DNF Review – The Serpent Garden by Judith Merkle Riley (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Length: 399 pages
Publisher: Crown
Release Date: January 8, 2008
ASIN: B0012E3JBU
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 3/5 stars
“In the court of Henry VIII, there are many secrets—and some people will kill to keep them hidden. Susanna Dallet is the daughter of a Flemish painter and wife to a philandering husband, living in the court of Henry VIII. When her husband is murdered, Susanna is suddenly left with a household to provide for and nothing to her name. Her days of anonymity are over when Susanna finds that guild rules preventing women from working do not apply at the king’s court, and she manages to secure a position as a miniature-portrait painter. Before long, she has not only made a name for herself, she is close to those who surround Princess Mary. But even in this lofty company, Susanna is not safe. An old manuscript that she has inherited turns out to hold the keys to an age-old mystery, and the forces that claimed her husband are closing in. As danger looms, Susanna joins with Robert Ashton, secretary to Henry’s cunning and ruthless adviser Archbishop Wolsey, and together they must fight a fearsome society in league with a demon.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I bought this book for my Kindle.
Thoughts: I am setting this aside 25% of the way in. I appreciate the writing style and the humorous tone to Susanna’s portions of the book. However, there are long chapters in this book that deal with random aristocracy characters and how they summoned a demon to take down the royalty in the country. There are a ton of characters in these chapters and it is hard to follow both all the characters and what is driving the story forward.
The portions from Susanna’s POV are entertaining; I enjoyed watching her start to make a living for herself selling her paintings (even if she does have to pass them off as her dead husband’s). I enjoyed the humor and irony in these portions. Unfortunately, for me, these portions didn’t makeup for the long chapters dealing with the other parts of the story. Additionally, this book oddly flips between first and third person…sometimes even mid chapter. This was jarring and made it tough to read.
I would say this book takes some patience to read, which is something I am in short supply of right now. So, out of frustration and just pure boredom, I am setting this aside. It’s not an awful book so far, but it is also a bit of a mess format and story-wise. I don’t recommend picking this up unless you have the time and patience to struggle through some odd writing and some less interesting (and more confusing) story/character elements.
My Summary (3/5): Overall this wasn’t for me. Susanna’s parts of the story were good but the other half of the story was confusing, full of too many characters, and boring. I didn’t have the patience to make it through this. I may pick it up at some point in the future and I also may checkout some other books by Riley since I did enjoy her writing style in general.
