Holy fast endings, Batman. Want to read the rest of series. Ms Gregory is a great historical fiction writer of strong women.
It's not that I didn't like the book as the historical content was very good however the book felt like a repeat of the first 3 books in the series and it didn't feel like I learnt anything new like many complaints alongside the maybe's the probably's were annoying and you wanted strong historica...
Once again with Philippa Gregory's historical fiction I found I had to take this with a grain of salt. If I stop and separate out historical truth I can enjoy her writing much more. I look at it as solely a work of fiction as how she would have liked events to have happened and I find that I ca...
This book is not as well written or edited as Gregory's other novels. It was also rather boring.One issue was that the main character seemed to keep changing. Several times it seemed that she became someone else: vulnerable female to conniving and genius political tactician to witch. It just d...
Fascinating, gripping, sexual, sensuous, grim, incestuous, a little mysterious, horrifying, unrelenting despair (and by comparison, I think Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbeyvilles got off light)—if these adjectives don't discourage you away from this love-it-or-hate-it book, you're in for a real...
Review revisited - Originally reviewed and posted at Romance Junkies on Feb 1, 2006.To say I was excited when I received VIRGIN EARTH to review is an understatement, so my expectations were extremely high. American history and American horticultural history are my hot buttons, especially during ...
I was ill-prepared for this book. I mean, I had just finished the Tudors series Gregory wrote (which was fabulous, by the way) and I wanted to read something less dependant on other books before I started the next series I have (the "Wideacre" triology). Reading the back of the novel persuaded me...
I hate to say this, but I thought the final chapter of the Wideacre trilogy was going to be much better than that. By all means, share your opposing viewpoints, but I honestly thought that it was somewhat of a letdown. About two chapters of the story take place at Wideacre. I found myself miss...
I will also do a video review here at my channel: http://www.youtube.com/magicofbooks"The Little House" by Philippa Gregory tells the story of two very different women. There's Ruth, a young, career-driven woman, new to motherhood. Then there's Elizabeth, Ruth's mother-in-law, who is the epitome ...
I'm a reader who holds grudges. Disappoint me, and it's likely that an author will get cleaned off my shelves and dumped in the donation bin because if I try to read another title by them, the bad experience keeps lingering and trashes the current read. But Philippa Gregory has been the exception...
One of Philippa Gregory's early books and one that doesn't fail to deliver. The book is set in 18th century Bristol, based on the slave trade. Knowing Bristol quite well and understanding it's darker history, this book helped my knowledge of the slave trade develop further. In part it is a harrow...
I persisted with this book for as long as I did because it is so overwhelming rated highly and described as a “classic” of historical fiction. But I’m very much afraid I have to pull a DNF on this one. I just can’t stand to read any more of this novel. I’ll try and explain the good and the bad be...
Although I normally read books quite quickly, I stretched out my reading of this one over a few days. The vividly portrayed Renaissance England setting, the complex, familiar characters, and the interesting, steady flow of the plot line made me want to stay in this story longer than I usually do ...
This was a Jekyll & Hyde reading experience -- the first half was excellent, but the second half dragged. -spoiler warning-Half #1 centers around Merewyn & Rumon's time at the royal court of Edgar & his son Edward (roughly 970-80 AD). The secret of Merewyn's non-royal birth is a deathbed vow th...
I have a love-hate relationship with this book. On the one hand, I found the story (meaning the plot and characters) fascinating, and moreso because it is based on real people and real events. I found myself looking multiple things up on Wikipedia during each sitting. And yet... it was an INCR...
Dragonwyck is a gothic romance in the vein of Jane Eyre, albeit set in America just before the Civil War. Nicholas Van Ryn is this novel's Rochester. A patroon in the dying days of feudal society, he clings to the trappings of fiefdom even when it becomes increasingly obvious that it is all going...