G708 Book Review of The Cadence of Gypsies by Barbara Casey

Name of Book: The Cadence of Gypsies

Author: Barbara Casey

ISBN: 978-0-9820812-8-0

Publisher: Gauthier Publications

Type of book: Gypsies, adoption, discovering self, new life, geniuses, Italy, travel, teaching, brilliance, Voynich Manuscript, friendships, new beginnings

Year it was published: 2011

Summary:

On her 18th birthday Carolina Lovel learned that she was adopted and was given a letter written by her birth mother in an unknown language. After years of research she travels to Italy on a mission to find the truth about her past. Carolina is accompanied by three extremely gifted but mischievous students the FIGs from Wood Rose Orphanage and Academy for Young Women. In an effort to help their favorite teacher, the FIGs will have to use their special abilities to decipher the Voynich Manuscript, the most mysterious document in the world, and the one thing that is strangely similar to what Carolina was given. Their search will take them into the mystical world of gypsy tradition and magic, more exciting and dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

Characters:

Main characters include Milosh, a gypsy leader's son who has darkness in his heart and is willing to do terrible things for revenge. There is also Carolina, a young woman with a mysterious background who is determined to find out the secrets of her birth and her birth parents. There are also FIGS, three brilliant and genius young women; Dara has been at the Orphanage the longest and has talent with languages while Mackenzie has talent with numbers and Jennifer, the one that has been the shortest time at the academy is talented with music and its notes Unfortunately the characters' personalities is barely seen throughout the book.

Theme:

Backgrounds are full of surprises

Plot:

The story is in third person narrative from Milosh's, Carolina's, the FIGS's and the gypsy woman's point of view, although Larry also sometimes gets his own point of view. What I liked of the story is the writing style which seemed to ask to be continued to be read as well as the fact that its not focused on romance and the heroines are intelligent and brilliant. What I did not enjoy is that I feel as if FIGS seem to play a small role in the story rather than the big one that was promised; I learned very little about gypsy life, and there seemed to be constant repetition.

Author Information:
(From Italy Book Tours)

Buy the Book:  Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble

Meet the Author:  

​Barbara Casey is the author of several award-winning novels for both adults and young adults, and numerous articles, poems, and short stories. In addition to her own writing, she is an editorial consultant and president of the Barbara Casey Agency, established in 1995, representing authors throughout the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and Japan.

In 2014 Barbara became a partner in Strategic Media Books Publishing, an independent publishing house that specializes in true crime and other cutting-edge adult nonfiction.

​Barbara lives on a mountain in Georgia with her husband and three dogs who adopted her: Benton, a hound-mix, Fitz, a miniature dachshund, and Gert, a Jack Russel terrier of sorts.

​Connect with the author:  Website

Opinion:

From the summary and the title I expected a little something different than what the story appeared to be. Even the cover itself hinted at something mysterious and forbidden. The story though, in my opinion, seemed to be lighthearted and while entertaining,had a slight element of being predictable. I also was more curious about the gypsies rather than Carolina and the FIGS. For a light, clean and quick read with a touch of mystery and strong heroines, I would recommend this book.

This is for Italy Book Tours

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April 25 - Amie's Book Reviews - review / giveaway
April 25 - Jaquo Lifestyle Magazine - review
April 26 - #redhead.with.book - review / giveaway
April 26 - Mystery Suspense Reviews - guest post
April 27 - Working Mommy Journal - review / author interview / giveaway
April 27 - Bookishly Devoted - review / guest post / giveaway
April 27 - Confessions Of The Perfect Mom - review
April 28 - Cassidy Salem Reads & Writes - review / giveaway
April 28 - Bound 4 Escape - review / giveaway
April 29 - The Autistic Gamer - review
April 29 - Jayne's Books - review
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May 2 -    The Bookish & The Romantic - review / author interview / giveaway
May 2 -    Svetlana's Reads and Views - review
May 3 -    JBronder Book Reviews - review / guest post
May 3 -    Rockin' Book Reviews - review / author interview / giveaway
May 3 -    Library of Clean Reads - review / giveaway
May 4 -    Discovering/Writing Life - review / guest post / giveaway
May 4 -    Il Mio Tesoro - review / author interview
May 5 -    Corinne Rodrigues - review / guest post / giveaway
May 5 -    Readers Muse - review / guest post
May 5 -    Sahar's Blog - review
May 6 -    Anglers Rest - review
May 6 -    First Impressions Reviews - review

4 out of 5
(0: Stay away unless a masochist 1: Good for insomnia 2: Horrible but readable; 3: Readable and quickly forgettable, 4: Good, enjoyable 5: Buy it, keep it and never let it go.)