I'm going through the books I requested pre-2018 when I stopped blogging to clean up my NetGalley TBR and this was on the list. I don't think it's a book for me anymore and will not be reviewing at this time, but if I do read it, I will update this review. Thank you for the opportunity.

4.5 stars!

SPECTACULAR!

It was a great book, something different from the books I've read, a book about love and friendship. I loved the author's writing style and I will read more by her for sure.

This was an enjoyable read and I would recommend it. thanks for letting me have an advance copy. I'm new to this author.

“It’s not the Larks that kill you. It’s the exaltation.”

An Exaltation of Larks is a book that I think will stay with me forever. Even now I’m struggling to convey the actual words needed to formulate some kind of review. It’s been a long time since an author’s words have drawn me into a story that literally stopped me in my tracks. I devoured every single word, sentence, and chapter. I was encapsulated by the characters in fact I don’t ever think I have ever had such character connection as I did with this love story. A love story that is beautifully crafted, heart breaking, ambitious, brutally honest and all its emotionally soul baring splendour.

Suanne Laqueur is a new to me author, how that is even possible I have no idea because this is a story that I will be shouting from the rooftops to read! She is a god of the written word, who writes for your reading soul.

An absolute must read!!

NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of An Exaltation of Larks. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

The many five star reviews of this novel gave me a false sense of expectation for An Exaltation of Larks, which was its downfall. This was supposed to be the epic story of Alejandro Penda, sent out of Chile at eleven years old after his parents are arrested. Relocating to the United States, under the care of his uncle, Alex becomes connected to a family that lives nearby. The Larks have power and influence, but it is the love of their daughter Valerie that attracts Alex the most.

Javier Landes has lived a secret life since his teens. A chance encounter with Alex and Valerie in their twenties leads Javier down a path with one of them. After losing touch for almost 20 years, circumstances place Javier, Alex, and Valerie in each others lives.

The central plot surrounding Alex may have been compelling, but the book includes so many side stories that steal the focus away. I could buy that An Exaltation of Larks is a book about finding love and building relationships had the author not spent so much time on the physical instead of the emotional. Javier's choice of profession helps to emotionally distance himself from getting hurt, which makes him the most realistic of the characters despite the implausibility of his situation. The book is more lust than love, with some brief flashes of realistic grief sprinkled in for effect. I would have given the book a three star rating, but the last third of An Exaltation of Larks ruined the rest. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend the novel to other readers.

Alex, Val, and Jav fell into a love/friendship triangle that plays out over a few decades and doesn't end the way you might think. Well-written with likeable characters.

An Exaltation of Larks analyzes the unlimited limits of adoration and kinship. Formed wonderfully with insight and an undeniable enthusiasm for people, their predicaments and their accomplishments, Suanne Laqueur enables perusers to feel feelings profoundly through her abstract fiction. She leaves much space for addressing and examining our own particular novel feelings in the excellent plan of her heroes abandoned and destined lives. Laqueur's exact narrating powers itself with so much empathy feelings turn and change with each new page.

We push it of solidified developed man/scarred young fellow living in the dim solace of isolation with Jav. We're in a tight web of family and having a place with the Larks. We endure the shameful acts give occasion to feel qualms about our reality by those sufficiently coldhearted to change lives for their own egotistical causes. We feel for Alex and Val, Trelawney and Roger. We feel powerless as they do, overcome as they do. We long for connections, whatever frame they might be, to run this profound. We relax in the gleam of the superb things left among the rubble.

An Exaltation of Larks demonstrates that minding can change a disastrous occasion into something different totally forming our observations, our feeling of selves, and our viewpoint. While the occasion and the apparitions from it never abandon us they don't choke us either. Minding molds the easiest of occasions into extraordinary ones; it shapes the brightest contemplations from the darkest mists. It's made Jav, Alex, and Val, Roger, Tre, Deanne, and Ari their identity exclusively on account of the group of care they've found in their lives. With minding comes sympathy, comprehension, and acknowledgment. With minding comes an opportunity in our lives managed through pardoning produced by affection. It's a basic demonstration. Human conventionality at its finest to think about another person's battles, interests, and prosperity. This book challenges perusers to examine the fairness inside ourselves and undertaking it outward.

This being the start of my break (and most intense grading season of the year) and coming off another book that gave me a severe book hangover, I knew I wanted a novel that would cure my hangover ...with another book hangover. Mission accomplished. The Exaltation of Larks swept me up in the story of families braided together through chance, necessity, tragedy and love. The narratives of the characters were woven together so well that by the end I felt like all along I'd had the puzzle pieces and knew how they were put together and didn't know it until I saw the final product--and what an interesting final product to see.

These characters repeatedly healed my heart and broke it and I'm not 100% recovered yet but I don't have to be. I have the rest of the week off, papers have been graded (thanks to using this novel as an incentive to get them done faster), and A Charm of Finches loaded and ready to read.

