This was the second book I read from C.K. McAdam and just as powerful as her first that I read! The storytelling an amazing weaving together of characters and their separate lives and personalities, their choices that hurt and healed, and the beautiful and devastating consequences that came of it all. I found myself eager to get to my reading each day, rooting for characters and raging at others. In the end, I was left with a beautiful ending and a full heart, once again.

The story takes place in France during the French revolution into Napoleonic war time. Anna, the protagonist, is born to a single mother, and who's father, unbeknownst to her, is a famous French poet and playwright. After no suitable marriage proposals occur in her small town, Anna gets sent to meet and live with her father in an attempt to locate that "suitable' marriage partner. Anna previously developed a love for reading and writing, which further develops in her father's house with access to tutors and libraries. Tension develops as Anna grapples with traditional female roles and love of writing. I am giving 4 stars because I would've liked to see further development of the historical backdrop and the family of origin.

CK McAdam has done it again!! The story of Anna- the Poet’s Daughter is a must read and I could not put it down!!! The author has brought historical fiction into modern times tackling not only the relationships between a father and daughter during Anna’s coming of age, but also the challenges of a young woman finding her voice and stepping out of her father’s shadow. I can’t wait to see what time period CK McAdam’s tackles next!!

I read C.K. McAdam’s book The Seamstress of Auschwitz a little earlier this year and really liked it. So I immediately signed up for this book, it’s not getting the best reviews, but I honestly don’t think it was as bad as some of the reviews make it out to be. We follow Anna who is the bastard child of the famous poet and play writer Goethe, he lives quite the eccentric life as most artists do. But Anna was raised by her minister grandfather, because her mother never told Goethe her daughter existed. It is pretty slow going, and it kind of devolved around the 60% mark, I was really disappointed in Anna’s view of her writing once she was married. I get that this is historical fiction and women were required by society to become mothers and house wives but Anna was being set up and this non conforming woman and then just totally caved in the end. Her argument with Goethe after he published her works was a little out of left field and didn’t feel genuine or like a real problem. In fact none of the “problems” that came about were actually all that important plot wise… I also had a big problem with the pacing of this book. I would think a few days had passed when in fact it was months and years with nothing in the text indicating so. I don’t know what years this was taking place, I had to Google a lot about Goethe and his life and the years he was active to even have a sense of when I was reading. I think this book may have been pushed too quickly and definitely needs another look at and redrafting because it definitely felt like a storyboard or a first draft to me.

I love historical fiction, but unfortunately, this just wasn't my cup of tea. Writing was off and character development just wasn't that interesting.
Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher for access to this eARC.

The story is fascinating - a young woman who doesn’t know that she is the illegitimate daughter of Goethe, living in a small village in Alsace. Raised by her mother and grandfather, the local parson, Anna is sent to Weimar to live with the father she hadn’t known about, to make a marriage that will give her the security she lacks in the village. Anna quickly becomes friends with her father’s current (and long term) live in love, Christianne, who Goethe refuses to marry in spite of their having a child together, Anna’s half brother August. The relationships between Christianne, Anna’s father, her half brother, all make up a fascinating part of the story. When a nobleman asks for Anna’s hand in marriage, she refuses it, preferring instead a love match with a local theater worker.

The story itself is fascinating, and Anna is a wonderful character.

The general premise of McAdam’s story was an interesting one discussing rather important and apropos topics still present in twenty-first century discourse when the pastor and Anna talk with one another. I also liked the general depiction of certain elements of the setting such as the families’ houses or of Weimar. I have been to Weimar before and the writing did remind me of it.

However, I must say that the writing style and plot creation of the author is rather linear and predictable. Sentences almost appear parallel which create a monotony in reading quality that I personally did not enjoy. As a stickler for grammar the repeated use of “but” or “and” to start a sentence is only one of the examples that made me interrupt my reading. Unfortunately, the conversations also appear rather forced and somewhat unnatural. An example would be the statement „Nathan the Wise. I see. Is it perhaps a matter of religion you’d like to discuss?” It is details like this that create a disconnect to the characters. Also, how did Anna turn 18 six years ago and is currently 28 years old?

