Through the influence of Jessie, Suzanna gets to know the other shopkeepers and customers in the neighborhood, and the store’s business grows, as does Suzanna’s happiness. One male customer in particular seems to drop by more and more frequently. But Suzanna is married, and Jessie has a long-time boyfriend. They’re not sure what it means. An abundance of those refractions involve motherhood and childbirth. Neil, more than anything, wants a family. Suzanna deflects and delays. That’s one reason why she buries herself in the emporium, because a newborn career is a way of postponing Neil’s urgency. Parenting is important for many of the other characters, too. Suzanna’s father and stepmother constantly question their relationships with their eccentric daughter; Jessie has a young daughter she adores; several other characters struggle with parenting, too. Toward the end of the novel, those narrative echoes rapidly increase, as do the refractions and reflections. Without giving anything away, the ending is truly a remarkable and unexpected twist. Did you know in advance that this is how you would end it, or did the conclusion come about as you worked, slowly revealing itself to you? This book although having some intriguing plots running through it, it fell a bit short for me. There were a lot of characters and I was sometimes confused as to who was the actual focus of the book. It jumped around era's a little and the point of this was a little lost at times and outright confusing at others.

The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes - Reading Guide The Peacock Emporium by Jojo Moyes - Reading Guide

Most of the book is about Suzanna, and her long-suffering husband, Neil. It's worth reading to the end because there it gets better. Read it, you might like it. Opinions are all my own. While Moyes doesn’t make it easy for us to like the characters, she adds the right amount of subtlety to convince us there is more to her protagonists than first meets the eye. In addition, the characters lives are quite interesting, and Moyes has you wishing you were there in the shop, having an espresso, and watching the story unfold. Lo siento mucho, pero ha sido imposible terminarlo. Y de veras lo he intentado. Comencé a leerlo con la esperanza de encontrar algo tan bien construido como "Yo antes de ti", pero... ni de lejos. Voy a intentar hacer esta reseña por partes, ya que hay varios puntos que quiero comentar: Some of the great joys of this novel are the wonderful secondary characters, such as Arturro, Father Lenny, Mrs. Creek, etc. Which of these characters stood out most for you? Did you relate personally to any of them? In what ways? I'm sorry but after reading "The Last Letter from Your Lover," by Jojo Moyes I had high hopes for this book. I'm afraid I was disappointed.With the help of other people is the answer. Some are family, like her loyal, self-sacrificing stepmother; others are townspeople with equally eccentric shops nearby. One person of particular note is Jessie, a sprightly young woman who insists that Suzanna needs a helper to assist with the espresso machine and to coddle the customers. Another set of significant people are the customers themselves. Their lives, too, reflect scenes from Suzanna’s past and future. I hated how her husband Neil was treated, he desperately just wanted kids and Suzanna's attitude to all that was just a complete inconvenience to her. I felt like Neil was wasting his time with her and should just divorce her, she definitely didn't deserve him. I mean she's nearing 35 he's nearly 40, she's not getting any younger and there been together for 10 or so years, If she didn't want kids then she should have let her husband go so he could have a future with someone else.

The Peacock Emporium - JoJo Moyes

The characters in the novel—Suzanna, Alejandro, Vivi, Athene to name just a few—are incredibly complex, though some sober and reflective, while others have a much louder joie de vivre. What led you to these characters, and how did this story come about? An early work from the New York Times bestselling author of The Giver of Stars and the forthcoming Someone Else’s Shoes, Jojo Moyes, the story of a young woman who opens an eclectic shop and comes to terms with the secrets of her past. I absolutely could not stand the main character. I found her annoying and depressing. Through out the entire book all you want to do is meet this main character just so you can tell her to grow up and stop complaining. Every time I would finish a chapter I felt like my life was just as crappy's as the main character. While Jojo Moyes does a great job in getting us inside a slightly depressed, deeply unhappy character's mind I still couldn't find myself caring at all about this main character. I didn't care if she ever found happiness or resolved any of her problems...all I wanted was to hurry up and finish the book. There are some key themes that Jojo Moyes works through - the issue of lies and well-meant deception, versus the right to know is an important one. The roles that money and status play in the complex web of marriage is another.You have written both contemporary and historical novels, and some, like this one, have dual timeframes within them. (The Last Letter From your Lover is another one, as is The Girl You Left Behind.) What attracts you to these kinds of dual stories? I can see how some readers might find this one a little slower that some of her other books, and it did take me a little longer than usual to get into it, but once I got going I really fell deeply into the story. You know, one of those where you don’t even know how long you’ve been reading, and time just stops because you’re totally immersed. If I have a twist (and I usually do) I always plot it beforehand. I don’t think it’s possible to write free-form toward one. I wanted the reader to think of Athene a certain way—to see her largely through the eyes of everyone else—and then realize that the story they’ve been told might have been something else entirely. So yes, I always knew what I was working toward. El libro no es inusual en su mayoría, ya que implica una multitud de emociones humanas y de relaciones marcadas pero es un libro con muchos mensajes fuertes. Es la historia de las diferencias generacionales, las culturas cambiantes y la construcción de la confianza. Este último es especialmente difícil después de toda una vida de negación y fabricación.