Review: The Clover House by Henriette Lazaridis Power

The Clover House

by Henriette Lazaridis Power

Publisher: Ballantine Books 

Pages: 432 

Format: eARC 

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  A phone call from her cousin sends Calliope Notaris Brown from Boston to the Greek city of Patras to sort through an inheritance from her uncle. She arrives during the wild abandon of Carnival, when the world is turned upside down and things are not as they seem. Digging through the keepsakes her uncle has left, Callie stumbles upon clues to the wartime disappearance of the family's fortune and to the mystery of her estranged mother's chronic unhappiness. As she pieces together family secrets that stretch back to the Italian occupation of Greece during World War II, Callie's relationship with her fiancé, her mother, and her mother's two sisters will change irrevocably.


Kritters Thoughts:  Callie has recently lost her uncle with whom she was very close to and he has left her everything he has back in his home in Greece where her estranged mother and aunts and cousins live.  She must return to Greece during Carnival to sort through his things where she finds the stories that she grew up listening to from her mother, but for some reason what she finds doesn't mirror the details in the stories that she heard during her childhood.

I absolutely loved the set up for the book and then once Callie gets into Nestor's home, we have chapters told from her mother's perspective, so the reader gets the real and honest story from the past.  The story both present and past unfolded seamlessly as you found clues and then heard the real story.  Although it read slow, I definitely enjoyed learning about the history of Greece, something I am not familiar with at all.  

Definitely a big read, but I think it is so captivating since it was out of my comfort zone that I enjoyed the slow pace of it.  You want this book to last long with the descriptions of Carnival and towns in Greece; in contrast with a war in the past that is being dragged into the present.

Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Ebook 2013 Challenge: 15 out of 50

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Tour Schedule:

Monday, April 1st:  Speaking of Books

Tuesday, April 2nd:  Historical Tapestry – guest post “Why I Love…”

Wednesday, April 3rd:  Patricia’s Wisdom

Thursday, April 4th:  No More Grumpy Bookseller

Monday, April 8th:  West Metro Mommy

Tuesday, April 9th:  Knowing the Difference

Thursday, April 11th:  Kritter’s Ramblings

Monday, April 15th:  Diary of an Eccentric

Tuesday, April 16th:  Adventures of an Intrepid Reader

Tuesday, April 16th:  Historical Tapestry

Wednesday, April 17th:  Booktalk & More

Thursday, April 18th:  The Relentless Reader

Monday, April 22nd:  It’s a Crazy, Beautiful Life

Wednesday, April 24th:  Peppermint Ph.D.

Thursday, April 25th:  Tiffany’s Bookshelf

Tuesday, April 30th:  Bookfoolery