Cover Image: The Windmill

The Windmill

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Member Reviews

This could be a really good book. However, the transitions between timelines suddenly happen with no warning, introducing new characters and historical time that last for a long time in the narrative, so that you have almost forgotten what happened at the start in the more present day time. Early on I thought I had inadvertently opened a different book up in my Kindle and had to check. I think the timelines needed to shift in smaller chunks to keep some continuity. There is also a lot of fussy detail about itchy jumpers and scarves and the like and descriptons that just aren't needed when so much else is going on. However, the basic premise invovling a mystery about what happened to some artefacts from a museum in the Netherlands just before the Nazis invaded and how a museum curator is co opted into espionage and how it all ties in with her family over the generations and the bequest of a mystery house in the almost present day is interesting.

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Ginny Faulkner has been given an inheritance. From someone she neve knew.
What age doesn't know is that the real inheritance isn't the beautiful house with all the furnishings. It isn't even finding out who her family were. It is so much better.
Her search will lead her to something so incredibly beautiful.
This is a story of espionage, spies, agents and double agents. It has mystery and drama. A definite favorite.

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I was immediately drawn to this book because my great grandmother painted windmill scenes! This story centers around Florence, a young woman sent to the Netherlands just before WWII reaches the country.
There are multiple time lines spanning centuries that all intertwine eventually. The different story lines at time were difficult for me to keep straight. I read this over about a week with a few days off, and found that the breaks made it harder to keep everything straight so I’d recommend reading more consistently for this book.
Some of the transitions were abrupt, but overall it was entertaining.
Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.
3.5 out of 5 stars. #netgalley #thewindmill

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The premise for this book sounds really good and the cover is gorgeous. But it took me twice as long as it usually does to read a few pages due to clunky writing and a lack of editing. Nearly every sentence is compound with many clauses. It was exhausting, hard to follow, and did not leave me wanting to see what the story was. There's so many commas. So. Many. Commas.

But thank you Netgalley and Troubador for an ecopy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

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276 pages

3 stars

The writing is good as well as is the word usage. Plotting is okay, but the transitions in this book are awful. The reader does not know what timeline they are in until some clue gives it away. I generally like reading multi-time books, but this was way too confusing.

So, while the story is a good one, the book is very difficult to follow.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Troubador Publishing Ltd./Matador for forwarding to me a copy of this book for me to read and review.

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The Windmill by K. Lewis Adair was an interesting book from many aspects. I was thrown by the number of characters that interacted in this novel. I would read a chapter and then be thrown off guard by the next. The basic story line was quite interesting as it took place right before the Netherlands were invaded by the Germans. I just had a hard time switching my mind from the past to the present as the story intertwinded through time. I enjoyed it, but was totally thrown at the end.

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