A Mosaic of Wings

By: Kimberly Duffy

Narrated by: Ann Marie Lee

It's 1885, and all Nora Shipley wants, now that she's graduating from Cornell University as valedictorian of the entomology program, is to follow in her late father's footsteps by getting her master's degree and taking over the scientific journal he started. The only way to uphold her father's legacy is to win a scholarship, so she joins a research expedition in Kodaikanal, India, to prove herself in the field.

India isn't what she expects though, and neither is the rival classmate who accompanies her, Owen Epps. As her preconceptions of India - and of Owen - fall away, she finds both far more captivating than she expected. Forced by the expedition leader to stay at camp and illustrate exotic butterflies the men of the team find without her, Nora befriends Sita, a young Indian girl who has been dedicated to a goddess against her will.

In this spellbinding new land, Nora is soon faced with impossible choices - between saving Sita and saving her career and between what she's always thought she wanted and the man she's come to love.

©2020 Kimberly Duffy (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Narration

The story itself was good but the over the top narration grated on my nerves.

Delicious

I lived in India as a small child. This brought back all the wonderful memories I have of a land filled with vibrant colors, odors, and tastes. My father worked construction there, and would come home covered in powdered paint and just shrug and say “puja”. I don’t know how many white T-shirts he had to buy. My mother had delicious recipes so we always had a taste of India even years later. The story also captures the difficulties of the people and the missionaries and foreign diplomats in trying to reconcile cultural differences. I attended a British school. I never thought about the differences in the other children’s lives, they were just my classmates. We have super 8 preserved from those years. But even without those experiences, I still would have enjoyed this book. It does a good job of picturing India.

Simply beautiful

A brilliant debut from a talented author! This read like a love letter to India, and I’ll think of it whenever I see a butterfly or hear a cicada. I loved the depth of characterization, especially with Nora. And the thought-provoking debate over clashing cultures and beliefs was tactfully handled. In short, I loved this book.

Interesting and clean

Fully enjoyed this period piece! With full character development, and beautiful writing and surroundings. Takes place at Cornell university in the US and in India. Fascinating cultures, moral dilemma and growth.
Love this author!

Promising story line, poorly executed by both author and narrator.

The story of a young woman entomologist going on an expedition to India should be a captivating tale. It should be but it was not. The main character is obnoxious. She is either on her high horse or her soapbox and isn’t likable at all. And she never improves or becomes likable. She is determined to make her mark in a profession dominated by men (a goal anyone in this time would applaud) but the character is rude and always expects the worse of most everyone else. Ultimately her love interest, who is much more likable, sacrifices. Get that? The nice male character makes it possible for the obnoxious female character to get what she wants. Probably not what this author intended. The main character does do one thing right but she does so convinced that everyone will see that she was right.
I’m at a loss as to why this book is rated so highly. I’ll be passing on this author in the future.
And now a word about the narrator. She was absolutely dreadful. She was melodramatic and probably had to be given oxygen during the narration of this book. I recently read an article interviewing Will Patton and he stated that the “main thing (for a narrator) is to just stay out of the writer’s way.” Ms. Lee certainly did not follow that advice. She is on my short list of “never again” narrators. All in all, I regret my Audible purchase and my time spent listening to this book.

Boring and unengaging

Whoever gave this a five star must have been paid. It was so boring. The main character Nora was so annoying that her assertiveness was too much so after awhile she just didn’t ever get it and I couldn’t stand her. The narrator sounded like she was reading me a children’s story. AND it was a Christian novel! Once again I was duped into paying for a religious book where it was not disclosed yuck