I'm a hist-fic fan, so I'm used to the slower pacing. I don't mind it at all as long as the story is engaging and the plot goes SOMEWHERE. LOL.

I thought all the various elements worked together really well to create a compelling story.

Really? I've done it many times. When I get into a book, I REALLY get into it, I guess :)

Susan Meissner has written a lot of books and I haven't read all of them yet. I particularly like her dual-timeline novels that focus on important historical events. Some are better than others naturally, but they're generally well-written, compelling, and clean (they deal with heavy subject matter but don't have graphic language, violence, or sex). If you like those kinds of books, you'll probably enjoy Meissner.

I've read eight books by Meissner and I've enjoyed them all. I think A FALL OF MARIGOLDS is my favorite, followed by THE NATURE OF FRAGILE THINGS.

The earthquake is a major part of the story, but it's not what the story is really about, if that makes sense. It's more about the heroine's search for belonging than anything else. It's an interesting time period/setting to read about to boot!

Meissner's fairly prolific and she's been publishing for about 20 years, so it's possible you've read something by her already. I like her books a lot, although like I said above, some are better than others.

The book just came out, so hopefully it's still available on NetGalley. Fingers crossed!

Let me know what you think of Meissner's books if you do try them out!

Ha! Right? I get tired of war books, too, and I like disaster-type settings (adds to the drama), so I always seem to be reading about historical fires, tsunamis, storms, etc. I just finished one about the Great Fire in Chicago!

I hope you enjoy it!