Read advance reader review of The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz, page 3 of 3

Name: The Commoner
Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Author: John Burnham Schwartz

The Commoner

A Novel

by John Burnham Schwartz

Page 3 of 3

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for The Commoner

Mary Goulding (River Forest IL)

Unfulfilled promise
If you're in the mood to read another "Princess Diaries," but without the happy ending, you might even like it. I have a weakness for peeks behind royal curtains, so kept reading, certain there would be interesting things to come. For some unknown reason, even to me, I forged through the first 150 pages of labored writing about an uninteresting young Japanese girl who was to become the Japanese Empress. Spirits definitely lifted when the wedding day rolled around. The writing became better, but the girl less interesting, and I never got to really know any other character, as everything is told in her own voice. Even the backstage revelations dissolved into soap opera with the requisite evil mother-in-law. Some suspense in the last chapters kept me turning the pages, and hope didn't die until I'd read the last one...when my remained hopes unfulfilled.