Reviews

Templar Silks by Elizabeth Chadwick

souljaleonn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging informative reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

lynne61's review

adventurous emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is a mix of historical fact and supposition based on true events. It is very well written and conjures up the landscape of the holy land during a time of great upheaval.  I 

paperbird_06's review

adventurous challenging informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

hannahm25's review

adventurous funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lucyermm's review

adventurous emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

annarella's review

4.0

I love Elizabeth Chadwick books and this was a good one.
I was fascinated by the story, the characters and the well researched historical background.
It was an engaging and entertaining read, a very good historical fiction.
Recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

anyakinsl's review

5.0

This book has everything. Templars, Jerusalem, intrigue, lust, love, and swordfighting. I started reading this book slowly during my last semester of school, but was trailed along by it because of it's wonderful story weaving. William (Gwim) is a crusader sent to the Holy Land to deliver his master (Prince Henry)'s cloak to Jesus's tomb. However, many different issues come about and it is not as smooth of sailing as one would hope. The true story of William Marshal is very interesting and quite colorful. Ms. Chadwick does a wonderful job portraying the interesting and daring exploits of Marshal in this land far from his home. As a fan of any sort of Templar fiction, this fit the bill and I greatly enjoyed following his journey from England and back again. I would suggest that anyone with an interest in historical fiction snaps this book up as soon as it's available.

This ebook was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

loram's review

4.0

I've enjoyed Elizabeth Chadwick novels before so requested this one because of the author. This one is about William Marshal, whom I didn't know a lot about before reading, in the time of the Crusades. Marshal's lord orders a raid on church riches in order to pay his mercenary soldiers as a practical move, but afterwards Marshal takes a pilgrimage to the Holy Land with his lord's cloak to save both their souls.

The beginning was a little slow for me, but necessary to put events into context. Once the journey begins, Chadwick's engaging writing style brought the characters to life and I was soon engrossed and feeling every challenge and setback as if I were there.

I also learned some history I didn't know before, which is what I look for in Historical Fiction.

The political intrigues as an heir is sought for a dying king of Jerusalem captured me like an addictive soap opera. Everyone vying for favour and a ruler playing people, even his own sister, like chess pieces reflects the era too accurately in a time when alliances were made with marriages and positions could be won or lost through a whim of a king.

I lost a little interest as the romance angle played out and found myself wondering if it was a historical element or something the author put in to have a romance angle, but overall the story was interesting and covered a lot of historical ground.

margreads's review

4.0

I've always enjoyed Elizabeth Chadwick's portrayal of William Marshal and this book was no exception!

moonykitten's review

3.0

When i requested this book at Netgalley, i didn't know this was the 6th book in the series. I realized that sometimes after - and i think i would have enjoyed it more if i actually read the 1th one and not jumped ahead to the 6th one - then i could have learned to know, connect and like William. Here, i had problems to do so, since i hadn't read the previous books. So, i don't know if i'd change my mind if i had read the first ones first, but maybe - here i ended up bored and skimmed most pages.