In The Imposter Bride we are introduced to Lily Azerov. Lily is a Jewish refuge who escaped to Canada after WWII. She comes to Canada after accepting the proposal of Sol Kramer, whom she has never met. When she gets off the train Sol takes back his proposal. Feeling pressure from the family friend who arranged the marriage, Nathan, Sol's brother, steps up to the plate and offers to marry Lily. But "Lily" isn't who she claims to be. She would have gotten away with it except for the fact that the actual Lily has family living in Montreal. They got word that Lily is getting married and show up, uninvited, to the wedding. In the weeks after the wedding "Lily" meets the family of the girl whose life she has taken over. They decide to keep her secret, but the guilt finally gets to "Lily". "Lily" tells her secret to Bella, her mother-in-law, and then eventually to Nathan. Finally the guilt becomes too much and "Lily" leaves Nathan and their newborn daughter Ruthie.
Ruthie spends much of her childhood wondering why her mother took off when Ruthie was just a baby. Her curiosity increases when she begins to get random deliveries of rocks and stones from the mother she has never met. Aside from 2 journals Nathan kept of "Lily's" the rocks are the only clue Ruthie has as to who her mother is. No one in Ruthie's family has explained why her mother left, or even that her mother is not Lily Azerov As Ruthie gets older she decides she wants to find the mother she never knew. Finally Bella reveals that Ruthie's attempts to search the phone books might be in vain as "Lily Azerov Kramer" may be going by her birth name, not the name she assumed after the war. Ruthie is hurt that no one in her family shared this vital piece of information, and even more hurt that the reality of finding her mother may never come to pass.
The story sounds pretty good, right? Lots of mystery, a good plot, so why didn't this book grab me from the get go?? I think I have narrowed it down. The author jumps around a LOT chronologically. This doesn't normally bother me. But NORMALLY authors include at least a year at the beginning of each chapter so that readers know "oh hey now we are going back to when Lily and Nathan were first married" and "Oh now we are back to Ruthie and now she is in high school". But not in this book. Granted I was able to figure out pretty quickly what was going on. But sometimes it took a paragraph or 2. And what REALLY threw me off was when the author decided to throw in a few chapters told from Elka's point of view. (Elka is Ruthie's aunt and one of the relatives of the real Lily Azerov). Then there was REALLY no context as to what was going on. I feel like I spent more time than I should have trying to figure out what was going on. I think there was an easy way to prevent that from happening, which is more frustrating. A simple "Ruth, 1976" at the top of a chapter would have gone a LONG way.
There were also some unresolved questions: why did "Lily" send Ruthie rocks? What's the significance? Why didn't "Lily" ever write in the notebook she purchased? Why did "Lily" really leave Ruthie and Nathan? While we get glimpses at these answers readers they are never fully answered. While the story is a good one, and I don't regret reading this, I don't know that I would recommend it to others, or say it's a must read. It was good, but confusing. The characters are likable, but you don't fall in love with them. It's just an "OK" book. Nothing fantastic, just kind of eh.
So how long do you stick with a book before you give up and move on to the next? How do you know a book just isn't going to pull you in? I'd love to know!
Until next time,
HAPPY READING!
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