Book Review: City of Lights by Melika Lux

City of Lights by Melika Lux
E-Book, 167 pages
Books In My Belfry, LLC
September 29, 2012
★★★☆☆

Genre: Historical Fiction, Novella

Source: Received for review as part of the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour

“What would you risk for the love of a stranger?

Ilyse Charpentier, a beautiful young chanteuse, is the diva of the 1894 Parisian cabaret scene by night and the unwilling obsession of her patron, Count Sergei Rakmanovich, at every other waking moment.

Though it has always been her secret desire, Ilyse's life as "La Petite Coquette" of the Paris stage has turned out to be anything but the glamorous existence she had dreamt of as a girl. As a young woman, Ilyse has already suffered tragedy and become estranged from her beloved brother, Maurice, who blames her for allowing the Count to drive them apart.

Unhappy and alone, Ilyse forces herself to banish all thoughts of independence until the night Ian McCarthy waltzes into her life. Immediately taken with the bold, young, British expatriate, Ilyse knows it is time to choose: will she break free and follow her heart or will she remain a slave to her patron’s jealous wrath for the rest of her life?”

This was a difficult read for me despite the shorter format – primarily due to issues I had with the characterization. Honestly, I didn’t like, and couldn’t connect with, any of the characters. They were either the paragon of virtue, just plain evil, or a love sick puppy – seemingly the extremes but nothing in the middle. The only characters we really learned the backstory of were Ilyse and her brother, Maurice. I wanted to know more about the villain, Rakmanovich, and the love interest, Ian. I just couldn’t like them enough to really care what happened in the end. I also couldn’t get into the love story – everything happened in a matter of seconds (or sentences) and was just too quick to develop.

However, despite the above, there were things that I did like about the book. There was decent pacing to the plot. The first half focuses on Ilyse and how she came to be where she is at the present time, while the second half focuses on what was going to be done to deal with the antagonist and his dastardly plot. It did pick up the pace and ended with a more satisfying conclusion than I expected.

Author Melika Lux also has written Corcitura, a supernatural thriller/historical novel. You can visit the author’s website for additional information about the book.

You can watch the book trailer for this novel below:

Reviews of this book by other bloggers:

• Front Street Reviews

Here are some choices for purchasing the book: Amazon, B&N, RJ Julia (my fav indie bookstore).

You can follow along with the rest of the blog tour by visiting the Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tour site or on Twitter with the following hashtag: #CityOfLightsVirtualTour.

I have one giveaway copy of the paperback up for grabs and it is open internationally. Giveaway will end on April 21^st. Entries are made through the Rafflecopter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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