Although, the depiction of Anna as well as the general setting is interesting, she seems to be depicted as a cliche while simultaneously being endowed with qualities that appear a bit removed from the period in which the story is set. The rather basic description can be applied to other characters as well such as Friederike. It appears as if the women miss any unique traits and instead are likened to a “she-wolf” when angry. Additionally, the general tone is rather modern (“he was leading her and her family on”) which does not immerse the reader in a historic setting such as the one in this novel.

Topics such as the pastor now holding his sermons in French are simply just dropped into the conversation. There is little introduction and only a rather static and basic discussion of the situation. After all the aforementioned shift in the language of sermons could do with a bit of a longer explanation of the why and how. In general, a setting of the scene regarding the role of women in the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century would be helpful. However, while women appear to be lacking in traits, I do like the depiction of Geist and several of the other supporting characters. Their descriptions are more vibrant and more synonyms are used to describe their quirks.

All in all, the novel feels more like a romantic Wikipedia-entry made into a narrative. I am missing a certain sense with words, a tone unique to the author as well as a sense of unpredictability.

I think this novel is for readers of romance. I wrongly expected much about the poet itself. The story really focuses on his daughter's love life which I did not find that interesting. His relationship with his daughter and her mother was for me too lightly described. The characters need a bit more refining as far as I am concerned. Overall, this is an easy, light and rather quick story perfect for romance readers.

This is a book that captures the life and times of the German poet Goethe when he was living in Weimar.
Anna is an illegitimate daughter he had no idea about, but whom he invites to live with him when she is in her late 20s.
The town, the way of life, the household and relationships (especially with his housekeeper and later wife) are well described.
So is the snobbiness of Weimar society, and the difference in education and expectations for boys and girls.

Anna has always been a writer as well as a voracious reader, but writes in secret.
But later things become very muddled, when suddenly Anna wants to be a wife and mother and forget she was ever a writer, for no reason that is ever explained.

I enjoyed the setting and obvious historical research, but the personal stories didn't quite convince me.

“The Poet’s Daughter” is a historical fiction book by CK McAdam This book follows the daughter of Goethe. First - it is not known if the relationship Goethe had with Friederike Brian resulted with a child being born - so that part is fictional. I cannot say that I learned anything about Goethe in this book - his interests outside of the theatre and poetry is hinted (such as him having a number of geological specimens) but as Goethe was, in essence, a Renaissance man, I had to do outside research to learn more about him. The French invasion is short - quite short - and the publisher’s summary makes it sound like it’ll be a larger deal than it is in this book. I think the idea of this book was fine, but I never felt connected to any other characters, though I did like Christiane’s spunk. I’ve read a previous book by this author and I think she’s just not an author whose writing style I like. I agree with the other reviewers who commented about a lot of adjectives in this book - the writing is very flowery and adjective heavy. There’s also not a lot that happens in this book for long periods of time - and speaking of time, I generally have no idea how much time passes in this book. There are some odd sentence constructs - requiring another editing pass - and I’ll admit to really pushing to get through this book. The other thing about Goethe using his daughter’s writing - he didn’t publish it under his name, so I don’t know why that is also made to sound like a larger deal than it was in the book.

When I opened the book, there was only one other review with a 1 rating which I have never seen but I have a German heritage and love Goethe and was looking forward to reading this and wondering why a 1 rating. I feel sorry to say that I agree with that review and with why that person explained it as it was written. Starting from page 1 it was full of an adjective for each noun in relatively short sentences and there was no cohesion. It felt like sentence 1,2,3,4…. on and on. After trying to continue reading , I my mind was more focused with what the adjective would be and I felt no story evolving. Very disappointing.

The book took on historical characters that were perhaps too ambitious (Goethe), but the plot had some promise. Most of all it needed a stronger hand in editing the overwrought description at the level of the sentence. I’m sorry to say it wasn’t for me.