A Parachute in the Lime Tree - Annemarie Neary

Genre: Irish Culture/Historical Fiction
Synopsis: April 1941, neutral Ireland. Kitty awakes in remote Dunkerin to find a German parachute caught in one of the trees in her garden. When she discovers Oskar, injured and foraging for food, he becomes a rare and exciting secret. But Ireland during the Emergency is an uneasy place, and news of the parachute soon spreads.

*** 

Review: I wanted so much to love this book, but it fell a bit short for me. Literally, I think being too short was actually the problem.

The three main characters didn't really have time to develop and then way too much time was spent giving a detailed epilogue for each of the stories we barely get a glimpse of to begin with. I also found the initial part, set in Germany, a bit of a slog. Once Oskar got to Ireland and Kitty and Elsa became more involved, I began to enjoy both the 'present day' settings and the glimpses into the pasts of Elsa and Oskar. I found Kitty and Elsa to be far more interesting than Oskar, though - while the book is pretty evenly split between three - I feel like he should have been the central focus and strongest character, tying the two girls together. A fourth character, Charlie, was likeable and tied in nicely with Elsa. I'd liked to have seen a lot more about the two of them.

I'm honestly not sure what else to say, about it. While it was enjoyable, an easy read, and interesting for the most part, it did little to convey the sense of life in either Ireland or Germany in that time period. I never really felt all that invested in the characters or story. By the end of it, I felt like I had read a broad first draft of a main plotline, before detail and subplots had been added.

Haven't been put off trying more by the author, but would love to see something a bit more substantial.

Rating: 3/5

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