I am really enjoying the writing and storytelling of Suanne Laqueur and am ready to explore her backlist as time permits. I cannot recommend this novel highly or frequently enough. Buy it. I think you're going to love it.

Lush prose, beautiful characters and a over-arching narrative of family, love and loss.

An Exaltation of Larks contains so much love, pain, joy, and despair–and I loved every second of it. This book was beautifully written, and I felt everything that all of the characters felt. It's not typical that I'll love a book with such a large timeline and a large cast of characters, but I was immediately compelled to follow them all beyond the pages in this book. Laqueur also took the care to be inclusive of sexualities and not making a big deal out of the character's preferences, which is in itself a big deal. I want to read this book over immediately just to experience it again. Suanne Laqueur just gained another fan!

This is a stunningly written book about how fate intertwines three lives and how that connection strengthens, becomes tenuous, and strengthens once more. There are no words to do this book justice. Pick it up and let yourself be drawn into the ride. You won't regret it.

I’ve always been curious about the Disappeared time of South American History, and The Exaltation of Larks opens with Alejandro Penda’s family playing a part in that history. A bittersweet coming of age story, I really enjoyed reading this book as it brings to life so many aspects of childhood from different perspectives. It clearly shows how those childhood experiences influence the character’s adult relationships and formation and overall how life’s sorrows and joys are shared by the unexpected people in one’s life.

This book started off kind of slow but I am so glad I pushed threw because this story blew me away! It's a spellbinding masterpiece that will take you on an emotional journey.

6 stars!
OK third attempt at writing this review. I had the same problem with The Butterfly Project by Emma Scott and that’s no wonder as she is Suanne Laqueur’s buddy!
I’ve loved this book so much and I don’t know how to express all the feelings it made me experience. So here I go with my heart and my guts, sorry if this is messy.

First I went in this book totally blind. I had barely read the blurb. I had finished The Man I Love some weeks ago and I was smitten with Mrs Laqueur’s writing. So the story took me totally by surprise but it made me fall deeper in love with her penmanship.


** I never expected a story building upon decades, following different characters whose paths kept crossing each other.

**I did not expect a story so smartly written everything would come together at the end and make unexpected and dramatic sense.

**I did not expect a story that would make me wish some taboos did not exist because it just was so beautiful it had to be right.

**I did not expect a story that would leave me exhausted, fulfilled and yet empty at the same time because I wanted something else for Jav and yet I would not have loved the other option. But Alex was right, Javier deserved more.

**I did not expect a story that would made me hurt so bad with some of the characters that I wanted to jump right through my Kindle and be their light in the night, their safe haven, their security blanket, their home.



In this story the women are the strong ones. Valerie is a strong woman and I never cried on her fate even when she’s been betrayed. But I cried buckets, rivers even on these beautiful and broken men. Alex and Javier are big men pure masculine perfection but they were wounded by their past. Strong in their bodies , bleeding in their souls. Their experiences and lives have a similar edge and they keep colliding with each other time and again.

So many scenes had me morphing into a blubbering mess. The first scene when little Alejandro showed compassion on his street, beneath his windows but at what price? Later on when Jav was helping his friend on 9/11 showing immense strength but crumbling inside. How he coped the months after.

I loved Alex and Val but Jav really broke my heart. I just wanted to embrace him and soothe his soul. He had so much hope just to be squashed in the bud. How many slaps and hard knocks can a man endure before losing himself and crumbling under life’s unfairness? He was my favorite.
I thought he was a disturbance in the beginning. I wanted to follow only Val and Alex’s story but he soon hijacked my heart. I think Mrs Laqueur you’ve been really hard on him and you tore my heart off so many times! I swear if you send me Jav under bubble wrap I’ll take good care of his poor soul and neglected heart.

Suanne Laqueur’s penmanship is extraordinary. She gives all these little details (the shape of a button, the color of Val’s creations, the smells and tastes…) helping the reader to really SEE the story. She made me live inside her characters head. I was their friend, their lover and I HURT with them.

She is able to give all the nuances and intricacies of human relationships. She proves nothing is black or white, even topics you’re certain are wrong or taboo. She is shaking your beliefs, moving you out of your comfort zone not with brute force but with feather touches here and there. Who would have guessed I would have rooted for a male escort. Found his profession perfectly “honorable”? Would have been nearly ready to support this attraction? Me the “straight laced” girl?

I also loved how she lightened the mood sharing the love and support of the Larks family with me. Be it with buoyant Roger, eccentric Trelawney or my favorite when she explained how to deal with a moody teenage girl. Now just for all mothers of teenagers, just enjoy this one because this is SO TRUE:
” Eighth grade to sophomore year, Alex often referred to Deane as “the exchange student.” For a time, they literally didn’t speak her name. She. Her. It. The spawn. Val’s head ached from perpetually butting against the alien living in her house. Riding out the unpredictable mood swings. Running interference on the senseless drama. Val couldn’t say good morning without rolling eyes or an exasperated sigh in return. A simple request for household chores was treated as an order to cut one’s arm off and eat it. Nothing was simple. Everything turned into a negotiation with life-or-death terms. Val read once that teen.”

