Slow starting but story is entertwining and deep. Good read

I wish they had half star ratings here. I would give it a 3.5 almost a four. It was a good book and Id recommened it to anyone. I loved the relationship with food and smells as memories. The mother daughter relationships was one I wish had been explored more. ( )

A look back at an anything but innocent childhood along the Loire in WWII. Framboise is the youngest of three children of a war widow and is involved with her older siblings in interactions with a young German soldier who charms and manipulates everyone securing information used not for the military but for personal gain. Combined with their unstable mother ruthlessly manipulated by Framboise the situation becomes entirely unstable. In the retrospective it is her nephew's journalist wife who wants to write a book about what happened whereas Framboise wants to maintain the secrets she has kept for over half a century. I felt the ending was the weakest part of story and didn't do it any favors. ( )

4/27/22

Ok, I checked like 5 pages of reviews and no one ever mentions that, so maybe it's just me going crazy. But this book is full of discrepancies or whatever the word is.

Page 35: And though she only ever seems to refer to her children by abbreviation - R-C, Cass and Fra - my father is never mentioned. Never.

Then, page 50:. 'Yannick says he saw Old Mother today', she writes.

What the..?

Next example, page 174:
'I'm sorry', she said. 'This was never meant to be about money'.
'Then what on earth was all that -'
Laure interrupted: 'There was a book'
'No! Never!' My voice rose like a red kite in the little room.

So you see - they cleared the matter out, Framboise is shocked and infuriated, how dare they ask for the album!
And then, page 207:

Laure gave me a broad, hateful smile of dislike. 'Is that what you thought we wanted, Mamie? Your bit of money? Oh really!'
'I know what you want. My mother's recipes. I won't give them to you'.
I realised that it wasn't just recipes she wanted.
'Mirabelle Dartigen's album', said Laure gently.
'No', I whispered. 'No!'

Surprise! Not about the money! Wow! Let's be shocked again!

Finally, page 310:
Well, Mother didn't give him what you'd call a warm welcome. Either way, he didn't come back.

Page 324:
Raphael called to see Mother again.

So did he come back or didn't he?

I seriously wanted to throw the book out of the window.

Please someone explain to me where am I mistaken? How is it all logical? I want to believe it is, and the problem is just me reading in my not-native language. ( )