Steeped in Science, Submersed in Story

A lovely tale of romance. I really enjoyed the story line and the historical elements. Post-war Paris was an excellent choice for the central part of the novel: close to things we've all read about but with enough unique detail that it didn't feel derivative. Julian, the main character, is real enough to relate to, but not your stereotypical hero. There are aspects of his character that are hard to love, and so the fact that Kendall doesn't fall into his arms upon meeting him, the complicated nature of the love story, is believable.

There were passages here and there in which the author's research was showing -- hey, I learned this really cool thing and I had to twist the story to fit it in sideways, but isn't learning history cool? -- but honestly, not as bad as other successful historical novels I've read and it was not overbearing. I felt a little remove from Kendall, the female lead in the story. Part of that was just that she wasn't the main character and we needed some narrative distance from her to make the main plot work, but there were times when I wished the author let us get closer to her.

All in all I really loved this book.. it was truly a good read. It just didn't quite rise to the "it was amazing" level for me. I'll definitely want to pick up Peter Golden's next book, though, and I recommend this one to anyone looking for a good book to settle down with this winter.

I got a free copy of this from Net Galley.