Reviews

Puritan Bride by Anne O'Brien

on_amys_shelf_'s review

hopeful medium-paced

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

2.0

mrsbooknerd's review

1.0

I really struggled with this novel which is massively disappointing because I am a huge Anne O'Brien fan.

I thought at first that this novel would be much like her recent publications, historical fiction based on real-life historical figures, but quickly realised that this was just fiction fiction - especially when the ghost appeared.

Unfortunately I didn't like either Marcus or Kate, they just weren't developed enough to really support and there was little evidence given to show us the development of their relationship.

Spoiler

The elements with 'Viola' were incredibly obvious, but should have been a tool to really explore the attraction between Kate and Marcus, and to develop the soul-deep connections that Anne O'Brien manages to capture so well in later novels. Instead, this whole section was over before it had even begun and without many events bringing the two leads together.

I felt like the ghost elements far over-shadowed the romance, and actually the ghost had more of a personality and developed story than the leading characters themselves.

Overall, I really struggled to enjoy this novel. It wasn't written with great depth or development, the characters were insipid and it was all just very emotionally flat.

harrietolivia456's review

5.0

From the blurb, to me, it sounded like a court romance thing where Kate had been presented at court and the story went from there with the inheritance thing near the middle of the book. Boy was I wrong!! It's mostly all set at the Priory with loads of twists and turns from ghosts, witchcraft, murders, attempted murders, marriage, past tragedies it was great!! I loved it, I really did. I would have liked to have seen an epilogue with Kate and Marcus married and with one or two children to properly drive home the parallels and differences with Isolde and that she would be able to rest but I really enjoyed it as a whole :)

sbeckett24's review

3.0

I really like historical novels and I did it hard to find very many good ones. Puritan Bride however was one of the few of them that I really enjoyed reading. It was interesting from the start and I read it in a couple of days. It was a slightly odd book in my opinion but still brilliant!