Snag Your Copy An Artificial Light (The Photographer's Saga #2) Brought To You By Petra Durst-Benning Issued As Manuscript

read these "romance" style novels because they are set in my beloved Germany, She does use history and culture in her stories, I enjoy the authors stories about my Heimatland, And I always learn something about the trades she recounts, I especially enjoy her protagonists being feisty young women who make it on their own, even when they get distracted by neer do well men along the way I requested this novel because of its beautiful cover and its promise to discuss one of my favorite topics, photography.
This book is a continuation of Petra DurstBenning's The Photographer, which I haven't read, and it was a little difficult to pick up the threads of the story.
The author is a consummate researcher and carefully details village life, and overall the tone feels like an older novelat times I found myself thinking of the parts of Middlemarch that I always skip over, such as the railroad discussion.
The story was a bit slowmoving, and the supporting characters were hard to keep track of at times, Perhaps if I had begun the saga at the beginning it would be different,

Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to review a digital ARC in exchange for an unbiased review, The Best in Historical Fiction!

Petra DurstBenning is The Queen of Research and combining the details of one series into another! It is always a joy to discover them! The historical notes and photographs at the end of the books are wonderful to look over and see how she used them in the story! Now I have to wait another year for the next book! This is the second in the series The Photographer's Saga.
I won this copy in a Goodreads Giveaway, Before I started this book, I read Book, can be found here: sitelink goodreads. com/review/show

The story of Mimi Reventlow continues, She is still caring for her uncle, She is staying in Laichingen to ply her photography trade instead of traveling from town to town, She continues to help the young men of the town to fulfill their professional ambitions, Best friends Anton and Alexander would like to pursue careers other than weaving: Anton would like to be an entrepreneur Alexander an artist, Another young man, Emil, wants to pursue woodworking,

The town continues to be run by tyrant Hermann Gehringer, He wants all the young men to work in his mill, Mimi and Gehringer are constantly at odds,

A love interest is added for Mimi: Johann, Mimi had met him while traveling, He had left the townyears earlier but was now back, When she met him, she had no idea that he cam from her uncle's home town, The relationship is complicated by another woman in town: she happens to think Johann is hers,

This story was good, but just more of the same as the first, I would categorize it as Historical Drama,



Mimi Reventlow, die Wanderfotografin, hat es nach Laichingen, einem Dorf auf der schwäbischen Alb, verschlagen, in dem es sich voll und ganz um das Weberhandwerk dreht.
Der Webereibesitzer Gehringer spielt sich auf, als ob ihm das Dorf samt der Menschen gehört, doch Mimi stellt sich ihm in den Weg und versucht den Menschen vor Ort auch andere Lebenswege aufzuzeigen und will mit ihrer Fotografie Schönheit in den tristen ArbeitsAlltag bringen,.
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Das Buch knüpft nahtlos an seinen Vorgängerband an, was mir sehr gut gefällt, Aber das macht auch ziemlich deutlich, dass die Bände dieser Reihe nicht unabhängig voneinander gelesen werden sollte, Man nimmt sich als Leserin dadurch einfach zu viel, denn die Personen entwickeln sich stetig weiter und das Buch lebt vor allem durch die auftretenden Personen.
Jeder hat seine Stärken und Schwächen, ist mal gemein, mal liebenswert und das zu verfolgen, macht großen Spaß,


Die Handlung an sich lebt von den vielen gut recherchierten Alltagsszenen, die das Leben auf der Alb zur damaligen Zeit stark veranschaulichen.
Ansonsten entwickelt sich die Geschichte nach und nach und es ist schön sie mitzuerleben, Dennoch gibt es eigentlich keine unverhofften Wendungen oder Überraschungen, Die Geschichte geht genauso seinen Gang, wie man es auch erwartet, Gefreut habe ich mich über das Auftauchen von einigen Randpersonen, wie Bernadette, die im ersten Band nur einen ganz kurzen aber schönen Auftritt hatte.
Genauso kurz ist ihr zweites Auftreten, aber ich bin mir sicher, dass wir mit weiteren solchen Auftritten weiterhin Anteil an ihrem Leben haben werden.