Oh and a very wise parting quote I enjoyed being a mother myself: “Parenting,” she said under her breath. “It ain’t for sissies.”

Now would I recommend this book? A thousand times!

Disclaimer: I am so anxious to read this book yet also nervous because people who have read it (and loved it by the way) say its a tear jerker. I’m waiting for the right time when I think I can handle a big story like this one. I might have to read it so I can lose myself in a story, have a good cry, and then move on. You know the kind of book where you read it, then think about it for years to come? I predict thats how I will feel about An Exaltation of Larks.

I didn’t want to delay in recommending this book to you because it’s a five-star story and like I mentioned, readers are crazy for it! Get this in your hands immediately.

Synopsis:

September 11, 1973: Eleven-year-old Alejandro Penda watches from his apartment window as Santiago, Chile falls to a military coup, destroying his family and his childhood. Arriving alone in America, he’s taken in by the Larks: a prominent family in the town of Guelisten. Though burdened by unresolved grief for his disappeared parents, he becomes fiercely loyal to the Larks, eventually marrying one of their daughters, Valerie.

September 11, 2001: Javier Landes watches from his apartment window as New York City falls to terrorism. As one of Manhattan’s top-paid male escorts, this professional lover has never lacked for company and is loyal only to himself. But in the wake of 9/11, Jav is named guardian for an orphaned nephew in Guelisten and must open his carefully-guarded heart to pain he’s long suppressed.

Alex, Valerie and Jav meet first in their twenties, with a sudden attraction each finds strange and compelling. When they meet again in their forties, they discover not only is their bond still strong, but their life experiences are strangely similar. All have been shaped by separate 9/11’s, and their unfinished business from the past will change everything they know about love, loyalty and friendship.

“Life has rules. You cannot come in the middle of the night and take what we agreed isn’t yours.”

Across three decades and two continents, Suanne Laqueur’s fifth novel explores the unpredictability of sexual attraction, how family ties are forged, torn and mended, and how love’s downfall can turn to exaltation.

Update: I am in the middle of this book and am LOVING it. I might have to do nothing today except for finish this novel!

I can definitely see the appeal of this book, but for me it just didn't work. I was not expecting this to be such a romance novel. I thought it would be more historical fiction so I wasn't prepared for all the sex scenes and I kept getting caught off guard. I thought this was a very well written book and I think a lot of people will love it. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to those who love romance fiction.

What a powerhouse of a story! I've had this on my kindle for a while but finally, finally got to it! This story weaves history and fiction in the fabric of this delicious story. I usually do not like books that are from decades past and yet this one broke that mold for me.

The characters are so multi facted and have such depth. I wasn't sure what was going on when Jav was thrown into the mix mid way through but his character proved to be an integral part of the story.

I wish I could read this one all over again for the first time!

Exquisitely well-crafted novel that weaves vivid love stories into historical events (September 1973, Chile / September 2001/USA). Fans of family saga with benefits, explicit erotic scenes, nuanced layers of loss and love, and bisexual elements will enjoy this novel. Fabulous cast of characters and very well-wrought scenes keep the pace although the story slows at times with a lot of explicit sex scenes. Bonus points for honest treatment of condom use and teen love/sex juxtaposed with mature love/sex. Fabulous storytelling in the realm of Sheherazade or Isabel Allende. The power of story and fiction to exalt lives of the desaparecidos, or those, in general, whose stories tend to remain in the shadows. A creative, original read!

Second chances are given or made ~ An Exaltation of Larks
Wow!! An Exaltation of Larks is poetic, risqué, and beautiful. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read. If you’ve been reading my reviews (thank you) you know I always aim for short and sweet reviews, but this one is worthy of a few more lines. From the beginning, author Suane Laqueur had my undivided attention. This magnificent novel is about family, second chances, sexuality, loyalty, and love. The story shows how unpredictable love is, how complicated and baffling relationships can be, and how actions can affect our lives forever. Laqueur is an extraordinary, gifted writer who exudes a healthy dose of poetic naughtiness. Even though parts of the book involve sex and sexuality (some naughty words), it surprisingly did not bother me. Perhaps because Laqueur is such a smooth operator that captivates with her graceful writing. I fell hook, line and sinker. Here is an example of Laqueur’s enchanting writing, “He was wounded to the core. A victim of emotional assault who couldn’t press charges.” See what I mean? Here’s another one just in case you need more, “He lifted his face to the stars, asking love to be his friend.” Laqueur, where have you been all my life? Days after finishing the novel, I haven’t been able to stop thinking of Javier, Alex and Val -- major book hangover. If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary, I highly recommend this book. My prediction? You will not want to put it down.

*I received an ARC copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.