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3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Death of parent, Gaslighting
Better than when Gregory tries to play historian. I like trash, just not when it's about real historical figures.
Where ever I expected this book to take me, it sure didn't. I think the author was inspired by Gone With The Wind. But this book is so much darker. It built up and built up to the end, I knew disaster was imminent, but did not see the ending! Guess I was hoping for redemption.
I started this book with high hopes. I adore Philippa Gregory's adult historical fiction. I was even intrigued and motivated more by some of the negative reviews. I enjoy a villainous main character every now and then. The thought of incest and murder did not immediately turn me off. I like "dark" stories because everything can't be sunshine and daisies and happy endings all the time. And, for the first half of the book, I was entertained and even enjoyed it. Then, it just got to be too "much." It was miserable. The same conversations and thoughts and plans kept coming up over and over and over. Okay, we get it, Beatrice is crazy and is ruining Wideacre. But, I think it could have been done in 200 less pages. So after page 400 (or thereabouts), I was only finishing this book so that I could add it to my "read" list and so that I hadn't wasted my time...and because I have only once given up on a book completely. But I was anxious for it to over. I started speed-reading to make it go more quickly. And that makes me sad. This is the second Philippa Gregory book in a row (Changeling being the other) that I have been highly disappointed in. I guess she should stick to the Tudor's and that era. Those are her best works.
Epic. Fabulous. Loved it so much. I very rarely give 5 stars. This haunted me when I read it the first, second and third time's and will stay with me for life.
This book is absolutely fantastic, the story of Beatrice Lacey, who is somewhat obsessed with her ancestral home, Wideacre. Being the 18th century she has no rights to it and will do everything and ANYTHING to make sure it remains hers. Shocking, powerful, and a true page-turner. Highly recommended.
Not sure how to feel about this book. It was recommended to me by a coworker, so I thought I'd give it a chance. It takes place in the 1700's....maybe 1600's. Anyway, it's about a girl who is a Lady and her family owns all this land and she LOVES this land, I mean beyond obsessed with it. Well since it's the olden days, women can't inherit the land. So what does she do? Anything imaginable to inherit the land. Murder, sleeping around, incest, etc. The book started off really well, but by the end of the book I wanted to kill the main character. She was awful and the things she did were awful. I've read other books where the main character is a monster, but usually by the end they come around or something happens to redeem them. Not here. The writing is superb, so if you want a book with good writing, this is it. However, the whole story line isn't very plausible (there is no way on earth a girl in the 1700's can do this many things and get away with it). Overall, good book I just wish the ending was different. I was satisfied with it, but I still hated the main character and at the beginning half of the book I really quite liked her. Oh and side note, if you have a thing with chapter lengths, this one averages about 25 pages a chapter. I HATE long chapters, so this was really annoying for me. Just FYI.
This is a smutty book (and barely good at that - plus, is this a jr. lit novel?!?) with a completely irredeemable heroine. I was incredibly put-off by the main character; a protagonist doesn't have to be "good", just sympathetic.
I found the mistress of Wideacre so unappealing and unsympathetic that I would recommend JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books for more appealing questionable-but-engaging characters and eroticism before this series. The BDB, isn't as prosaic as Wideacre, but I would rather suffer through poor syntax and forced witticism than stay with a character that disgusts me.
I found the mistress of Wideacre so unappealing and unsympathetic that I would recommend JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood books for more appealing questionable-but-engaging characters and eroticism before this series. The BDB, isn't as prosaic as Wideacre, but I would rather suffer through poor syntax and forced witticism than stay with a character that disgusts me.
dark
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A horror story from the perspective of the monster about the enclosure of the commons. If that is what you are into
Wowee! What a sociopath the main character in this story is! Beatrice Lacey at fifteen knows she never wants to leave her beloved home at Wideacre. If this means parricide, murder and incest so be it. All I can say is Gregory has written yet another very interesting tale. While you find yourself uncomfortable inside Beatrice's head the story is so salaciously intriguing that you can't stop reading because you need to know the outcome for the dozens of other much more sympathetic characters involved in this tale.