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Readers' Comments for The Tulip Eaters

In October, a select group of readers who participated in one of our Women's Fiction Contests won copies of THE TULIP EATERS by Antoinette van Heugten. It’s about Nora de Jong, who returns home from work one day to find her mother has been murdered and her infant daughter is missing. The only clue is the body of an unknown man on the living-room floor, clutching a Luger in his cold, dead hand. The contents of a locked metal box Nora finds in her parents' attic leave her with as many questions as answers --- and suggest the killer was not a stranger. Take a look at some of the readers' comments to give you more insight into this enjoyable and fascinating mystery --- and make sure to watch out for SPOILERS!

Mary
I have some Dutch ancestors, and live near a very "Dutch" community, so I was interested in this book, specifically its location and plot. I rooted for Nora all the way through! I enjoyed the book very much and have passed it on to my daughter and daughter-in-law.

Michele
I was so delighted to get the chance to read this book. I lived in the Netherlands for five years a long time ago and reading the book brought back memories of this small country of friendly people, rainy weather ("the Dutch had almost as many words for rain as Eskimos had for snow") and their distinct connection to the Holocaust.

After Nora's mother is murdered and her infant baby abducted, the police trail soon gets cold when it requires International cooperation. All alone, except for her visiting Dutch friend, she uses everything in her power to find her daughter.

After some clues, the search takes her back to the Netherlands. The back and forth chapters from Nora's search to the life of the abductor bring an element of suspense up to the eventual confrontations, as Nora slowly unravels the mystery of her mother. I could see this as a movie with a number of action scenes.

I cannot imagine coming home, finding my mother murdered and my child gone and experiencing the somewhat subdued reaction of Nora. I enjoyed the Dutch words sprinkled throughout. Some of them were explained, but some were not, and I wonder if this would puzzle some readers who had no knowledge of the Dutch language.

Overall this was a very enjoyable and easy read. I haven't purposely picked up a Harlequin book in a long time, but I will soon. This book was far above the Harlequin romance novels of my early years. Nora wasn't focused on a "knight in shining armor;" she was focused on finding her daughter. But a rekindled romance added a pleasing dimension to the book.

Sherrie --- This comment contains SPOILERS
I enjoyed THE TULIP EATERS. I am a big fan of World War II stories and am always amazed at all the different stories there are to tell of that era. I have not read much about the Dutch occupation, so that was a new angle for me. The book started off with a bang and hooked me right away.  It didn’t take long though for the drama to get a bit over the top for me. I also felt like many of the characters, as the story progressed, were far-fetched and far from being realistic. I did stick with the book to see how they would get to the end --- and felt it was too obvious early on that, of course, Nora would find her daughter and marry Nico and live happily ever after.

I do have several folks that I will pass the book along to.  It was a good, light read with an interesting story to develop.  Thank you for sharing it with me.

Missie
The beginning of this book was the best part for me. The well-written murder scene provided realistic details, and I could feel Nora’s terror as she struggled to reconcile the reality of her mother’s murder and the kidnapping of baby Rose. However, I struggled to stay interested at times for the remainder of the book, but the intrigue of the possible role that Anneke played as a young girl growing up in a family of Nazi officers/supporters pulled me in for the story.

It is a story of secrets, betrayal, loss, love and survival of a group of young friends. The characters are well rounded and believable. I loved the strong Anneke, and the fact that she wrecked her bike to distract the military and smuggled out food to feed her friends made it believable that she fled as a killer or that she was a cunning Nazi. The compassion and understanding that Nora finds in her search to find baby Rose is certainly different from the revenge I anticipated.

I have passed this book on to my mother to read and have recommended it to several other people. My four star rating is four and not five because the murder was not a mystery; it was solved at the beginning of the book. Solving the murder later in the story possibly holding back the information about Isaac and Hans during WWII and the Nazi occupation of Holland would add intrigue.

THE TULIP EATERS is a good read and I think that it would make a wonderful movie.

Jodie --- This comment contains mild SPOILERS
I would give this book two and a half stars. I really wanted to like it more than I did. The premise was promising, and it does start off in a truly gripping fashion. The back-story is quite fascinating as well. I've always been enamored of the time period in which the back-story takes place, and finding anything with a new take on that is always interesting.

As I noted, while the story hooks you early on and is well written, it tends to degenerate into soap opera schmaltz at times.

The ending is a little too convenient, and it's hard to buy into the idea that the protagonist could change her mind so easily about how she feels about those responsible for the heinous acts perpetrated upon her and her family.

The history behind this story is what saves this book.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about the time period around WWII. It has a different take on things --- one you don't often see.

I would describe the book as part historical fiction with a little suspense mixed in. I particularly appreciated the historical angle and the back-story.  I was less fond of the melodramatic romance elements that crept in.

Whitney --- This comment contains mild SPOILERS
Having read SAVING MAX, I was DYING to read this book. I loved absolutely everything about van Heugten's last book, and recommended it to absolutely everyone. This book, however, was extremely disappointing to me. It was the complete opposite of SAVING MAX. I feel as if her books are either complete hits or misses, and this one I thought was definitely more of a miss. At any point in this book, I was able to put the book down and do something else. Perhaps I wasn't a fan of this book because of all the history-related content. I have always hated history and never enjoyed reading about it. At one point in the book, near the middle, I did find myself wanting to read "just one more chapter" because of the way she ends her chapters and switches from one person's story to another with each chapter. Toward the end, though, I could have easily put the book down and waited until tomorrow to read another chapter. The ending was not what I expected, either. Nora's quick change of heart was unexpected and not the best way to end it, in my opinion.  All in all, I cannot honestly say I would recommend this book to anyone, but I'm sure it's not the worst book I have read/will ever read in my life. I am hopeful that Antoinette van Heugten writes another book that is more along the lines of SAVING MAX in the near future.