Bohemia is the story of Valerie Freed. She is very much a free spirit traveling around from place to place with her constantly changing group of friends. She starts out as a dancer in Manchester. She and her best friend Emm move to the U.S. with a couple of their guy friends. Valerie ends up traveling around to various parts of the U.S. trying to find find out what she really wants out of life. It is also very much a story about the world of aspiring artists as Valerie's life is populated by aspiring musicians, dancers and other performers.
Me -Bohemia is not the type of book I would normally read. My favorite character was Valerie's best friend, Emm. I love her name. I like the way all the characters in the book were so go-with-the-flow. No matter what happened they just dealt with it and kept going. I wish I could be more like that in my life. It was hard to follow what was going onin the book at timesthough because one sentence ran into another. I also didn't like the ending. Even though it wasn't really a sad ending, it was sad to me that everything was changing for Valerie and her friends. It wouldn't be the same old gang anymore.
Mom - Bohemia reminded me very much of On The Road in that throughout much of the book Valerie really seemed to be wandering around kind of aimlessly with her group of friends. She is an admirable heroine in the way that she is so spontaneous and adaptable to every situation she finds herself in. She is very optimistic and never lets anything that happens in life get her down. I admire her optimism. I also identify with her in in that she discovers that all she wants to do is write. Ms. Carnaby's writing is very descriptive. However, I think sometimes it is a little too descriptive. Her sentences are a little two long and it is hard to get through them without taking a breath in the middle. Also, I think in some cases a simpler word would work just as well as a big fancy one and it would be easier for the reader to identify with. I like the development of the character of Valerie throughout the story and the way she goes from more or less drifting through life at the whim of others to knowing exactly what she wants to do with her life if not exactly how she is going to achieve her goals. If you have ever aspired to have the freedom to just take off whenever you wanted and go wherever the spirit moves you or if you like heroines who take everything that life hands them and never let anything get them down, this is the book for you
Bohemia is available in paperback from Barnes and Noble and from Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions.
Disclosure: We did not receive any financial compensation for this post. We were provided with a copy of the book by the author for review purposes. The opinions are our own based on our experience reading the book.
And that's our view. Tune in Monday for another Talking Topic.