East (Edith Pattou)

Why I have this book: I joined a small, online book club... and this was the choice of the month.

East is a cross between a fairy tale and a fantasy. I'm not a big fantasy fan AT ALL. I would have never picked this book to read on my own... but that's the wonderful thing about belonging to a book club. I have read many books I wouldn't have read otherwise because of the various book clubs I have been in!

I started this book a couple of weeks ago, read the first chapter or so, and put it down. Last night (since the discussion begins later this week) I picked it up again at around 9:30 pm, settled into a hot bath, and began reading again.

I tore myself away from the book when I noticed - a couple of hours later - that the water was cool, got my jammies on, and climbed into bed with my small book light to keep reading. (I was that enthralled in the story!) I read until well after midnight, when I finally put the book down to get some sleep. (It's spring break, so I knew I could sleep in a bit.)

I finished the book today.

I will say I thought that once the climax of the story had happened, the book ended rather quickly and fairly neatly. I was a bit disappointed in that. It was like I was completely engrossed in the story, totally sucked in... and then the rest of the book was just "surface" reading, because there wasn't much depth to it.

But... it's a keeper. I know both my older girls will love it. I really enjoyed the story, and wish the author would have finished out the ending with the same depth as the rest of the book. However, the book was already nearly 500 pages long, so... ?

This book is totally clean.