I loved the idea of the Museum of Broken Promised but this was not my favourite Elizabeth Buchan. It is written beautifully, however, but the dual timeline affected the pace and made it a slow read for me.

A captivating and poignant novel that explores the power of memory and love. The Museum of Broken Promises is a place where people can donate objects that represent a broken promise, a betrayal, or a loss.

The main character, Laure, is the curator of the museum and has her own painful secrets from her past in Prague during the Cold War. The story alternates between Laure's present life in Paris and her past in Prague, revealing the story of her forbidden romance with a dissident musician and the consequences of their choices.

The book is a moving and emotional read, full of suspense, romance, and heartbreak

I found this book to be very involved and sometimes confusing.
Others I have read by Elizabeth Buchan have been more involving and probably on lighter subjects.
The story has two time lines, one in Prague and another in present day Paris. I find the actual Museum of broken promises hard to believe.
The tragic love affair between Laurie and Tomas is well written with cultural differences between them well described.
A long sad read.

DNF at 31%.
My first ever DNF. Wow. I don't know what it is about the book. If anything, I found the passages about the museum lovely but I just couldn't get into what felt like an over complicated story with too much information provided about some areas and not enough about others. The sequences in the past felt a bit bland and predictable, maybe that's just me. The main character just felt, I don't know. Coarse? Whiney without SAYING anything. And that journalist! Why keep working with her? A lovely idea for a book and having throughly enjoyed the museums and history of Europe on my travels, I thought I'd love this book. But unfortunately not.
This was my first DNF in a lifetime of heavy reading. I keep coming back to it but having had it sat on my kindle part read since March and a whole lockdown of reading, I have to admit defeat.

An intriguing story weaving between the life of Laure, a museum curator, in Paris and her life in a tumultuous Prague in 1985 where a naive Laure fell in love with Tomas a young dissident musician. Did Tomas ever make it on to the train out of Czechoslovakia and if not what stopped him?

I have enjoyed previous works by Elizabeth Buchan but I have to admit that I found this one somewhat slow and dry. I came to it a few times in order to get it read but sadly that is not the mark of a good or interesting book for me. It has a good idea at it's heart but just didn't 'flow' as I would have liked.

The Museum of Broken Promises is a slow-moving book and I found myself at times wishing it would get on with it a bit more. Towards the end I was reading just to get it finished - which is a shame as the writing is fine and at times lyrical in the descriptions. Saying that, though, there are also times when there are jarring prosaic notes that don't seem to quite fit and very occasionally I felt that the sentences weren't properly English - and I don't mean in the dialogue where it would be acceptable, but in the narrative. I'm sorry I didn't note some of these instances as I went along so I could explain myself.

The bits I liked best were the scenes with Tomas and Laure - the descriptions of the young man were poignant and visual. The scenes featuring the rock group were visceral and realistic. Tomas is the type of rock musician whose vulnerability would appeal to many. It was also interesting to learn something of the political background of Czechoslovakia and life there during the Communist regime.

The premise of the museum where people deposit artefacts representing betrayal and broken promises is a good one but I would perhaps have liked a little more about the objects and their owners. I felt that Nic could have been given more to do and the character, May, seemed superfluous as she was simply a foil to get Laure talking - though she didn't even achieve that much.

I found the episode in Berlin gratuitous as Laure didn't really learn anything new and it seemed out of character for her to do what she did. Similarly, the revelation at the end struck a false note to me. I could not believe that even the young and foolish Laure would do that.

I'm sorry to be so negative - this really isn't a bad book - it has much to recommend it - but maybe it just wasn't for me.

This captures the feel of what is what it would have been like living in Prague in the days of the Cold War. The story of Pierrot is so beautiful and absolutely heart-wrenching. However, with the jumping around in time and places, some of the story gets lost and some threads stay unravelled, so it does not feel complete.

A beautifully written story. It took me a little while to get into it but the language and the feelings of the characters (especially Laure) that the use of language conveyed will stay with me for a long time. This is not normally my kind of book, although I enjoyed Damage by the same author many years ago and that more than anything probably 'sold' me on this one. I wasn't disappointed.

Excellent novel. Really enjoyed it whilst in lockdown. Engrossing well drawn plot and characters. A real page turner. Looking forward to the authors next book

A story that begins in Paris and Laure opens her museum, but most of the story is set in Prague during the communist era. Really enjoyed that part more than the present day ,loved reading about the puppet theatre which featured throughout the story and bought back lovely memories of my visit there and seeing all the marionette's and could really imagine myself in the familiar places A story of love, heartache and the passion of a young girls first serious romance but it happened at the wrong time. A really good read with a great backdrop and a good ending

A slow paced novel but well written and ultimately enjoyable. A very interesting take on a museum
Some formatting errors in the Kindle version which I presume will be rectified before sale

I really enjoyed this book as it has a very unique story to the museum. I enjoyed reading the shifting time stories.

Thanks for letting me review this book

I honestly thought I would enjoy this book much more than I did. The writing was good, the story was good (but familiar from another author in a different genre), but the main character was disappointing. I could feel sympathy for her, but I really didn't like her at all. "The Museum of Broken Promises" just didn't work for me.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.

