The Lauras by Sara Taylor | Rating: ★★★★☆

A copy of this novel was provided through NetGalley by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

The Shore was one of those books that was hit or miss for my personal taste; I often flip flopped in my opinion of its entire premise/prose. What always remained full of praise was Sara Taylor's general tone and understanding of her characters. She has this moving way about her storytelling that will captivate you even if the story isn't your cup of tea by its final pages--The Lauras is just as wonderfully told and far more appealing and satisfying than The Shore.

I think that the first word that comes to mind when I'm to explain the novel is intense. The Lauras is intelligent, a vivid picture painted in words that remain intense as you move forward. One of the most appealing things about this was that it made you feel a great deal in just a few words. A genuine strike of emotion comes hand-in-hand with it and you will find yourself connected pretty quickly. It's the perfect story to curl up with in bed and is a pretty fast read that somehow doesn't lack emotional depth. I think that it should be said, as well, that the prose is so moving you will find yourself reaching for your highlighter or something to mark up your favourite passages with--not unlike Kate Morton's books manage to do for me.

The Shore by Sara Taylor | Rating: ★★★☆☆

As a note, a printed galley of this novel was sent to me via the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not effect my opinions in any way.

Sara Taylor’s novel The Shore is described as something unique and engaging, featuring shifts in narration and the timeline. While it was an entertaining novel, the flip flopping between it all became a bit too frustrating for me and took away from the novels overall rating – a good chunk of the stories featured in it were wonderful due to Taylor’s writing style but there were a lot of moments where I had to pause and refocus my attention on the novel.

That’s the bad news: it’s not always the easiest to follow and some parts lack something. I can’t explain what, really, but there were moments that just weren’t engaging in the least. It was disappointing to see the way timelines went in and out of with each other that it took me ages to know what was really going on.

Moving through different point of views is always, always a difficult task and The Shore is very frustrating on that front. I couldn’t keep up most of the time because it was all over the place and I think that it could have been situated a little better than it was. It tries time and time again but as the story progresses, it just trips over itself and doesn't click well.