‘Last Voyage of the Valentina’ by Santa Montefiore

Genre: Romance

Rating:  6/10

Favourite quote: N/A

This book follows the story of Alba, a young woman in the 1970’s who lives a promiscuous and hedonistic lifestyle aboard a houseboat – ‘The Valentina’. She has always feels isolated and so when she finds a portrait on her mother on the boat she goes on a quest to discover the truth about her mother and her family in Italy. Ultimately she finds not only her family in Italy but discovers a truth about her mother which explains why she was always such a mystery and not spoken of.

I’m afraid to say that although I’ve liked some of her other novels very much I thought this one was a let-down. It was described on the cover as a mystery, however it lacked tension. Had I put it down on the train and forgotten it I wouldn’t have endeavoured to find out the ending. In addition the characters were cliché and flat, and even in the book stereotypes were regurgitated, with Alba and her mother being the same ‘exotic and mysterious’ stereotype, and the two men who fall for them (Tommy and Fitz) being ‘English gentlemen’.  The women in the book were particularly hard to relate to, and I found by the end I didn’t care what happened to Alba, nor could I find anywhere a valid explanation of why Fitz fell in love with her aside her looks.

There was an attempt at character development; however it seemed very forced and unrealistic. Alba suddenly changes from being a selfish and hedonistic woman to one who is suddenly content with clean simple living, working in a café and who loves children. Although I understand what the author was trying to achieve here, it seemed unrealistic.

However if you are looking for an easy read, perhaps a holiday book to read in the sun where you know everything will turn out well in the end, then you can’t go far wrong with this book. A good book for if you are lacking the time or effort to concentrate on a more challenging book; the switching viewpoints keep your interest somewhat. However if you are going to pick up a book by Santa Montefiore then I could suggest ‘The House by the Sea’ which seems to have the heart and the characters which ‘Valentina’ seems to lack.

Please feel free to comment below, if not, the next review to go live should be later on this week and will the ‘The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August’ by Claire North. Until then xxx

What if your life were a novel?

I know,  I know, a week of deep thoughts for me huh?! Maybe it has something to do with all the revision.

First then, I considered what genre my life would be. Sadly I wouldn’t be a fantasy, as my life lacks dragons and giant flying eagles, broomsticks and daemons. Nor would I be a romance, see my other posts if you want to be depressed by how that is going. I wouldn’t be a classic, and I wouldn’t be an adventure. In fact, sadly enough, I concluded I would be one of two genres, and I don’t know which is worse. I would either be chick lit – you know the kind I mean, the stuff Jodi Picolt and Nora Roberts write – with ordinary characters (often regurgitated for their next novel with a name change) who go through some personal problem. Or I would be a character in an angsty book aimed at teenage girls; which, lets face it, with comments such as the above on why I wouldn’t be in a romance novel, I kind of deserve. Hermione would never say something like that.

Anyway, then I thought it doesn’t really matter which book I’m in, but which character I am. The characters after all don’t chose the books they inhabit. So then I considered the character I could be, and fortunately came up with something a little more cheering. I came up with 7 types of girl’s in books (let me know if I missed any):

The ‘spunky’ girl: the ones who are independent and have a lot of gumption, like Aarya Stark from Game of Thrones or Lyra from ‘His dark materials’, and although that’s the character I would most like to be, sadly I fear that isn’t me.

The ‘leader’: Tall, sexy, self-confident and don’t need no man. Very unlikely to have close girlfriends, and very likely to wander round her apartment with a glass of red wine in just an old t-shirt and pants. Definitely not me.

The cunning one: Similar to the leader, but cleverer, wittier, with more sarcasm, and a clear goal (often a man, and even sooner a married one). Also more likely to be an accomplice to murder than the leader.

The free spirit: The one with a guitar who wears earthy clothes and drinks green tea, and has hobbies like painting and drawing and walking on beaches at night.

The friend: reliable, loyal, probably a tad plain and a bit of a secondary character. I think of those I’ve named so far, this is probably most likely to me be. Could be worse I guess.

The guys girl: Athletic, into camping and similar hobbies, drinks beer, can look after herself, overlooked romantically.

Who do you think you would be? And who would you want to be if you are not already your favorite?

Anyway, my final thought as I sat sitting gazing out of my window like I imagine the free spirit would be likely to do, was my problem as a character. I have no goal. In my own life, I have no real goal. I am going to finish university, but after that, I don’t even know what I want from my life (or if we stick to the metaphor, my book). So I think I need to figure that out really, because one of the first things we were taught about creative writing is that every character needs to have a goal. Without one, I will never be a lead character in my own life, and that is just sad.

So that is my new goal: to discover my goal! To figure out what I want.
Sadly I got no replies from my applications from work experience or internships, which was a blow, but then I suppose I have no experience. So the goal for this summer is to get some experience, to pad out the novel of my life, and then maybe people will take more interest in me!

Here’s to being the lead character of my own life.

Until next time folks