Originally published on my blog: therelentlessreader.blogspot.comThe Violet Hour had a promising beginning. The first chapter was lovely and contained a great set-up. After that things went a little haywire for this reader.I did enjoy the characters and some aspects of this story. Sadly, there were just too many things happening at once.Funeral homes, sculpture, medicine, sailing, siblings, and adultery were all covered in this book. On their own, those are great topics worthy of a story. But, they were all smashed together resulting in a murky narrative that seemed directionless.Even Hurricane Katrina made a number of appearances in this story, for no reason that I could see. The book is set in Maryland and no one in the book is affected by the hurricane. It didn't make sense for it to be brought up numerous times.Perhaps the author was trying for a melting pot of hot button topics? It didn't work for me.
