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rhosynmd's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Death and Murder
jljohasky's review
5.0
I love this whole series. This last novel was a good ending. I will miss these characters. I think this is a series I will re-visit in the future.
helloimkb's review
5.0
This entire series shocked and delighted me. I’m sobbing at the end of this one, for now I’ll have to leave Cornwall and the busy days of Nampara. I did not know what I was getting into starting the first book, but it has been a whirlwind for my heart. I loved these later books focused on the children. Perhaps a lot more than the tumultuous days of first love, these stories of long held marriage and hardship were beautiful.
fallonwilloughby's review
5.0
I LOVE THIS WHOLE ENTIRE SERIES SO MUCH!!!!
I need more :(
Also, the narrator is fantastic!
I need more :(
Also, the narrator is fantastic!
mugglemom's review
5.0
What a satisfying series. Sad that it had to end. All the characters, weaving in & out of 12 books, are rich in voice and I felt like they were actual people who lived those times.
Highly recommend to history lovers.
Highly recommend to history lovers.
littlesprite21's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
catherine_t's review against another edition
3.0
In this, the final novel of the Poldark saga, Isabella-Rose, the youngest Poldark daughter, embarks on a singing career. Her widowed sister Clowance is wooed by two suitors. Valentine Warleggan's wayward behaviour is still fuel for the old tensions between George Warleggan and Ross Poldark. And a murderer stalks the lonely moors of north Cornwall.
I didn't enjoy Bella Poldark as much as I've enjoyed the rest of the series. It felt rushed, somehow (if a novel that comes in at nearly 700 pages can be said to be rushed). Storylines that have carried over the entire series, or most of it, anyway, are tied up rather quickly and conveniently. (I won't say which, or how, because that would spoil it for you.) The serial-killer plot seemed shoehorned in: presumably there were serial killers before psychoanalysis and criminal profiling, but it felt too modern for the period in which the book is set. As well, there didn't seem to be much purpose to it, other than perhaps padding out the book.There wasn't as much emphasis on character, either. Overall, I was left feeling unsatisfied.
I'm sorry Graham had to leave us with a book that was not, in my opinion, up to his usual dazzling standard. It's not a bad read, by any means, but it's just not quite as good as the rest of the series.
I didn't enjoy Bella Poldark as much as I've enjoyed the rest of the series. It felt rushed, somehow (if a novel that comes in at nearly 700 pages can be said to be rushed). Storylines that have carried over the entire series, or most of it, anyway, are tied up rather quickly and conveniently. (I won't say which, or how, because that would spoil it for you.) The serial-killer plot seemed shoehorned in: presumably there were serial killers before psychoanalysis and criminal profiling, but it felt too modern for the period in which the book is set. As well, there didn't seem to be much purpose to it, other than perhaps padding out the book.There wasn't as much emphasis on character, either. Overall, I was left feeling unsatisfied.
I'm sorry Graham had to leave us with a book that was not, in my opinion, up to his usual dazzling standard. It's not a bad read, by any means, but it's just not quite as good as the rest of the series.
tracyann6's review
2.0
While I loved this series, indeed obsessed over it in binge reading, this was by far the worst of the 12 books. There are glimmers of Winston Graham’s writing and phrasing, but it also seems quite likely there was a ghost writer who filled in much of the story. There are too many modern phrases and reactions of the characters. The ape and the serial murder were ridiculous additions far outside the strength and beauty of Graham’s Cornwall and characters. Even little things like the reference to Daphne Du Maurier’s Menabilly too modern and out of time.
The frustrating ending with Ross and Demelza was not only dissatisfying but called into question their prior character thereby almost ruining the earlier books. Really Ross is now sexually attracted to another woman? At the end of the day he is just an arrogant jerk who tells his wife what she wants to hear but doesn’t really mean it? And Demelza just a doormat. The earlier complexity and emotional realism of the marriage was almost squandered. The most interesting part of this book was Ross trying to establish a relationship with Valentine, though too late. And it was an interesting idea that the best of both main characters is meant to go forward in Bella, though we get only glimmers of the tenacity she is meant to have.
