I was so looking forward to reading this, having enjoyed other Hislop novels, particularly The Island, but i was disappointed. The premise was a good one but it felt as though the author was just trying too hard. It simply wasn’t as well written as her other book & I’m of the opinion that when someone resorts to using the word “vertiginous” they’ve run out of other descriptions for green & lush so should either think of more story rather than relying on description to pad out their novel!!

Unfortunately this was a “vertiginous” book, but neither green not lush!

There's plenty of books about Greece but this is the first one I read about the dictature and the dramatic years when it wasn't a democracy.
I was fascinated by the Cycladic statuette on the cover and the excellent storytelling kept me turning pages and wishing I could be back in Greece.
It's the first book i read by this author and I'm sure it won't surely be the last.
Intriguing and compelling.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

We first meet Helena as an 8 year old flying alone to Athens to stay with her Greek grandparents. Helena has a Greek mother and a Scottish father and it is his Celtic heritage that has given Helena her pale dkin and wild red hair.
While she is comfortable with her grandmother and the maid, Dina, Helena find her grandfather remote and strict. However she visits each summer growing more fluent in the Greek language and more sure of her dislike for her grandfather.
When she finishes her degree Helena meets Nick, a charismatic charmer who steals her heart. They go on archaeological digs together but eventually Helena realises that all is not as it should be.
Helena makes new friends in Athens including Anna and her brother Haris, antique dealers who despise the people who loot the archaeological dig sites and rob Greece of its ancient treasures
Victoria Hislop transports the reader to the warmth of Greece, blue skies and balmy water. The characters in this book are well described and make for a thoroughly enjoyable read.

Having read a number of Victoria Hislop's novels previously, I was so excited to have The Figurine on my NetGalley bookshelf and I knew I wouldn't be disappointed.

As a starter, I loved the cover art! The Figurine is a major character in the novel and having that visual to refer back to brought 'to life' the statue that is so important to this story.

The first thing to say about the novel itself is that it's weighty. Definitely not a speedy read and one that you will need to take time to read and enjoy. As with all of Victoria's novels, I found myself falling down rabbit holes where I would look up references to the historical events and real-life people mentioned in the story. To me, this enriched the experience and helped me to enjoy the novel more - even though it took me far longer to finish the book!

The Figurine spans a period of about 15 years, from the very late 60s to the early to mid 80s. We meet Helena McCloud a little girl from suburban England who is half Scottish and half Greek. She travels to Athens to meet her maternal grandparents and her other Greek family members for the first time and we experience the sights and sounds of Greece under a military regime as seen through the eyes of a small child. We return with her to Greece on a number of occasions, both as a child visiting her grandparents and as a young adult visiting with her parents, Hamish and Mary.

I loved this part of the novel where she got to know her grandparents and built a beautiful friendship with their housekeeper, Dina. The part of the story where Helena and Dina sneaked out late at night to watch the 1969 moon landing with hordes of fellow Athenians was magical.

Helena has a close relationship with her parents, who instill in her a love of science and archeology and we follow her to university where she studies chemistry.

We meet her university friends and lovers before exploring the world of archaeological digs and the dark side of archaeology - the looting, the black market dealing in artifacts and the grubby underworld of organised crime.

I adored watching Helena grow from an awkward teenager into a confident, principled woman with a clear sense of right and wrong, with the conviction and bravery to do the right thing and fight against those involved in looting and criminal activity.

The cast of supporting characters really made the novel for me. Helena's wonderfully kind and loving parents, her gentle grandmother, cold grandfather and creepy uncle helped to create the woman she becomes. We also meet antique dealers, Greek islanders, larger-than-life auctioneers, enthusiastic police officers and her university friends, some of whom are friends for life and others who let her down badly.

This is a fabulous novel and I'm sure it's one I will return to and read again. If you've enjoyed Victoria's previous novels, I'm sure you'll enjoy this. If you've never read any before, this is a great one to start with.

Recommended.

I do love Victoria Hislop books, and in The Figurine I was transported back to Greece in the 1960’s with dictators ruling and a young girl, Helena, visiting her affluent grandparents on her own. Her grandfather is authoritarian, aloof, and never really connects with his granddaughter, but her grandmother clearly adores her. Through these summer visits, Helena grows to love Greece, even if she never manages to form a relationship with her grandfather.