Insofern ein schöner Schmöker mit starken Charakteren, die das Buch prägen und lesenswert machen!
The second of two books in a series set in turn of theth century Germany and tells the story of a female photographer, an unconventional job for an unconventional woman.
Very nicely written. Enjoyed the audio version. Make sure you read/listen to them both, A little disappointing. After reading the first book, The Photographer, I was eager to pick up the story and follow Mimi into new and exciting adventures in photography and travel.
However this just fizzled into a complicated love story and a failed attempt at recording reforming conditions of life in the linen industry, The audiobook reader is superb

Ive been enjoying all of the authors audiobooks, As German born it is pleasant to hear the names of towns and places, Her plots leave the reader with deep thoughts of life in general, Both books in this series The Photographer and An Artificial Light were entertaining, especially since I had lived in Stuttgart for awhile and enjoyed "revisiting" the setting of the story.
I very much enjoyed the history of photography and flax milling included in the plot, However, nothing irritates me more than to get to the end of a book and find that it is not a stand alone story.
Both books in this apparent series ended abruptly, with major plot lines unresolved and characters left dangling, I do not appreciate being manipulated into having to hunt down yet another book to boost the author's sales, so I will not be reading any more of these.
If the author doesn't care where she leaves her readers and her characters, neither do I, I utterly loved Petra DurstBenning's Century Trilogy and therefore thought I'd give her other books a go, unfortunately I struggled a little with this one to connect to the characters in the same way I have done with her previous books.


I did however make the mistake of reading the second book instead of the first which might be why but otherwise an enjoyable book.
This story follows the life of Mimi Reventlow, a lady photography in thes, The first book in this series sets the stage for Mimis life living and learning photography from her uncle Joseph and now we get to see more of the village and meet a wide range of odd characters.
I found the best parts of the book were during the photography sessions and learning about the weaving industry,
I didnt care for Johanns part and Mimi didnt completely win me over, All and all it was an OK read, not as good as I expected, The ending completely sets the stage for a sequel,
I want to thank Amazon Crossing and NetGalley for allowing me the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest unbiased opinion.
This is astar review, DurstBenning has done it again!

She makes shine, a sad town and townspeople, Thend book in the series is well written and runs the gamut of emotions from despair to hope, She ties up loose ends for the characters, Great read!The main character is Mimi Reventlow, the story setting Germany ina time when the world was changing, and a more modern way of life was starting to take shape.
Mimi is a traveling photographer who has decided to look after her elderly uncle who is dying and has been a mentor to her and encouraged her to travel a path much less taken by women of the period.
Much is made of the socalled romance in this story, but as always the path to true love and authenticity is never smooth, and sometimes love takes twists and turns that are unexpected.
The story also looks at the power that industrialists had over their workers and the potential fight for human rights the unionists had to take up, so often forgotten in the modern world where such rights are taken for granted.

This is the second book in an ongoing series, and as a reader with no access to the first novel, this book could have been improved with a little more backstory telling.
As it was, the story starts with no introduction to the cast of characters, prior knowledge is expected, which made it hard to connect with the characters for a long period of time.

One doesnt get a strong feeling for the time period this story is set in, as very little detail is given about the housing, fashion or expectations of the people of the time.
Its also not a period of history of the country well known to anyone who hasnt grown up in Germany, so more background would have made this story much more fascinating.
One cant help but hope that women such as Mimi Reventlow really did exist as she will appeal to modernday feminists, Strong, independent and determined to find a better life for those around her and for herself are characteristics that are well respected in a modern world.

This book promised much but felt lacking somehow, It was a pleasant enough way to spend a day, but not enough to make one want to track down the next novel in the series.

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