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There are currently 16 member reviews
for The Last Tiara
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Irene H. (Saugerties, NY)
The Last Tiara; M.J. Rose
The Last Tiara by MJ Rose was the kind of book one reads for easygoing immersion in an interesting story which demands little of the reader in terms of deep thinking or emotional response.
Rose uses the story of a tiara found by Isobel Moon in 1948 to tell the story of her mother, Sofiya Petrovich's life during the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and her emigration to the United States. Alternating chapters move back and forth between the voices of mother and daughter. There is much potential in the book's premise to create deep characters with whom we can identify and sympathize. Unfortunately, the author chose to provide us with reasons for each character's decisions and to describe feelings rather than inviting us to intuit them. Thus, there was little to imagine and less to engage the emotions of the reader. Events unwind in the plot with allusions to complex motivations and noble feelings, but the author's writing style evokes neither. The banal, such as Isobel's affair with her boss is rendered in the same voice as the tragic, such as the death of Isobel's father and thousands of other Russians in the wake of the Revolution.
If a Book Club is seeking an easy read this is a good choice. Members can add depth to the experience by examining in depth Isobel's struggle to succeed in a man's world and comparing it to their own work lives. Or, the issues which lead to the Revolution and its ultimate effect on the history of Russia could be the basis of discussion and research.
Barring either of the above, The Last Tiara is a moderately interesting book to be read for relaxation between more challenging and insightful texts.
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Book Lover
The Last Tiara
Alternating chapters tell parallel stories of a woman who lived in Russia at the time of its revolution and her daughter in New York City in 1948. The mother was a friend of one of Tsar Nicholas's daughters and received from her a gift of a valuable tiara. The daughter finds the tiara after her mother's death, hidden in a wall. This is a good set-up for a mystery, as the daughter knows almost nothing of her mother's life before emigrating to the U.S. But the story doesn't live up to its potential. The writing is simplistic and seems to be aimed at teenage girls – lots of passionate romance that, in my opinion, gets in the way of the historical and family story. I can forgive the historical inaccuracies because the story needs them to move forward. But as one progresses in the book, more and more suspension of disbelief is needed. It's not a bad book, but it could have been much better with more sophisticated writing and less emphasis on the love stories.
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