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book review, book-reviews, Books, historical fiction, netgalley, reading, romance, The Wings of Poppy Pendleton
The cover of this book popped up in my Facebook ads several times this summer. I finally went to track down a copy of this book earlier this month and found out I had received an advanced reader’s copy through NetGalley. I decided to prioritize it since I try to review an books I get from NetGalley, and The Wings of Poppy Pendleton came out in the middle of September.
When I sent my request for this book, I made assumptions about it based entirely on the cover and title. I expected a middle grade book about a girl named . . . well . . . Poppy Pendleton. Upon reading the synopsis on Goodreads right when I started the book, I discovered my error. “1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York’s gilded society in their Thousand Islands castle; the next morning, she is gone, and her father is found dead in his smoking room.
“1992. Though Chloe Ridell lives in the shadows of Poppy’s castle, now in ruins, she has little interest in the mystery that still captivates tourists and locals alike. She is focused on preserving the island she inherited from her grandparents and reviving their vintage candy shop. Until the day a girl named Emma shows up on Chloe’s doorstep, with few possessions, save a tattered scrapbook that connects her to the Pendleton family. When a reporter arrives at Chloe’s store, asking questions about her grandfather, Chloe decides to help him dig into a past she’d thought best left buried. The haunting truth about Poppy, they soon discover, could save Emma’s life, so Chloe and Logan must work together to investigate exactly what happened long ago on Koster Isle.”
This book starts out really dark. Within the first chapter, the author introduces us to a troubled marriage, drug abuse, and a potential affair. I did not like Poppy’s mother and found it difficult to have sympathy for her. She was selfish throughout most of the book.
I also did not care much for Chloe, the more modern heroine, either. She was closed-off to both the other characters in the book and the reader. I also found it a bit weird for her grandfather to be an adult character in the 1907 events. The author eventually explains a bit of the age gap eventually, but it still made the story a bit too unrealistic.
I do not know if I would have finished this book if I did not feel obligated to write a review for NetGalley. I did appreciate Dobson avoiding making the romantic relationships of the characters the main focus of the book. However, I found it difficult to enjoy this book. I would give it 3/5 stars and the following spoiler trigger warnings: drug abuse, child abuse, affair, child slavery, and smuggling.