"Briefly, a delicious life" is a book that left me wanting more. And I'll try to explain why.

The setting, the premise, the characters, ...it all felt like the perfect beginning to a great story. I do have to admit this type of book is not one I read often, but I always look forward to stepping out of my comfort zone and experiencing this type of story told this way. And I have to admit the writing is absolutely gorgeous. A lot of people will fall in love with the way this author writes and it's also the reason why I'm willing to read what she writes in the future.

However, the whole book felt like a story that didn't move. Things happened but the way we jumped from scene to scene made it a bit chaotic and not in a good way. I can assume the way the story is told tries to mirror how Blanca sees things. But for a ghost that has been trapped for so many years, I expected more. I expected her character to give us more in this story.
And the thing is that the book isn't bad at all. It just feels very anticlimatic. But again, I'm willing to see what the author comes up with next, as I think her writing has a lot of potential,

This is not my usual sort of read. I went into this knowing nothing about George Sands and very little about Chopin. There was very little plot, it's more of a character study, except the characters aren't very interesting, except maybe George, clearly a woman ahead of her time. I felt the back story about Blanca (the ghost) was a bit pointless and she was only really there as a convenient way of seeing people's memories and the future to keep the novel going somewhere. The writing was good and the description of Chopin's piano playing is very eloquent, but apart from that for a character study novel, the characters never really developed and then it ended.

This book was well written and it was a good idea for a story but it wasn't quite there for me. I found it hard to get into and the characters hard to connect to.

Charming : The Obsessions of A Ghostly Girl In Mallorca

Nell Stevens has written an engaging account of the initially hopeful, later, distressing, 3 wintry months which the Chopin/George Sand entourage – Sands’ 2 children and their nursemaid – spent in a deserted Cartusian monastery, late in 1838 and early 1839

Sands, a noted novelist, and intellectual, and Chopin were lovers for many years. Sands was wonderfully shocking and freethinking, not to mention free acting. She left her husband, had several associations with other artists, and wore men’s clothing, smoked cigars and generally shocked the bourgeoisie frequently. She was a true and influential radical.

Chopin, several years her junior, was highly strung, and physically not robust. He suffered at this time from that classic nineteenth century decimator of many – tuberculosis. Sand instigated the up-sticks to Mallorca, mistakenly thinking that a winter far further South, on an island, by the healing sea, would cure, or at least ameliorate a condition always made worse by cold and damp.

In fact, the venture nearly killed Chopin. A Mallorcan winter provided none of the desired climatic factors. Additionally, the sexual set-up and unconventional behaviour of the couple led to them being ostracised and feared by the locals

Stevens makes an unusual decision in telling this fictionalised account of the Mallorcan sojourn.

Her narrator is an invention: a young girl who died over 300 years ago, and who vengefully – we learn why, during the course of the novel – has haunted the monastery, plagueing generations of monks, sacristans and various other clerical persons. She is an amusing and lively narrator, prone to strong passions and deeply alive to the world of the senses and what it mean to be alive. She is a bit of an eager inhabitator of the sensory experiences of the living. Enamoured of beautiful men when she was living, she becomes utterly engaged by Sand

This was an assured, charming stroll through a shared timeline of two historical epochs

A very happy ARC request, granted, by NetGalley and the publisher

This is the story of author George Sand, and her friend, composer Chopin, and her children, as they spend the winter in Mallorca in the hope that the Mediterranean weather will heal Chopin’s illness (a sort of fictionalised account of their trip to Valldemosa in 1838). It is also the story of Blanca, a girl who died several hundred years before and now haunts the village where she lived and died.

The narrator is Bianca, which allows for the story to be told in a very interesting way - it bypasses the issue of jarring head-swapping by having the girl ‘possess’ (kinda) the characters to understand what they’re thinking and delve into their memories. It’s also a fascinating perspective to read from: a teenage girl who has nonetheless watched generations live and die before her eyes.

I couldn’t put it down. The prose is beautiful in a visceral sort of way, which felt very much in line with the narrator needing to inhabit others’ bodies to feel physical sensations. It is funny - not laugh-out-loud, but the quiet humour of a half-ignored son and a girl who’s seen to much - but also angry, melancholy and absolutely besotted with humanity. There is sapphic longing and rejected gender norms and artistic intensity and so many layers that I’ll need to reread it again (and again) to get to the depths of it.

Briefly, a Delicious Life was a book that I didn’t mind reading, but I didn’t really love it. Perhaps this was something I should have foreseen from the start. It never really sounded exactly my kind of book, but I was tempted by the idea of a ghost in love with a woman. And it wasn’t a bad book, for sure. It just wasn’t my kind of book.

And since most of my reasons for the rating are due to it being that, let me instead list some reasons you might enjoy it.

— It’s a book that is clearly well-researched and a lot of thought has gone into creating a Mallorca that jumps off the page. You feel like you’re there with the characters as all this is happening.

