Review 54: Invitation to a Bonfire

Invitation to a Bonfire by Adrienne Celt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Hmm...this book is a little complicated for me. There was some good writing, interesting sentences, beautiful at times. Yet that alone doesn't hold up the entire book. There is a story, a plot, but somehow it also feels lost at so many points.

The early part of the book goes way back for our main character, also the narrator, to ground you in her person, who is Zoya Andropova this Russian orphan. Interspersed with chapters are letters written from a writer to his wife, people we haven't quite met yet. It felt odd at times. The story moves forward in a fairly straight forward manner, yet there is so much of the early time. It is setting the stage for what comes after yet it painfully long, nearly half the book, in this somewhat short book.

The later part worked better for me, when the characters actually connect, the story moves forward faster. Funny enough, in the end I have to say I'm more in favor of the book than not.


I listened to the audio book which perhaps was a better way to approach the book. The narrators did an excellent job.