GGC Book Club for Adults

Welcome to She Said/She Said, where GGC Members are our book reviewers from across Canada, sharing their opinions about our book of the month.

This month, we take a look at The Reinvention of Love by Helen Humphreys, published by Harper Collins Canada. We have two review of the same book, but with very different takes!

Book Reviewers’ Suggested GGC Rating: “This book contains ample profanity and the story revolves around scenes of a sexual nature. It is intended for adults aged 18 and older.”

She Said: Guider Cathie Etzl
44th Guides, Windsor Ontario

The Reinvention of Love by Canadian author Helen Humpreys is a historical romance based on a true story that revolves around the main character Adele. I was pleasantly surprised reading this book as I do not normally read romances but thoroughly enjoyed this book. It revolves around a few characters who are writers. The story starts out in the 1830s in Paris and immediately drew my interest with descriptions of Parisian sights, arts and culture. The novel did a wonderful job of portraying the way life was during this time period in history. I found this novel easy to read with characters that made me feel what they were feeling. The intriguing plot kept my interest and was clear and concise – I was able to pick this book up and put it down often and not lose track of where I was. I would recommend that this book be put on everyone’s list of must reads. I plan on checking out other books by this author as I found this book to be very enjoyable.

 She Said: GGC Member & Kwahee Committee Chair, Darlene Banks
Middleton, Nova Scotia

Written by Helen Humphreys and set in France of the 1800’s, The Reinvention of Love could have taken place anywhere, anytime, with few details about life during that time. There are brief references, but the thoughts and feelings being expressed by the main characters could be the same now as they were then.

The main focus of the novel is the love between Charles and Adele and the effect their decisions have on their lives as well as those around them. Told mostly from Charles’ point of view, the reader does get glimpses of Adele, which show her as a woman torn between love and duty, another timeless theme.

At times the story is difficult to follow as it switches between Adele and Charles as they recount the story of their lives together and separate from each other. There is also a period where one of Adele’s children is involved in the storytelling, which seems to complicate the story further. Often not in chronological order either, by the end of the novel the pieces of the story start to fall into place, but the reader is still left with unanswered questions.

———————————-

One of our reviewers noted that while this book met the Girl Guide Adult Book Club criteria (written by a female, Canadian
author with a female main character, etc.), that it fell short on content related to girl programming. What do you think? Should our GGC book club choices for adults relate to girl programming?