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Sunday, November 19, 2006
Another romance novel... sort of
Title: The Road to Paradise Island
Author: Victoria Holt
The females in my family like to pass books around. Therefore, I usually end up reading some romance novel (the clean kind) or other. This book is a prime example. It started with my mom, then went to both of my grandmothers, then to my aunt, and now me.
It is up to me to pass the book on. However, I can't do that… unless the next person takes my advice and starts reading the book at the halfway point. The first half of the book is completely unnecessary and very boring.
Annalice is an 18-year-old girl who lives with her grandmother and her older brother, Philip. During a huge storm their house is damaged and they discover a secret room. In it Annalice finds a journal and a map.
The journal belonged to Ann Alice, an ancestor who died at the age of 18 approximately 100 years before, and weaves a tale of love, mystery, and murder. Philip soon sets off in search of the mysterious island mentioned in the journal and depicted on the map. Annalice is left behind. She meets Raymond and they fall in love. Or he does, at least.
Two years pass with no word from Philip, so Annalice goes in search of him. To steal a phrase from ket, "Hijinks ensue." Annalice meets Milton, an arrogant, handsome, wealthy, Paradise Lost-quoting man. During her search for her brother, the husband of her traveling companion is killed, Milton relentlessly badgers her, she meets the great grandson of Ann Alice's betrothed, discovers the mystery behind her brother's disappearance, and much more.
To find out whether Annalice ends up with the conceited Milton or the boringly nice Raymond... just ask me. I won't put you through the torture of reading the book. But then again, perhaps those of you more knowledgable of the ways of romance novels can already guess... :)
posted by Kate at
8:57 PM
8 Comments:
Aww, you have to pass it on! Otherwise, you'll have bad luck for 7 years...
I've only been given one book by the females in my family that wasn't some sort of Xmas/birthday gift. I was in sixth grade, and the book was Flowers in the Attic. I loved it :).
11/19/2006 10:09 PM
Ok, maybe "loved" isn't quite the right word..."so scared and shocked that I wasn't able to stop reading" is perhaps a better description.
*embarrased*
11/19/2006 10:15 PM
elizabeth, isn't that the one with rampant incest and physical abuse? The seriously fucked up one with rampant incest and physical abuse?
kat--she ends up with Milton, and I don't care. I'm more interested in the room, the map, the island, and the disappearance. The far more intriguing mysetry here is the one you completely skipped!!
11/20/2006 10:08 AM
"elizabeth, isn't that the one with rampant incest and physical abuse? The seriously fucked up one with rampant incest and physical abuse?"
Er...yes. But I think the term "rampant incest" is a little unfair...the incest really becomes rampant only in the sequels.
*runs and HIDES*
(Oh, yes, my aunt gave me those, too! Christmas gift.)
11/20/2006 7:20 PM
humblest apologies reyn - the room had been boarded up because the 18-year-old Ann Alice was murdered there by her stepmother, who had also murdered Ann Alice's father. To make matters even more fun, the stepmother's actual boyfriend was in on it, and had begun to pursue Ann Alice when it was discovered that her brother Charles had not died at sea and would therefore inherit. But later they gave up and murdered her instead.
The mysterious map was given to Ann Alice by her betrothed, Magnus. He had been shipwrecked on the island and then had been cast out to sea again before he was found by civilization. Thus, the existence of the island was questionable.
After Ann Alice was murdered, Magnus went in search of the island and found it. His descendant killed Annalice's brother, Philip. The island, which had become entirely submerged in the years since Magnus found it, was full of gold and the greedy bastard did not want anyone else to know about it.
Incidentally, Annalice's family had been in the business of mapmaking for well over a century, which is why so many of them spent a lot of time at sea.
Of course, all of the above is far less important than the romance between Annalice and Milton. Clearly.
11/20/2006 9:21 PM
"...by her betrothed, Magnus."
*hoots and howls*
Someone somewhere along the line HAD to be compensating for SOMETHING with a name like that! I can just imagine the bad pick-up lines..."Hey, baby, you want a piece of my magnus opus?"
11/21/2006 5:45 AM
hahahahahahaha magnus opus hahahahhahaha
Elizabeth, I think I finally understand not only that when people say you're crazy, they're not kidding, but also why. It's those messed-up books your dad and aunt gave to you.
kat, Annalice and Ann Alice, in addition to having the same name, also have the same family structure and parallel stories? Que bizarro. I also like that they piled so much gold onto the island that it sunk.
11/21/2006 8:30 AM
elizabeth - you are nuts. but yeah, magnus perensen, i think was his name. haha, i looked on amazon to see if anyone mentioned it in their book reviews. instead i discovered that people just love this book and it's Holt's best, supposedly. man, i'd hate to read her worst. "good writing"?!?! HA!
reyn - no no no, the island didn't sink because of all the gold, it sunk because there was a slight global warming and the polar ice caps melted slightly and the level of the water in the ocean went up. ....or something like that. Ann Alice is Annalice's ancestor, and the parallel stories did get confusing. Of course, Holt's boring method of telling Ann Alice's story is to have Annalice read her diary all in one fell swoop. Which takes up about 100 pages of the book. B-O-R-I-N-G.
oh yeah, glad to hear you are starting to understand the insanity that is Elizabeth... :)
11/21/2006 8:44 AM
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