Poldark may be the only time I have found the movie to be better than the books. The TV script by Debbie Horsefield brings a depth to Ross, Demelza, and their marriage and helps explain why they do what they do. And the actors Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson then take the characters to a whole new level.
The frustrating ending with Ross and Demelza was not only dissatisfying but called into question their prior character thereby almost ruining the earlier books. Really Ross is now sexually attracted to another woman? At the end of the day he is just an arrogant jerk who tells his wife what she wants to hear but doesn’t really mean it? And Demelza just a doormat. The earlier complexity and emotional realism of the marriage was almost squandered. The most interesting part of this book was Ross trying to establish a relationship with Valentine, though too late. And it was an interesting idea that the best of both main characters is meant to go forward in Bella, though we get only glimmers of the tenacity she is meant to have.
Poldark may be the only time I have found the movie to be better than the books. The TV script by Debbie Horsefield brings a depth to Ross, Demelza, and their marriage and helps explain why they do what they do. And the actors Aidan Turner and Eleanor Tomlinson then take the characters to a whole new level.
sarah2696's review
5.0
"If three Poldarks are of the same mind, who can stand before them?
Never in my life have I been reduced to tears over a book that does not have a sad ending. The last scene in the carriage with Ross, Demelza and their youngest daughter was just... it reduced me to tears (but maybe I'm just being over-emotional).
Turning the last page of the last Poldark book was definitely emotional. The last book had opera and singing and marriages made and broken; it had the presence of a murderer stalking Cornwall, attempting to harm even beloved Demelza; it had apes and fires and secrets and lies. There was not a single moment where I felt that the plot was moving slowly.
Graham rounded off this series beautifully. I could read books about the Poldark's forever, but since it must come to and end, this was fitting. After twelve (12!) books, I have become deeply attached to these characters (for the past three books every time Demelza coughed or had a headache my heart jolted) and it is hard not to worry for them, to feel their pain and their happiness. Graham just makes them all so unbelievably human. We're not asked to believe that Ross is the ideal hero, never a black mark against his name. We are never expected to believe that Ross and Demelza have the perfect marriage, and never are we led to think that these are unrealistic figures and words on a page. Winston Graham has somehow managed to create a wonderful menagerie of characters, give them all individual personalities, traits, mistakes and imperfections, and has managed to sustain them all through not only twelve books, but over a period of 37 years from 1783 to 1820. I have a feeling that this series is going to stick with me for a very, very long time.
And now, I think, the only acceptable thing to do is return to book one, and start from the beginning again with that soldier, fresh from war, coming home to find everything changed...
Never in my life have I been reduced to tears over a book that does not have a sad ending. The last scene in the carriage with Ross, Demelza and their youngest daughter was just... it reduced me to tears (but maybe I'm just being over-emotional).
Turning the last page of the last Poldark book was definitely emotional. The last book had opera and singing and marriages made and broken; it had the presence of a murderer stalking Cornwall, attempting to harm even beloved Demelza; it had apes and fires and secrets and lies. There was not a single moment where I felt that the plot was moving slowly.
Graham rounded off this series beautifully. I could read books about the Poldark's forever, but since it must come to and end, this was fitting. After twelve (12!) books, I have become deeply attached to these characters (for the past three books every time Demelza coughed or had a headache my heart jolted) and it is hard not to worry for them, to feel their pain and their happiness. Graham just makes them all so unbelievably human. We're not asked to believe that Ross is the ideal hero, never a black mark against his name. We are never expected to believe that Ross and Demelza have the perfect marriage, and never are we led to think that these are unrealistic figures and words on a page. Winston Graham has somehow managed to create a wonderful menagerie of characters, give them all individual personalities, traits, mistakes and imperfections, and has managed to sustain them all through not only twelve books, but over a period of 37 years from 1783 to 1820. I have a feeling that this series is going to stick with me for a very, very long time.
And now, I think, the only acceptable thing to do is return to book one, and start from the beginning again with that soldier, fresh from war, coming home to find everything changed...