A story set on a dual timeline where you follow Laure and her time spent as an au pair in Prague and modern day in Paris.

She is in Prague in the late eighties and she meets and falls in love with Tomaz who is a musician. This is a love story of how two people from different walks of life meet and fall in love and the repercussions for everyone involved.

Whilst reading this book I gained a massive insight into what life in Prague was like and the political history created during this time.

The Museum of Broken Promises is what Laure has created many years later based on her experiences in Prague and where other people can request to display items that also demonstrate broken promises.

A brilliant book with lots of historical information layered inside the love story that was created. I loved the dual timelines and how the reflection of events Laure experienced in Prague still influenced her life in present day.

I realised that I had previously reviewed this book. Here is my review below.

An interesting story. This is a slow starter that becomes intriguing and compelling reading. It is beautifully written the whole way through.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

I loved the concept of the Museum of Broken Promises.- small items that had such history behind them.
The main thrust of then novel is the history of the curator Laure and the traumatic time she spent in Prague in 1985, working as au pair for a high-ranking Czech official. The novel portrays the paranoia of everyone living there at that time, the trust no-one reality.
The love story between Laure and Tomas starts off well and highlights the difficulties encountered by being different, standing out from the crowd or attempting any kind of standing up to the State. That said these sections of the novel were not entertaining and seemed very repetitive.
I didn’t understand the relevance of the meeting between Laure and Petyr in Berlin – I’m not sure it added to the plot.

Overall I would have preferred more emphasis on the museum objects and less on the political discussions involving the puppeteers.

Told in 3 timelines (1989 Czechoslovakia, 1996 Berlin and present day Paris), this is a powerful work of historical fiction following Laure's life as a half French half English girl aged 20 as an au pair for a Czech family moving from Paris back to Prague. She finds mystery and love and turmoil in Prague. Some years later she has taken life into her own hands in Berlin and present day she runs the Museum of Broken Promises.

The Museum is a place where people bring in the pieces of their life which represent an injustice against them, a promise not kept. Centre stage is an artifact of a promise she did not keep. The guilt lives on in her.

This is powerful, as I said. It was incredibly emotionally evocative. Does it end happy? Should it end happy? It has a resolution, we can say that. A history this dark, this troubled, it won't always be everything you want it to be. If you know nothing about Communist Czech Republic or post Berlin Wall Berlin, this might be a good place to start. Larue's friends in Prague were a part of the resistance in their own way. Her employer Petr was a part of the Party. These facets of her lives conflicted heavily and preyed so easily upon a naive little English girl who knew only of Capitalism.

Whilst the story was well told, certain characters were off-putting for my taste. Laure I have to give some slack because she was ignorant - she wasn't to know any better but I felt bad for how often and how long it took Tomas and his friends to get her to take things seriously. May, modern day journalist was everything I disliked about journalists with her "it's my job" nonsense. Petr, to be expected but he's still gross and I didn't like him and I personally didn't need as much healing as Laure after reading the story so no I absolutely did not forgive him.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an opportunity to review this book.

This book is quite emotional and heart-breaking from the very beginning until the very end. Based in Europe, in two timelines between now and 1985, we are witnesses to cold war, politics, fight for freedom and an extraordinary love story.

Today, Laure is living in Paris and she owns The Museum of Broken Promises – a place of wonder and sadness. Every object in the museum has been donated and each represents a moment of grief or terrible betrayal. Laure also has hidden objects of her own in there, from her own youth.

Back in 1985, Laure is in Prague, running away after her dad suddenly passes away. But her life here is very confusing. She is struggling to comprehend the dark politics that are taking over the city. But then she meets a young musician. And her love for him is forbidden and causes trouble and terrible consequences.

It is only years after having created the museum that Laure can finally come to terms with her past and celebrate the love she is feeling!

My Thoughts:

This is a very emotional book and I have learned that I need to be in a certain mood in order to be able to fully appreciate it. This is one of those books that leaves a tiny mark in your heart that you will always carry with you.

The story is amazing, we are witnessing a great life full of memories and stories of love, fight for freedom, betrayals, fears, ups and downs. It is so realistic that will make you shiver at times.

I have to admit, I found myself slightly confused at the beginning, trying to figure out which timeline I am currently in, but after a few chapters, I am able to make a difference and get a clearer picture of the story.

I loved the idea of this Museum of Broken Promises. It made me think of what object I could maybe leave there to represent my grief.

I have to admit, I didn’t truly connect with Laure as a main character. She seemed too closed in her own world and her sharing her story in the way that she did was very contradicting to me.

I loved Tomas though. He was my absolute favourite, the hero of this book.

What an incredible book and one that I REALLY enjoyed. The heroine of this book is Laure, who runs the Museum of Broken Promises in Paris. The exhibits are from individuals who have been let down: train tickets, wedding veils... But Laure has her own secrets and a previous dramatic life, for which she rightly feels let down by other people. As the story unravels, we discover she spent some time in communist Czechoslovakia as an au pair, which brought many dangers.
This book had me gripped from the start, and was a great read. I have no hesitation in recommending it to others.