What do readers think of The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace? Write your own review.

I found this book to be slow to start. I was disappointed in the ending, it left me wanting more. This was because there was no real depth to any of the characters and I felt let down when I finished the book. It was an intriguing storyline which led me to read the book but it didn't satisfy.

I found this book to be slow to start. I was disappointed in the ending, it left me wanting more. This was because there was no real depth to any of the characters and I felt let down when I finished the book. It was an intriguing storyline which led me to read the book but it didn't satisfy.

As I read the last line, it left me with a feeling of frustration. The story was interesting enough: a blind Comtessa in the 1800s Italy, the husband, the friend and lover, who invents a "new machine" for her especially: both characters and story are not developed enough; I ended up the book wanting more. Nice book for a summer afternoon.

I loved this small-sized, quickly-read, summer-reading-prize of a book. The story is a heart-stopper. It is exciting, thrilling, a great love story, mysterious and dangerous to the end. Then what? It ends. Fast.
But I needed something to carry on with at the end - something to hold fast to as the inevitable happened. The author left me with nothing. This is, as has been noted by experts, clearly a generational difference, as apparently, young people don’t mind an incomplete ending. I understand that, but her epilogue is so abrupt, that, while one person in the story at least exhibits some closure, the other does not, at all, and that is a great pity. It gets a three only because the story is such a good one. It gets no more because of that ending.

I couldn't put this one down. I didn't particularly like the characters or feel like I knew them very well, but the story the author tells is captivating. As the Contessa goes blind, her imagination becomes as important as real life as she envisions her surroundings and imagines herself and her forbidden lover in distant settings when they meet. There is suspense and mystery, and the story didn't end the way I expected it to. Book clubs will love discussing why the characters do what they do. This should appeal to readers of romantic books who don't like to figure out the ending before they get halfway through the story.

In her debut novel, the author has created a fairy tale-like story and setting. As a reader I felt she left room for my imagination also. It is a story of sadness, love, humor and betrayal. Carolina's dreams were an interesting part of the narrative, as well as her relationships with Pietro, Turri, Liza and Giovanni. It was an entertaining read.

A love story about 19th century Italian aristocrats, both of whom are married to "good matches" who are wrong for them. When the woman goes blind, the man - an amateur scientist - builds a precursor of a typewriter for her so she can send him messages. Lots of lovely flowery language about details of what is seen and/or imagined, but no real depth in the characters or chemistry between them. One senses that the author wants the reader to ache wistfully for the hopeless lovers, but there isn't quite enough to draw one in to this extent.

This tender love story by Carey Wallace will transport you along with Carolina into a world of dreams. I was so captivated by the story that I read it in one sitting. This book would be an excellent choice for book clubs. There are many topics which would be open for discussion--especially that of dreams and fantasies and where they can take us.
FYI--not only did Turri invent the writing machine but he also invented carbon paper which is what Carolina used in her letter writing.