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ponderinstuff's review
2.0
I usually love Cecelia Holland's books but (for my tastes) this one was focused too much on political aspirations and sea battle scenes.
ponderinstuff's review against another edition
2.0
I usually love Cecelia Holland's books but (for my tastes) this one was focused too much on political aspirations and sea battle scenes.
hester's review
4.0
I picked this book up on a whim, without any expectations, and man... am I happy that I did! The character growth is amazing and I really appreciated her interpretation of the people that I used to read about in my history books, back in school.
bibliofeel's review
4.0
This is the only Cecelia Holland book I've read, but I was blown away to see her bibliography and realize how much research she must do for every story. She captures and brings to life the political and religious clashes of the 80-year-war between Spain and The Netherlands. The main siblings do have the knack for ending up speaking to a surprising number of major historical figures, which wasn't necessary due to the rotating narrative, but was still fun. Pretty grim events to experience in audio form, sometimes.
nigellicus's review
5.0
The King Of Spain rules the Netherlands, and wants to introduce the Inquisition, from Spain, known as the Spanish Inquisition and the Dutch do not expect this. 'Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition' they say. There follows a lot of oppression and revolt, told mostly through the eyes of a brother and sister, the brother fleeing to sea and piracy against the Spanish. 'Nobody expected the Dutch piracy,' the Spanish say. The sister hangs around in Antwerp before taking the road to Germany. William Of Orange bumbles around rather ineffectually, but earnestly. This is a very good book about ordinary, practical, even dull, people deciding they're not putting up with that sort of thing.
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