— If you enjoy character-driven stories, this is one for you. Yes, it’s primarily about Blanca, the ghost of a girl who died in childbirth at the monastery, but it’s also about George and Chopin and George’s two children. It’s not a novel where a whole lot happens, in truth, since it’s mostly about the characters and their various relationships and states of mind.

— Speaking of plots, if you like stories where there isn’t that clear a narrative direction, where it really is just about characters living, then this would be one for you.

But as I said, it wasn’t really a book for me, and part of this was to do with the lack of drive, part of it was simply it was never really going to be one. I didn’t feel enough for the characters and, in a book like this, once I’d decided that, there was no real hope for it.

To be honest this did not really work for me

I wanted to read it more on the basis of the author being a Goldsmith Prize judge but this felt more like an intersection of two genres (historical fiction about writers/artists) and supernatural that do not really appeal to me and without the experimental writing or creative use of language I had been hoping for.

I think for those who are more familiar with and interested in the lives of Chopin and George Sand, and who enjoy a good ghost story this will be a lot more appealing.

Briefly, A Delicious Life is a masterpiece. I was so captivated from start to finish. It was like nothing I've read before and it really surprised me positively.

I would say this is a good example of why we have the saying: "less is more" lol.

Nell Stevens embarked on a journey of acquainting us with George Sand's life. But she probably thought that doing it in the old way won't result in too many sales, therefore she came up with an elaborate way of tell the story by bringing in a ghost and interlinking 2 narrative threads. In my view, this literary trick made the overall narration very boring as Blanca's story is as old as the all the creation myths out there and paired with the eclectic life Sand had it just didn't work. Not only that but it does leave the reader wanting more and wondering why one has to put up with Blanca's story when they could have luxuriated in only reading about Sand?!

Please re-write this only from Sand's point of view and I will gladly read it again!!

The intense and non-conformist relationship between writer controversial writer George Sand and sensitive composer Frédéric Chopin continues to attract readerly fascination. This unusual novel focuses on their stay in Mallorca in 1838, where they couple had decamped with Sand’s children in tow to seek the warmth and sunshine that might help Chopin’s beginning tuberculosis. This novel is part fictionalised biography, part ghost story however, as we are also introduced to imaginary character Blanca, the ghostly reincarnation of a Mallorquin teenage mother who had died in childbirth. As the novel goes on, and the full extent of the heated Chopin-Sand relationship and their ostracism by the residents of Valldemossa becomes clear, Chopin increasingly becomes a background character as relationship between Blanca and Sand moves into the foreground.
Would I recommend this novel to fellow readers? I loved the vivid depictions of the Mallorquin landscape, the fictionalised minutiae of Sand’s and Chopin’s daily lives during their month there. I cared a little less for all the facets of the Blanca-Sands relationship which became increasingly improbable. On the whole, however, I would recommend this as an engaging read and a fresh literary treatment of a historic period in time in the lives of two highly creative but conflicted personalities. Thank you to Netgalley and to the publishers for my free e-ARC that enabled me to produce this honest, unbiased review.

Blanca is the ghost of a young girl, inhabiting an old monastery in Mallorca. When Chopin, along with George Sand and her two children, come to stay, Blanca becomes intrigued and besotted with their lives.

The author writes beautifully and I enjoyed the Blanca storyline. However, the rest of the story was not for me.

2.5* rounded to 3*.

Thank you NetGalley.

Briefly, A Delicious Life is a story of a ghost who falls in love with George Sand in Mallorca. A rather odd premise, but why not?

Blanca, the ghost, is an exceptional character and narrator. She was funny, fierce, and outspoken. I liked the way she talked about and described the people around her. Ultimately, she was the only one in the book that I steadily became interested in.

I do not know much about George Sand and the people around her, so I am not sure if their characterization was true to them in real life. Some instances that showcased their lives were intriguing, but a lot of it felt boring. I didn't enjoy Chopin's that much at all.

I think there was a problem in meshing Blanca's life with that of George Sand. Sometimes, the alternate timelines felt weird and awkward, and it didn't feel like they were intertwined or connected except for the fact that Blanca is haunting the place the other characters are in. Sometimes it even felt like I was just reading little short stories about the characters, because the next chapter didn't seem to be connected with what was happening in the previous one at all.

I will say though, the author has beautiful, descriptive writing. I thoroughly enjoyed that aspect of the book. I feel like this book was about 60% confused, but I might still take a peak when the author releases more books in tbe future.

I loved the mix of historic reality and mysticism in this book the author managed to make the ghosts presence both essential to the story and completely realistic
The book at heart is a historical novel looking at the life of a French author with feminist tendencies and a famous composer as they move to the Balearic Islands for health reasons .Add to this the ghost of a young woman who has been haunting the old abbey where they move to for centuries and you get a really compelling novel
The sense of place is strong you can almost smell the Mediterranean air and sense the heat
The author has a flowing easily read prose style
The characters of living and ghosts are believable and well described
I enjoyed the jumping forward and back in the stories of the family this was extremely well achieved and added quirkiness and complexity to the linearity of the story
I read an early copy on NetGalley Uk the book is published June 2022

A brilliant, beguiling, darkly funny tale of a spirited, subversive young ghost called Blanca, outraged that her life was cut short in her prime, determined to enjoy death to the full, who falls in love with the very much alive, cross-dressing writer George Sand.

