I was drawn to this book as much as anything by the beautiful cover. I then read that it was about a lady who ran a Greek bakery. Now I love Greek cuisine and have a Cypriot friend who runs a deli (with fantastic food!) so I thought it sounded like an attractive read. I won't bother you with the premise of the story here as I always think thet the 'blurb' writers do a better job at expaining a plot without giving away the full storyline. However what I will comment on is the style of writing. I cannot explain it but it just doesn't flow. There are a lot of short sentences, the tenses are mixed and the person 'speaking' or telling the story seems to jump about. Sadly it is just not a very well constructed piece of writing despite having an interesting idea and beginning. Overall it is a sad book about limits rather than hope and possibilities (apart from the wonderful baking!).

This is not my usual 'cup of tea' but was intrigued by the cover and the blubr, so thnak you Netgalley and The Publishers for giving me the opportunity to read it.

I started reading this at 4am one morning when I found myself, not able to fall back to sleep, after awaking.
Perhaps it was my tiredness, but this book was just not for me.

I did persist past page 100, and this is my benchmark re decision to carry on oe stop reading, I decided to stop.

I did enjoy the story to a degree, the descriptiveness of the writing and the immersion into the culture was well done, but , it just did not engage me enought to finsh it.

However, just because I did not enjoy it, does not mean to say someone else won,t, we as readers are different in everyway, and what one man dislikes, the other may revel in it's glory.

I am happy to have been given the chance to read it and I hope the book does well:)

I was really looking forward to reading this book, however it did not live up to expectations. I found it quite frustrating flitting between narrators and timelines and had no flow to the story. It might have been better if it had told the story from different characters perspectives n separate sections. It is an interesting time in modern history but this book did not portray it very well.

I had high hopes for this book as I was attracted by the book description and the beautiful cover, but unfortunately it wasn’t for me I found it confusing as it flitted between timelines and locations making it difficult to follow the story. There are also a lot of Greek words and phrases which mean nothing until you reach the glossary

Maria Petrakis is a Greek Cypriot woman, living in London, running her own bakery in an area where there is a significant Greek community. This is what attracted me to this novel, as my family has a decades-long, close friendship with a Greek Cypriot family in the south of England, and especially since some of the action takes place in the period when our families’ connections began (the early 1970s).

I had expected there to more details of how the 1974 war played out and affected the life of Cypriots, both those living in Cyprus and ex-pats – a bit of history brought to life – but was disappointed.

I know writers of books set in other countries or with ex-pat characters like to litter the text with words in the appropriate language for authenticity, but it was very distracting to have to keep consulting the internet for translations (some of which were impossible to find). There is a glossary at the end, which no doubt works well for a physical copy of the book, but I had no knowledge of it while reading the pre-publication Kindle version until come across it as an appendix once I’d finished the novel.

I don’t normally have a problem with novels where the action moves back and forth between different time periods, but for some reason I found it hard to keep up in this book. Perhaps because the different periods were quite close together? I found it hard to remember what's already happened in the characters’ lives at the point in time we've moved to. I should have created a timeline for myself!

There is little dialogue – what is said is reported, rather than being “live” conversation, e.g. “She won't tell Elena his name... All right then, Elena can call him Tom if she'd prefer”, which leads to ambiguity: did the characters actually speak, or was it the imagination of the subject of the chapter/section? Where direct dialogue does appear it is written in italics, rather than quotation marks, with little indication of when it switches from one person to another.

Despite all the (for me) confusing elements, the story is certainly not without substance, including a heart-breaking story of mental illness.

A lovely insight into the lives of two women who fled Cyprus and how their lives intertwine around the main character's bakery. Set in London, we learn about Cypriot family life and how food is important to their way of life. I was often a little confused as to who was speaking - as the book moves from one character to the other and also back and forth through the years - but the story and the baking held my my interest to the end. A charming read.

This book has received mixed reviews from other readers and I’m stuck in the middle - I enjoyed this book on the whole but agree that the constant switching between different times and narrators was very confusing and didn’t really add anything to the story. I also didn’t find the glossary until I had finished but actually didn’t feel that I’d missed out because the meanings of the words were written to a degree within the story. I suppose I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to when I started it but it could have been better organised to make the story flow better. I would give it 3 1/2 stars.

This is an interesting story about a family of Greek Cypriots living in the Green Lanes area of North London and centres around the matriarch, Maria Petrakis, the owner of a bakery and her troubled daughter-in-law Elena. The story is set in London and Cyprus, with the Cyprus story lines going back to the Turkish invasion of Cyprus. The lives of both women feature domestic tragedy and family conflict and although there isn’t much there about the war itself, it is there in the background and is potentially a factor in Elena’s psychological breakdown. The biggest problem for me was with the structure of the novel. It jumped from different decades in London and earlier decades in Cyprus covering the separate stories of the two women in what seemed to be a random way and although there were threads which connected the story lines, they were not particularly coherent and fir me, I feel that they disrupted the narrative of the novel. I think that this kind of structure is particularly problematic in an e-book, where it’s less easy to flick back and re-read sections to make connections. Thanks to Net Galley for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

The blurb read ‘ The Making Of Mrs Petrakis is a story about the limited choices women sometimes find themselves confronting. It's a story about repression and mental illness and the devastation it can wreak on lives. But above all, it is a story of motherhood and love and of healing through the humble act of baking.’
It’s not entirely wrong.... but the baking part, which piqued my interest, was the occasional mention, rather than a more involved feature.
The characters were interesting, and it was nicely written, but there’s a lot of sadness that’s not really confronted; I never felt ‘involved’

