My Tome Topple Check In

Tome Topple is officially over! Here’s a link to my original plan, but I can’t stick to a plan to save my life. I did manage to finish two tomes, just not my two original choices.

I have posts written and scheduled to be published over the next couple of weeks, but wanted to gush over my finishes because I loved them so much!

The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova – this one clocked in at 577 pages, which made it an easy qualifier for this challenge. I was interested in it because I adored Kostova’s earlier novel, The Historian, and wanted to see how similar this one was. They had a totally different subject and premise, but had the same atmosphere and feeling about them. The Swan Thieves was an adventure that took us around the world to find out why a painter attempted to attack a piece of artwork at The National Gallery. It was so much fun to dive into the world of artists in such an amazing way. The 577 pages flew by! (Pssstt… As of today, the Kindle edition of The Swan Thieves is STILL $2.99!)

The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton – at 597 pages, this was another easy choice. Kate Morton tells stories that I just can’t stop reading, and this was no exception. She’s a master at unfolding family secrets through flashbacks and I love that! This one focuses on an actress named Laurel who witnessed her mother murder a man on a perfect summer day in the 1960s. In 2011, as her mother is near death, Laurel tries to learn her mother’s secrets and about what really happened that day. Flashing back and forth between WWII, 1960s English countryside, and current day London, this delicious story is slowly teased out.

How about you? Did you participate? Did you read what you were planning to read or did you go rogue?

Now, I wonder when I’ll read my original Tome Topple picks?!