A Storm of Infinite Beauty by Julianne McLean.

Note: I thought I would include one of my recent ‘not so stellar” reads – I don’t always manage to choose ARCs that ring that four or five star bell for me. The title and the beautiful quote from John Muir are what (misleadingly) grabbed my interest.

This was quite a story, set partly in Alaska, Nova Scotia and Hollywood. There were a few mysteries to unravel, lost or withheld letters, broken hearts, earthquakes, rises to stardom … just a heck of a lot going on, as I said.

The GR blurb reveals that the curator of a museum, dedicated to the town’s local Hollywood celebrity, and a writer from Hollywood go on a quest to uncover the truth of what really happened to Valerie McCarthy (aka the legendary Scarlett Fontaine.)

I can’t go into too much detail without giving away a ton of spoilers but of course there were the usual plot tropes of a quarrel, a misunderstanding, interference by domineering family members, and two young lives irrevocably set on separate paths.

The description of the devastating earthquake in Valdez, Alaska on March 27, 1964 was very well done.

That breath-taking description, as well as the Alaskan setting, is what kept me reading on.

This is a decent enough story, but I couldn’t connect to any of the characters. There was too much telling and not enough showing and the characters (or stock caricatures!) were pretty standard fare.. In short, I didn’t get a sense that the characters were real, full dimensional people.

I also often felt as if I were reading a magazine article, or a newspaper clipping. It doesn’t help that the reader gets only snippets of events, often second-hand – a snapshot of a moment in time, as it were. The omniscient narrator invariably gives us just so much information to keep the reader engaged, and only at the very end of the novel are the various mysteries resolved to everyone’s satisfaction. There was a twist and a happy ending – of a sort – with a touch of bittersweet realism, as if to say: “real life happens, so make the best of things.”

This author has a ton of loyal fans, and this book is sure to please them once again. The setting of Alaska was very enticing, which is what hooked me into ordering this ARC in the first place. I’m rating this a 3.2 out of 5 stars. My thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.