Book Review:
Santorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes
Santorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes
Spoilers?
Yes!
Title - Santorini Sunsets
By - Anita HughesPublication - August 2nd 2016 by St. Martin's Griffin
Format - Paperback, 304 pages
Genre - Chick Lit, Romance
The seventh intoxicating love story by Anita Hughes, set in beautiful Santorini, Greece. When a Hollywood superstar and a NYC society girl fall in love, sparks fly and secrets are revealed.
Brigit Palmer is thrilled to be on the Greek Island of Santorini. She's here for her wedding to Hollywood heart-throb Blake Crawford, one of America's most eligible bachelors. Brigit's parents have rented a villa, and soon guests will arrive from all over the world for the intimate ceremony.
Brigit is a New York socialite, and she's just given up her position at a Manhattan law firm to run her father's philanthropic foundation. Things are finally falling into place. Love, career, family. Everything is going so well...until she steps into the garden and sees her ex-husband Nathaniel hiding in the rose bushes.
Nathaniel, a failed novelist, announces that Blake sold the rights to the wedding to HELLO! Magazine for two million dollars (donated to charity), and he is the reporter assigned to write the story. Everyone expects Brigit to have her happily ever after, including her mother who taught her how to lead the perfect lifestyle, her younger sister Daisy who impatiently wishes for her own love story, and of course, her fiancé. Things are supposed to work out for them. But when Brigit discovers an unsettling secret about Blake, she questions everything she's ever believed about love, and wonders if she's better off alone.
Told in Anita Hughes' spectacularly descriptive prose, SANTORINI SUNSETS is a story about family bonds, first loves, and the question of when to let go and when to hang on as tight as you can.
The Rating :
My Review:
My review in a gif. Which equals 3 stars.
Okay. I feel like I have to give my reason for this gif. And its that there were some dramatic moments when I was just sitting there being like "I knew this was going to happen". So it makes sense.
Okay. I feel like I have to give my reason for this gif. And its that there were some dramatic moments when I was just sitting there being like "I knew this was going to happen". So it makes sense.
The Cover:
Although they say never judge a book by it's cover I believe the cover should represent what the book is going to be like or at least some aspect of it.
This cover is very pretty with the gradient in the background and the hills of Santorini but the model made it creepy. She looked like she was possessed or something. I don't know, I guess I would have preferred her to hut be standing there looking at the sunset instead of posing like she was at a high fashion photography session.
The Story:
I did not relate to this story many of the characters. Not one bit.
Truthfully, I just thought that it was too pretentious. All the characters were rich or knew what it was like, or they were famous actors and that is unknown to me.So when in the story they would mention brand names, or other places I was reading and being totally clueless which made me hate the story. But of course I did like some things about this book.
Relationships:
This book had a bunch of relationships both in family and in couples.
Bridgit X Blake.
I knew from the beginning that their relationship was either not going to end up in marriage or they were going to end up resenting each other or something similar. I could tell that they did like each other but in a surface kind or way.I mean, that they didn't really know each other. She only ever said when someone asked that he was a smart, handsome and charitable man. She never said that he liked certain things, or hated certain things. She probably didn't know if he was allergic to anything. And he didn't know anything about her either. For him he loved her because she was beautiful blond with blue eyes that was smart and belonged to the “New York Society”. Whatever that means.
Brigit x Nathaniel
They knew each other since they were kinds, that alone makes them a better match than her and Blake. They shared history, they knew what the other liked or hated. And yes they did get married and then divorce but it was because they were too young when they got married. They needed to learn and grow up in order to understand the other. And they did and they still loved each other in the end.
Daisy x Robbie
They were the only coupe I actually rooted for during the entire story. I wanted them to be together and be happy. Daisy is such an amazing person but she's too concerned with being an equal to Brigit, who was an attorney and about to marry an famous, handsome actor. She was talented and creative in many ways that made her and Robbie perfect for each other. He was a photographer and she was a pastry chef turned fashion designer.
Family Dynamics:
As for Bridgit and Daisie’s parents, Sydney and Francis
They had their issues which were the lack of communication. After years of marriage they forgot that if they didn't say the important things than the other might feel alienated or even not loved. And that is what happened to them. Not to mention the affair Sydney had and Francic always being at work, or traveling and him not telling her that they might lose the house they had in Summerhill. All of that created a time bomb but they talked and worked it out.
Settings:
This book was filled with descriptions of Santorini and other settings. Making it easy to picture the scenery and the flowers. It was beautifully described and it made me want to be there. See the flowers and the blue waters, the architecture and especially eat the food.