George has moved her family - two children and her lover, the composer Chopin, to Mallorca, in search of a better climate. Chopin's health is precarious, and George longs for creative freedom, away from the constraints of home.

The odd family "were strangers and strange and strangely insouciant about their strangeness."

Nothing goes to plan.

I loved this!

Briefly, A Delicious Life is an evocative historical novel reimaging George Sand and Frédéric Chopin's winter in Mallorca, 1838. It's an intimate fictionalised biography of these two complex creatives, suffused with the sapphic longing of a teenage ghost.

Blanca is an engaging narrator - she's got the insight of a centuries-old ghost and the playfulness of a child. The structure loosely follows her thoughts, cleverly interweaving the past, present and future of several characters, whilst still maintaining the necessary momentum of a slow-burning but compelling plot. Stevens toys with the themes of sex and death throughout, Blanca's dark humour acting as a kind of bittersweet pill to counteract an eternity of loss. As a ghost, she has a penetrating insight into the interior lives of the other characters, but there is always the sense that her interpretation of their memories and experiences are tainted by her own.

All of that wrapped up in some beautiful prose makes Briefly, A Delicious Life a memorable read.

I was interested in Chopin/Sand and the setting in Mallorca but can’t get past the MeToo vigilante ghost. DNF.

Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens is the fictionalised biography of Chopin and George Sands told, largely, from the perspective of a 14-year old ghost named Blanca.

As soon as I read the synopsis of this book, I needed to read it. The idea to present an episode in the life of two, slightly controversial, real historical figures but told from the perspective of a centuries old ghost is not only original but executed incredibly well.

The book is split into chapters where we alternate between Blanca’s current observations, life before she died and ‘life’ before Sands and Chopin arrived. We also get brief chapters told from the perspective of Sands and Chopin. Stevens really excels in creating distinct voices for each of these characters and really fleshing out who they are as people.

I found myself actually less interested in Sands and Chopin initially and more engaged with the snippets of Blanca’s life and death. The way Stevens breaks up the chapters creates a certain level of suspense as you switch between their lives, never really having enough time to get bored or comfortable with any one character.

The way Stevens writes Blanca makes her so grounded and weirdly relatable despite the fact that she is a 14 year old ghost who by the 1800’s has been a ghost for a few centuries already.

The only reason this book isn’t getting 5 stars is because I did find it a little bit slow right at the beginning and it did take me a few pages to actually get into it. When I did get into it though, I REALLY got into it!

I loved this! For fans of: Lauren Groff's Matrix, slice-of-someone-real's-life fictionalised biographies, the smell of rotting fruit, Longing And Yearning, ghost narrators, precocious children, people being awful to each other, horrible storms, and stories that feel as surprising as they are inevitable.

Thank you to Picador and Netgalley for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this book, it was well written with an interesting and humourous storyline and well developed, relatable and likeable characters. I liked that real figures from history were merged with new characters. I loved the setting as I have been to Mallorca and could envision the stunning monastry, just like the many that pepper the landscape in Mallorcain all their gothic glory. I loved the LGBTQIA representation also. This was a totally compelling read.

Briefly, A Delicious Life is a novel about yearning, conventions, and love, as a ghost watches an unusual group come to Mallorca for their health. Frédéric Chopin isn't well, but is in Mallorca with George Sand and her children in the hope of wellness and a simple life. They take residence in an old monastery, where Blanca, the ghost of a teenage girl who died centuries ago, watches them with interest, and falls in love with George, a woman wearing trousers and shirts and shocking the local people. Winter brings difficult times, and Blanca can only do so much to try and help them alongside her usual attempts to protect the women of the town from the men, whilst Chopin writes songs on a substandard piano.

This is a book that is more than its summary, especially if you boil it down to: a ghost falls in love with George Sand and Chopin is ill. The book is from Blanca's point of view, through which you see some of the thoughts and histories of the other characters as well as her own brief life, and it is a strangely fascinating viewpoint, this teenage girl who has now seen hundreds of years and has learnt how to manage love and yearning. The picture of this family, two lovers and the children of one of them, is really shown in its complexities through Blanca's perspective, though you never know if her idea of George is clouded by her sudden love for the woman.

I'm not usually one for historical novels without another selling point, especially not ones about real historical figures, but I love the unique conceit of this one, and it felt almost timeless a lot of the time, possibly thanks to having a narrator who has seen a lot of time. It is fascinating, with a slightly strange ending that changes pace from the rest of the book, but makes sense in terms of the narrative, and especially Blanca's need to watch every detail of the group. A fresh take on queer history, Briefly, A Delicious Life makes a book about a ghost, living life, and types of love something nuanced and intriguing, and not at all what I might've expected.