Customer Reviews

Easy and satisfying, once you get into it - By: Suzie, 29 Jun 2008
This is the first Rosie Thomas book I have read & I loved it once I got into it. That, for me, is the only criticism. Since finishing `Constance', I have started reading `Iris & Ruby' & was hooked after the first few pages. Reading `Constance', it took almost 60 pages to achieve the same effect.

After the prologue, which sets the scene for the story that follows - of a foundling, & how she finally comes to terms with her unconventional startin life - the scene switches to Bali where Connie has made her home. It is here that I felt the story dragged. There is much detail about filming a commercial for which Connie has written the music and, while this serves to introduce certain characters who play a minor role laterin the book, there are several who never feature again. I found it not all that interesting & too drawn out.

But once the story switches to Connie's lifein her adoptive family, I became intrigued about what would follow & how she progressed from abandoned baby to successful career woman. It seems as if the only personin the family who loves her is Tony, her adoptive father, & when he dies she is lost. Later, when Connie fallsin love it is with a man who is not free to be hers. It is no wonder she is restless, with no real sense of her identity.

Her relationship with her deaf sister, Jeanette, is portrayed sensitively & realistically - the tensions that vibrate between the two are almost tangible. Events build to a point where they do not communicate. When Connie hears that Jeanette is dying of cancer, she rushes back from Bali to be at her side - to say more would reveal details that would spoil the story, which is told as a series of flashbacks interwoven with the present, & from several viewpoints. This works well & helps add to the anticipation.

It's not the best book I've read recently, but it is a satisfying well-written story if you like to read about relationships & how they affect the people involved. It would be perfect to take on holiday, as it's an easy read & long enough to retain the interest.