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A review by jenbsbooks
Sheltering Angel: A Novel Based on a True Story of the Titanic by Louella Bryant
2.75
Well, unfortunately, my overall experience with this was negative. Still rating it 3* , as the story/writing wasn't bad, but there were some pet peeves that just rubbed me the wrong way.
The text was included in KindleUnlimited, with audio available for an add-on of just over $3. I went ahead and paid for the audio. The narrator wasn't bed, but I didn't really care for her voices. Moreover, as the book shifted from Florence's 1st person narrative, to Andrew's third person POV ... it just felt strange to be to have it be in the exact same voice. I think having a different narrator for Andrew's portions would have improved things for me. I'd find my mind drifting, and the "voice" in both the writing, and the narration, was so similar that as I'd come back to the book, it would take me a while to figure out if it was Florence or Andrew's POV. I had to wait for the "I" statement, or the "Andrew ..." to determine. There were no headers for POV shifts, and further in the book, a single chapter would feature both. Looking at the Kindle, when this happened, there was a *-----* visual to separate (just a pause in the audiobook).
I really didn't like the shift between POVs, one 1st person one 3rd person. I didn't care for the whole Book 1 and Book 2 buildup ... I mean I guess we needed to get to know the characters to care about them, but ... I just never really connected. There seemed to be too many attempts to connect it to the movie Titanic ... the having Florence painted, and he wants her to shift her shirt to see her true skin tone (make us think of Jack sketching Rose naked) and Florence grabbing a certain piece of jewelry (similar to the one featured in the movie?) As with all historical pieces, I do appreciate learning little factual (or I assume they are, should research) tidbits ... I'm not remembering which here, but there were some data drops that were of interest.
All past tense, until the very end, when there was an awkward shift to present tense.
There were "three books" or sections, with multiple chapters in each part. HUGE PET PEEVE ... the Audible "chapters" hardly paired to the Kindle copy ... in Audible, there are just numerical chapters, chronological 1-57. No distinction of the three sections, no indication that "chapter 57" is actually the "Afterward" ... as something happened that I wanted to reference in the text, I noted it was "chapter 48" only to turn to the Kindle copy and have that be absolutely useless information in helping me find that spot. In Kindle ... there are NO chronological chapters listed at all, just the three "books" and chapter headings. The chapter headings seemed to be newspaper headlines (A quick info/title grabber with a date) ... were these real newspaper headings??? I felt sure that the author's note at the end, where it was told a little which characters were based on real people and or the real events of our MCs ... but the headers weren't addressed. The headers would have been better in the Audible version than the useless "chapter" numbers.
One thing I note in books, is if a song is sung by the character, is it sung or spoken by the narrator. I can understand the issues either way. Here, there were a number of musical moments, all spoken. While I'm not sure I would have appreciated a sudden switch to singing, the spoken songs definitely felt lacking.
It was clean, no proFanity, nothing explicitly sexual, although Andrew does get dragged to "a den of iniquity" where "her breasts pressed into his chest like boules" ...I noticed the word "boules" (and the correct pronunciation, bool rhymes with fool) as it's a sourdough term (the round loaf). "Carnegie" was also stated several times, with the traditional pronunciation. Quite a bit of smirking and scowling going on. No "roiling" of ocean waters or emotions, which surprised me a little (it's in 80% of reads).
So while I can see that many would enjoy this book and appreciate the history set in an easier to read novelization, I was pushing to finish and was glad I was done. I would have appreciated some discussion questions, maybe to bring out some things I hadn't thought of, make me delve a little deeper. I felt like there were unanswered questions, things we were left wondering.
The text was included in KindleUnlimited, with audio available for an add-on of just over $3. I went ahead and paid for the audio. The narrator wasn't bed, but I didn't really care for her voices. Moreover, as the book shifted from Florence's 1st person narrative, to Andrew's third person POV ... it just felt strange to be to have it be in the exact same voice. I think having a different narrator for Andrew's portions would have improved things for me. I'd find my mind drifting, and the "voice" in both the writing, and the narration, was so similar that as I'd come back to the book, it would take me a while to figure out if it was Florence or Andrew's POV. I had to wait for the "I" statement, or the "Andrew ..." to determine. There were no headers for POV shifts, and further in the book, a single chapter would feature both. Looking at the Kindle, when this happened, there was a *-----* visual to separate (just a pause in the audiobook).
I really didn't like the shift between POVs, one 1st person one 3rd person. I didn't care for the whole Book 1 and Book 2 buildup ... I mean I guess we needed to get to know the characters to care about them, but ... I just never really connected. There seemed to be too many attempts to connect it to the movie Titanic ... the having Florence painted, and he wants her to shift her shirt to see her true skin tone (make us think of Jack sketching Rose naked) and Florence grabbing a certain piece of jewelry (similar to the one featured in the movie?) As with all historical pieces, I do appreciate learning little factual (or I assume they are, should research) tidbits ... I'm not remembering which here, but there were some data drops that were of interest.
All past tense, until the very end, when there was an awkward shift to present tense.
There were "three books" or sections, with multiple chapters in each part. HUGE PET PEEVE ... the Audible "chapters" hardly paired to the Kindle copy ... in Audible, there are just numerical chapters, chronological 1-57. No distinction of the three sections, no indication that "chapter 57" is actually the "Afterward" ... as something happened that I wanted to reference in the text, I noted it was "chapter 48" only to turn to the Kindle copy and have that be absolutely useless information in helping me find that spot. In Kindle ... there are NO chronological chapters listed at all, just the three "books" and chapter headings. The chapter headings seemed to be newspaper headlines (A quick info/title grabber with a date) ... were these real newspaper headings??? I felt sure that the author's note at the end, where it was told a little which characters were based on real people and or the real events of our MCs ... but the headers weren't addressed. The headers would have been better in the Audible version than the useless "chapter" numbers.
One thing I note in books, is if a song is sung by the character, is it sung or spoken by the narrator. I can understand the issues either way. Here, there were a number of musical moments, all spoken. While I'm not sure I would have appreciated a sudden switch to singing, the spoken songs definitely felt lacking.
It was clean, no proFanity, nothing explicitly sexual, although Andrew does get dragged to "a den of iniquity" where "her breasts pressed into his chest like boules" ...I noticed the word "boules" (and the correct pronunciation, bool rhymes with fool) as it's a sourdough term (the round loaf). "Carnegie" was also stated several times, with the traditional pronunciation. Quite a bit of smirking and scowling going on. No "roiling" of ocean waters or emotions, which surprised me a little (it's in 80% of reads).
So while I can see that many would enjoy this book and appreciate the history set in an easier to read novelization, I was pushing to finish and was glad I was done. I would have appreciated some discussion questions, maybe to bring out some things I hadn't thought of, make me delve a little deeper. I felt like there were unanswered questions, things we were left wondering.