With thanks to #netgalley and @tworoadsbooks
So this was a book I did enjoy. I did appreciate the characterisation, the setting and atmosphere that was clear and resonant throughout.
Though this was a great idea, a blurb I read in which the concept of the story seemed intriguing; I wasn't overly enamoured by it the more I read. The start, like Karras' premise for the novel, was engaging, and draws a reader in. There's subtle enigma with the narrative voice, and a setting that draws you in with some eloquent sensory description.
The Making of Mrs Petrakis tells the tale of women - women of Greek heritage which bleeds into all they do and experience. Across the narrative, we are taken back and forth between 1970's London, and 1960's Greece. There's an all-too subtle backdrop of war, conflict and the absence of men. Equally there are powerful moments dealing with the abusive husband and the post-natal depression, which plague the women's trajectories. In places this was a cosy narrative about the tribulations of married life. In others, it was the drama of war and men being taken from the home. Furthermore in another place, this is the bildungsroman of Elena, that is guided and twisted to fruition by her mother-in-law, accompanied by some sharp observations of the Greek culture and family life.

From about 100 pages in my interest began to dwindle. The visual and sensory prose remains a constant delight throughout the novel; yet the story becomes tangental - too many switches between too many characters that are not totally denoted to the reader. The stories of the women protagonists that I hoped would be of a different tone when reading the blurb remain average. The domesticity and repeated tropes of sadness, misunderstanding, love and motherhood could have worked. However, their repeated tone and the outcomes for each woman felt cyclical to a point of boredom, rather than a carefully drawn structural feature which offered development or depth to each woman individually. Because of this, it was then unfortunate that the power of the central female trio was lost in translation.

"The Making of Mrs Petrakis" by Mary Karras is a book that is divided in more than one way. London and Cyprus, Mrs Petrakis senior and Mrs Petrakis junior, some confusing plot and some wonderful descriptions of Greek bakery goods. Like many of the other reviewers, I really struggled with the dates and timelines. However the descriptions of Cyprus and the food of Green Lanes definitely outweighed this. More food related books from Mary Karras please!

I really tried to get into this book but I just could not. It didn't grab my attention as I'd originally hoped it would and found it hard to continue reading. It was confusing at times too, not sure who they were describing or talking about and a lot of the words were Greek and I didn't understand fully. I give it 2 out of 5 because I just couldn't get into it no matter how much I tried.

I have to be honest, I got quite lost, often, in this book. We have visited Cyprus and seen the abandoned villages and the divided city, so thought I'd really get something from this story, However, as it switches generations, countries and locations, you really need your wits about you. I read it on a Kindle, so didn't find the glossary until I'd finished, so that was no help to me.and I always struggle with foreign names which I can't pronounce! I end up making up something but lots of the people have rather similar surnames so this was tricky. The descriptions of the bakery were marvellous and made me wish we had something similar nearer than London!! I can't say that I would recommend this book as I found it a less than enjoyable read - rather more of a chore. I am so sorry,

The title character of this novel is a Greek Cypriot woman who escapes the war in Cyprus and an abusive husband to open a traditional bakery in north London. The large Greek Cypriot population in the area mean that it is not even necessary for refugees to learn English. There are some wonderful characters in this book, including a number of strong women with well-developed survival instincts. Be warned that you will need to have your wits about you, or maybe note the dates of key events, as chapters jump back and forwards in time and locations. Those with a sweet tooth will want to visit a traditional bakery in Green Lanes to sample some Greek pastries by the end of the book.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to review this book.

I found this a little confusing in all honesty, it flitted between London & Cyprus and across different timeframes... I didn’t realise there was a glossary to help with the Greek words and phrases!!

I’m sure there will be others who will enjoy it but unfortunately it wasn’t for me.
I think prior to publication make it clear re: the glossary (however that may be due to me reading it on Kindle?)

Thanks to the publisher & netgalley for an ARC of this book.

This was a beautiful read about family and the love that binds us. Following the story of Maria from growing up in Cyprus to moving to London and opening her amazing bakery. The story goes back and worth between the curreny day and the past of Maria and her family. It made me feel as if I had been to Cyprus with her, and now I'm desperate to try all the gorgeous sounding food I heard about in the book. This is a beautiful story about the bonds of family, about surviving, and ultimately growing from everything we go through. This is the perfect read for summer nights , a book to make you feel good about life and leave you feeling fulfilled at the end of the story. The only downside is there are no local bakeries to me that sell all the amazing sounding food mentioned in the book, I guess some Greek cookbooks are on the horizon for me.

Despite living in North London and knowing a lot of people like this - my friend's mother grew up in Cyprus and spent her summer in the Troodos Mountains, even - I found it hard to figure out what was going on and to connect with the characters. Jumping back and forth in time can be handled in a variety of ways, and I don't know if it's the format of the proof but often I struggle to figure out what is happening to which character, and they all seem depressed. I will continue with it, but I would have liked to see this rich material handled in a less brittle way.

Rich pastries, civil war, mental health, historical mistakes and different lifestyles and cultures. This book had it all but I found the jumping back and forth in time confusing. I'm sure many will love this book but it wasn't for me.

What a wonder book!!! I’ve just started getting into historical fiction and this was a great way to fall in love with the genre. The writing style is beautiful and so detailed. The Greek way of life is expressed so clearly in the way it is written. Mrs Petrakis has been through so much and I loved reading her story

I really enjoyed this book about Mrs Petrakis and her London bakery. There are some hard hitting topics running through this book such as domestic abuse and postnatal depression. The writing is descriptive and I really enjoyed learning about the Cypriot culture and it’s history. Took me a while to get to grips with the layout of the book but worth preserving with.