As she gets older, Helena goes to university, meets a man who convinces her to go on archaeological digs on Greek Islands, and she then discovers antiques in her grandparents flat after their deaths - antiques that should not be owned by a private collector at all. These antiques are not acquired under legitimate means, and just how they were acquired soon becomes very clear to Helena. With the help of some Greek friends she is able to start the process of returning the valuable antiques to their rightful owners - the Greek people.

There is still the matter of a dodgy, antique smuggling boyfriend to deal with, and to do so involves the help of friends in London. So this story goes between London and Greece - and believe me when I say that Greece is painted in a much more favourable light than London. Everything seems grey and cold in London, and Greece is all sunshine and warmth. I know where I would rather be.

I love how Hislop writes about Greece: she’s clearly a Hellenophile, and why wouldn’t she be?! It’s a beautiful country. And when the matter of an ancient figurine comes up (that of the title of the book), we see how important even the smallest piece of Greece’s history is to the country as a whole.

Another gorgeous book from Victoria Hislop - a good one to read during the dull winter months that we have coming our way!

Read on The Pigeonhole.

f you’ve read any books by Victoria Hislop then you will know she takes you on a journey - and in her new book The Figurine once again her love of Greece shines through in a story that had me captivated and fascinated in equal measure.

Told through the eyes of Helena, half Greek, half Scottish, who spends summers with her grandparents in Athens, she discovers that her grandfather is part of the brutal regime of the time. Returning later in life as a student she gets involved in archaeological digs and when she begins to learn about the shocking looting that takes place she begins to understand her grandfather’s part in it all.

I love Hislop’s knowledge of and affinity to Greece that enables her to bring events to life - and I learnt a great deal about both Greece in the 1960s and 1970s and about the trade in stolen antiquities. Combined with the story of Helena’s personal journey to right some of her grandfather’s wrongs, adding elements of romance and intrigue to the story, this was a truly enjoyable read despite its somewhat daunting 500+ pages!

I was left a little underwhelmed by this book. The overall story had a great deal of promise, but it's execution was drawn out. For me, the story took too long to really build up speed and become engaging, and for this reason I found it difficult to want to continuously pick it up and continue with the story.

This is up there for my favourite book of the year award so far....... her first novel The Island is my favourite ever book and this is up there i think. I got so engrossed in it that I barely moved all weekend, got no jobs done and had chippy tea on a Saturday evening! the characters are so engaging, the history is interested but doesnt go overboard at all, it actually made me want to learn more about the period where as her novel about Spain just bored me to tears with the history aspect! thank you to Netgally, reading this made for the best weekend of the year!!

The Figurine by Victoria Hislop was a beautifully written book from start to finish with a eye catching book cover that was just beautiful as well, Victoria has away of writing all her books from the heart and once you start to read from the first few pages, you will be taken in time of the book you are reading and will become apart of her story.

I can not recommend her books enough. They have all been a wonderful and beautiful read. The Figurine was no different. It was Just Magical, it just took my breath away!

So open your kindle or book and fly away with the story......

Big Thank you to NetGalley and Headline Publishers for my ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Another intriguing story from Victoria Hislop that does not disappoint. We are treated to family feuds, romance and disappointments against a fascinating backdrop of Greek culture and history as Helena seeks to make amends for her cruel grandfather's past actions.

Immaculately researched and knowledgeably written, through the medium of a novel this author deals with the tricky subject of the illegal acquisition of historical artefacts. The central character is Helena, who inherits her grandparents flat in Athens and finds herself faced with a moral dilemma and challenges she was not expecting. We go with her as she uncovers evidence of her grandfather's history and finds her own sense of place in Greece. Another thought provoking novel from this respected author.

Brilliant book set in Greece. I loved the story and how it told of the story of Helena, an anglo greek main character. I felt like we grew up with her as she changed from a child to a young woman. I too visited that part of Greece when I was a teenager and the description of the streets and the large apartments brought back many memories.
Another great Victoria Hislop story.

