Cover Image: Air and Angels

Air and Angels

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Member Reviews

This book has a great start. Perhaps, one of the most intriguing tales on siblings and how parents favoring one child over another can cause such a huge rift between them. Petra's the daughter that was not as beloved as Caroline, the model, who was always bold and knew what she wanted. Petra takes a trip down memory lane and a phrase in the book caught my attention, "what had started off as an exploration out of pleasant curiosity was becoming an intense search for a clue to the part of her sister she had forgotten."
The pace takes time and one could find it almost lulling because of the impatience to get to the climax or any bit of confrontation, just to see Petra riled up!
It's got promise, because the plot is there, same goes for the story, it's just the pace that needs patience.Thank you NetGalley for the eARC.

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This book started out quite promising. We are introduced to sisters, Petra and Caroline. Caroline is the golden child while Petra resentfully lives in her shadow. Their interactions are interesting and it feels as if we are building up to something.
We are then introduced to Frederic and Elise who escape from Germany as it moves towards the Second World War.
As the book progresses, the stories overlap but it feels forced and pointless. We learn Caroline's fate but Petra does not develop as a character. By the end of the book, she is still as selfish and self-obsessed as she was as a teenager. There are a few supporting characters but they too are under developed and not particularly likeable.

To be honest, I found this book a struggle. it felt awkward and stilted and if I had not received a copy from Netgalley to review, I would have given up and never thought of it again.

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Perhaps a book that would call to all those who have had to compete with their siblings; but it really did not entice me. I did read the entire book and felt that somehow it was not as empathetic as one expected.

Petra is the older sibling and her parents really are prejudiced against her, favouring her younger sister, Caroline. Everything about Caroline and her life seems to be looked at through pink coloured glasses, she is the child they are proud of, who could do no wrong. Petra makes do. She had managed to get on with her life. Petra now married with three kids, has to help her mother deal with her dead sister's belongings. Caroline's death comes as a shock to her parents who do not know of her whereabouts and were kept in the dark about quite a few aspects of her life. Petra's life is filled with self-doubt, it can be assumed to be a result of the way she had to live her life and how she was treated. Even as a mother of three, she constantly seems to be in that weird situation.

This was a book that was, I felt, very stilted. The plot itself would have held immense scope for emotional drama, and the sisters themselves would have been endearing. But, somehow Air and Angels was very unsympathetic and wooden.

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