tales: people coming back from the dead multiple times, secret love children, rags to riches. The Wild Rose felt more like real life. There were still the close brushes with death and the improbable encounters in the deserts, but there was loss and pain and addiction and selfishness… on the part of the good guys. So maybe she was just going for a harsher dose of reality this time. Maybe she wanted to make characters that weren’t so perfect and courageousness and right all the time. And I think the books before had themes of perseverance and redemption and forgiveness and all this mushy good stuff. This theme is something grittier. I don’t know. Survival? That’s what I felt at the end. That I could finally just exhale, that everyone had survived.
4. Of all the side plots did you have a favorite? Which one and why…
I loved anything with India and Sid. I miss them and wanted to see more of them. I absolutely adore Sid. I like seeing him further into his transformation from head gangster into loving husband and father. And I loved Fiona and Joe’s feisty daughter, Katie. Her own book, please, Jennifer?
Sara O
thelibrarianreads 