On a business trip today I powered through the rest of The Glassblower by Petra Durst-Benning. This is book one of a trilogy, however, book two and subsequently three are not out yet. Overall I give the book about a 7/10 maybe 8/10. It took me a while to warm up to the characters and not feel like it was overly surface glazing when it came to character development and plot.
The main story line is three sisters lose their father and are forced to fend for themselves in a male dominated small town. The local trade is glassblowing which is considered men's work. The women painted, packaged, and silvered the glass but did not blow it. With the death of their father, the women find work as hired hands in a local shop doing painting and packing and get paid peanuts for their efforts.
Each sister has a unique strength of character and at different points in the story those strengths are either the saving grace of the family or the downfall of the sister. As I said, it took me about 50% of the book to really get engaged with each character beyond a surface level interest. Once I got past that, the plot sped up and the last 40% or so of the book was a nice, well written entertainment piece.
A few sub-characters I lost track of and didn't understand why they had such a strong part in the first half to be cast away in the second half with very little explanation. My only guess is that a lot of those questions will be answered in the other two books. The wholesaler that one sister works for, for example, alludes to all sorts of characters and foreign investments but nothing ever becomes of it. For something that is mentioned 3, 4, 5+ times in the book to not develop seemed unnecessary. Again, one can only assume Petra is laying the ground for something in the future.
I would give the plot a bit more unpredictability than what this book did. It was not unexpected the way the multiple love interests played out, if anything the slight twists to a straight forward tale were distracting rather than plot thickening.
While the above may sound overly critical, it was a pleasant read. I loved the strong women characters and the way they took on their world in a time when women did not do such things. I'm a fan of anything pro-woman and this book is on many fronts. I'm eager to read the next two installments when they are made available. I'm curious to know what happens to Ms. Ruth, Johanna, and Marie. I have my guesses, but I'll wait to see how Petra unfolds the tale.
Suggestions for February's book? I'm open to pretty much any genre other than romance and horror. I read for intellectual pleasure, not to be scared or aroused. I have real life news for the former and real life physical interaction for the latter *wink*
Keep reading all!
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