What do readers think of The Imposter Bride by Nancy Richler? Write your own review.

I enjoyed this book, and felt like the author really gave me a sense of the family and the emotions. I also enjoyed the Jewish references, and how the family interacted with each other. Also the realistic depiction of the people - not everyone was sweetness and light, but they were more like the everyday people we know.

Updated Review:
I wanted to add more to my review, but I had to think about this book for a bit. It was hard to put into words how I felt about it, so my first review was somewhat bland. This is a wonderful, moving, poignant book. I had to absorb parts of the story before I could move on to the next part. The undercurrent of feelings was so realistic, and at the end, I was crying. I think this was a humanistic portrayal of the understanding and misunderstanding of people that survived the war, or perhaps, more honestly, made their way through the war, as only they can know.

I loved the premise of the book and wanted to find Lily perhaps even more than her daughter did. But I didn't find the characters or the storyline very compelling and only finished the book because I was supposed to write a review. While parts of it were well written, there was a disconnect throughout too much of it. I felt it was a book that didn't like up to its potential.

I fel this book had potential, I flew through the first half of the book, and was enjoying it, but the second half felt like a slog. I normally love the changing of time periods as device, but I felt as though it fell flat in this book.
The book was enjoyable, but was not what I was expecting.

It kept me too much at arms length. While the author did a great job of interesting me in Lily, her past, and her new family in Canada, I was left feeling distinctly unsatisfied by the answers I received. The characters were interesting, but not as vivid or textured as I had hoped. Perhaps it was a plot device to make us feel as disconnected from Lily as Julia, her abandoned child, was. A story told in alternating timelines about a mysterious young WWII Jewish refugee, her appropriation of dead woman's identity to escape to the safety of Canada to start over, and the daughter and husband she left behind when she could not bear to live out her lie could have been dense & rich. It read more like a cream puff to me. Nice, but not very filling.

The Imposter Bride in the beginning was intriguing and nicely humorous with an interesting storyline. I like more adventure and twsting plots in a novel, but I think many will find this book enjoyable.

Who is Lily? Is she who she says she is? She came to Canada as a "mail order bride" for Sol Kramer. Why does Sol reject her before he has even spoken to her? Why does his brother Nathan marry her?
The entire story of Lily Kramer is like filling a basket of unanswered question and you ask yourself: "when is the author going to fill in the blanks?" This novel offers much insight into the aftermath of WWII - how people from European countries relocated to a new continent, missing and lost relatives, starting over and becoming a part of the "brave new world" they were forced to adopt. Somewhere is all of this you find Lilly Kramer and her role in a "brave" new family. Through it all the reader is trying to answer provocative questions and make sense of Lily's actions. This is a story you must burrow into to find the answers to questions of how people transition in life and their resiliency in facing everyday life. Ironically, I discovered this story isn't really about Lilly at all, but about the people whose lives she affected.

I read it all but it was a challenge. I am not too much for flashbacks and forth. I did like Ruthie but she could have done something earlier. The Jewish cultural elements were good to learn.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first third or so of "The Imposter Bride". It had a bit of mystery and lots of family drama. After that, it got incredibly boring. I only finished it because I have to write a review.

Additionally, while I usually enjoy when authors switch between the past and the present, the technique is usually done with something to distinguish between the time periods (a heading or italics). Nancy Richler did nothing to indicate the time period, and with the same characters both in the present and the past, it became convoluted. It's a technique that other authors have employed with much better success.