Overall:
I enjoyed reading this book . The way it was written was beautiful. Full of descriptions of the settings and the people and it was a quick read for me. I think I would have finished it much sooner if it was not or the loads homework I had to do this past two weeks. The last 100 and a half pages I read in two sittings. I had made a rule of giving myself an hour to read whenever I wasn't doing anything and it helped a lot.
The only thing I didn't like about this story was, like I mentioned earlier in this review, that I did not find myself feeling attached tote characters. I actually came to dislike them at times. Whenever they talked about money and clothes and they many houses they owned I just felt horrible. But I guess the whole point of this book is to be an easy beach read and to make you fantasize of being in these characters shoes. It's just that for me, personally, it didn't do that.
A to will I re-read this book again?
Probably, probably not. I don't know I guess it depends on my mood or whether it's been a long time since I first read it.
Will I read other books by Anita Hughes?
Definitely. I loved her writing and the way she made the paces and the character come to life.
Although they say never judge a book by it's cover I believe the cover should represent what the book is going to be like or at least some aspect of it.
This cover is very pretty with the gradient in the background and the hills of Santorini but the model made it creepy. She looked like she was possessed or something. I don't know, I guess I would have preferred her to hut be standing there looking at the sunset instead of posing like she was at a high fashion photography session.
The Story:
I did not relate to this story many of the characters. Not one bit.
Truthfully, I just thought that it was too pretentious. All the characters were rich or knew what it was like, or they were famous actors and that is unknown to me.So when in the story they would mention brand names, or other places I was reading and being totally clueless which made me hate the story. But of course I did like some things about this book.
Relationships:
This book had a bunch of relationships both in family and in couples.
Bridgit X Blake.
I knew from the beginning that their relationship was either not going to end up in marriage or they were going to end up resenting each other or something similar. I could tell that they did like each other but in a surface kind or way.I mean, that they didn't really know each other. She only ever said when someone asked that he was a smart, handsome and charitable man. She never said that he liked certain things, or hated certain things. She probably didn't know if he was allergic to anything. And he didn't know anything about her either. For him he loved her because she was beautiful blond with blue eyes that was smart and belonged to the “New York Society”. Whatever that means.
Brigit x Nathaniel
They knew each other since they were kinds, that alone makes them a better match than her and Blake. They shared history, they knew what the other liked or hated. And yes they did get married and then divorce but it was because they were too young when they got married. They needed to learn and grow up in order to understand the other. And they did and they still loved each other in the end.
Daisy x Robbie
They were the only coupe I actually rooted for during the entire story. I wanted them to be together and be happy. Daisy is such an amazing person but she's too concerned with being an equal to Brigit, who was an attorney and about to marry an famous, handsome actor. She was talented and creative in many ways that made her and Robbie perfect for each other. He was a photographer and she was a pastry chef turned fashion designer.
Family Dynamics:
As for Bridgit and Daisie’s parents, Sydney and Francis
They had their issues which were the lack of communication. After years of marriage they forgot that if they didn't say the important things than the other might feel alienated or even not loved. And that is what happened to them. Not to mention the affair Sydney had and Francic always being at work, or traveling and him not telling her that they might lose the house they had in Summerhill. All of that created a time bomb but they talked and worked it out.
Settings:
This book was filled with descriptions of Santorini and other settings. Making it easy to picture the scenery and the flowers. It was beautifully described and it made me want to be there. See the flowers and the blue waters, the architecture and especially eat the food.
Overall:
I enjoyed reading this book . The way it was written was beautiful. Full of descriptions of the settings and the people and it was a quick read for me. I think I would have finished it much sooner if it was not or the loads homework I had to do this past two weeks. The last 100 and a half pages I read in two sittings. I had made a rule of giving myself an hour to read whenever I wasn't doing anything and it helped a lot.
The only thing I didn't like about this story was, like I mentioned earlier in this review, that I did not find myself feeling attached tote characters. I actually came to dislike them at times. Whenever they talked about money and clothes and they many houses they owned I just felt horrible. But I guess the whole point of this book is to be an easy beach read and to make you fantasize of being in these characters shoes. It's just that for me, personally, it didn't do that.
A to will I re-read this book again?
Probably, probably not. I don't know I guess it depends on my mood or whether it's been a long time since I first read it.
Will I read other books by Anita Hughes?
Definitely. I loved her writing and the way she made the paces and the character come to life.
______________________________________
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