This is classic Hislop. Set primarily in Greece, the story develops from a time when Helena (half-Greek, half-Scottish) first comes to Athens alone to meet and stay with her grandparents, to the later period post University when she comes to work on an archeological dig and her encounters with various others along the way. There were elements which didn't seem quite believable and at times it did feel there was an element of 'preaching' about how collectors/museums/the British have taken Greek antiquities, but the story itself was a good one - perfect for a summer beach holiday. Thanks to Netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC

Apologies for the delay in reviewing.
Another thought provoking book from Victoria Hislop, teaching the reader about the recent history of Greece mixed with a fictional story about a young girl growing up to discover the real facts about her Greek family
Happy to recommend

Despite looking forward to this book I found it over long and rather boring. It read like teen novel with a bit of Greek history thrown in. Deeply disappointing as I have enjoyed the author’s early books.

Again a magnificent saga mixing past and present in the life of Helen born to a Scottish Doctor father and a Greek teacher mother.. Though Helen’s mother is Greek she allows her daughter to spent summers with her distant Grandfather who dominates her kindly Grandmother. In this time we are made aware of her Grandfather’s role as a general in the Junta under the dictatorship that ruled Greece. She spends one last summer with her parents, before her mother dies and she goes to university exploring the heritage of the Greek islands visiting museums. Later she falls for a charismatic lead in uni plays and follows him to Greece on an archaeological dig. But all is not as it seems and added to that she inherits her grandparents apartment after a seemingly ten year legal case and there she finds in her grandfather’s study a multitude of archeological artifacts. With the help of a band of friends both from uni and from her Greek stays she unravels corruption that has lasted from the past to the present.
Another beautiful crafted novel that brings to life the magical country of Greece with its fascinating facts, scenery and history. Victoria has obviously expressed her love for the country and it’s complicated history from classical times to the present day.

What a beautiful story. It is extremely well written and the story flows along like a lovely little stream.
The story was not rushed and kept my interest all the way through despite spanning over decades.
I loved learning about Greek history and antiquities in the process.
The story is about Helen, the daughter of a Scottish father and Greek mother. In her formative years when she starts visiting her grandparents in Athens as a young girl to spending the summer on a Greek Island on an archeological dig. Her first love and friends she met on the way.
I would totally recommend this book and I will be looking out for other Victoria Hislop books.

This was a great novel. I loved its Classical setting, reading about Greek history. I enjoyed the characters within the story and although I could predict the ending it didn't detract me from the story. I enjoyed Helena's story and empathised with her life's ups and downs. Another amazing Victoria Hislop novel.

Helena starts to visit Greece when she is eight years old. She travels over on her summer holidays, her Greek mother keen to ensure her daughter has some connection with her home country, and a fluency with the language. Helena loves her summers in Greece, falls in love with the country, the food, the language and the sights. She is too young to realise her idyllic time spent in Greece was while the country was under the rule of a cruel dictator. Her grandfather is distant and as Helena gets older, his cold and remoteness becomes more disturbing. Helena begins to realise he is a cruel man.

Tensions flare in Greece, with the dictatorship overthrown, meaning Helena can’t return for a few years. Her grandfather passes, and a few years later, her grandmother passes, and she discovers that she has been left the apartment in Athens. When she returns to Athens, she is clearing the apartment and discovers a large number of antiquities. Things that should never have been removed from dig sites in Greece, or that belong in museums. What was her grandfather involved in? As she investigates, she discovers that her grandfather was one of the old regime's cruelest generals, and was involved in some terrible practices.

Helena had spent some time as a volunteer on an archaeology dig, and her passion to save her heritage, while finding out more about it drives her to learn more. She works with some new found friends to discover just how deep the corruption goes, and to make amends for some of her fathers horrific actions.

This story was beautifully written. I felt like I was transported to Greece. The country, the food, the landscape, it was all right in front of me. The passion of the writer shone, and the research was amazing. The book was very long however. As interesting a story as this was, I feel that in places it could have been shorter, and more succinct in places. It dragged at times, and I felt my attention wandering. When I was engaged and interested I loved it. But at times it was a bit tedious to get through sections. But overall, an excellent read which will make you want to travel to Greece!

*I received this copy from NetGalley for review, but all opinions are my own.

Victoria Hislop is one of my favourite authors. This appealed to me because we have recently had a few holidays in Greece, and there is something special about the islands. This book centres around Helena, a young child who spends her summers with her Grandparents in Athens.

As an adult, she inherits the flat and its contents. Intertwined with the story is one of love, as she joins her boyfriend on an archaeological dig on a small Aegean Island. The book introduced me to a period of Greece that I never really knew about and the country's complexities of the country. The story is beautiful, intriguing and deeply moving. I would recommend this.