Diane Yannick's Reviews > A Fall of Marigolds

Two horrific NYC events a hundred years apart form the framework for this historical novel. I have no major complaints about the writing as it didn't get in the way of the story. I have some major complaints about the plotting. The number of coincidences made it majorly unbelievable. I also did not feel that the two stories were well meshed. Taryn's story was fairly interesting but not well developed. Clara's time on Ellis Island held more of my interest. I know that the scarf held the stories together but it just felt contrived to me.

My biggest complaint was the constant moralizing about love and loss and loving again. It's chock full of sentences like these that would be redundant if the author had just told the story without trying to tell her readers what to think: "Thoughts are thrust upon you. You can only hope that thoughts that you don't want will tire of you at some point and flutter away."

She even has to interpret Keats for us 'Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.' Keats is saying what you can still dream about is often sweeter than reality." Have you NO faith in you reader Susan Meissner?