Reviews

The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë by Syrie James

danahuff's review against another edition

5.0

Read my review of The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Brontë.

robyndansereau's review against another edition

4.0

"The Secret Diaries of Charlotte Bronte" asks the question, what if the famous author kept a diary documenting her journey of becoming a published author, and her own real-life romance?

Full review: https://robyntocker.weebly.com/the-secret-diaries-of-charlotte-bronte.html

heatherinjapan's review

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I'm always surprised when the books I added to my endless tbr first end up being amazing reads. I don't know why my brain assumes that 12 year old me didn't have taste in picking interesting books 😂

But also... They shouldn't have called this a diary as there is nothing remotely similar to a diary in this. I swear Charlotte only mentions she's writing in a diary like four times. This is 100% just a regular story being told in real time for the characters. 

bookbos's review against another edition

4.0

Great book and very interesting to learn about Charlotte Bronte. I loved seeing parts of Jane Eyre in her life.

rcaivano's review against another edition

5.0

I felt like I was reading Jane Eyre again! A barely fictionalized biography of Charlotte Bronte, it told of the period of her life when she was writing Jane Eyre and her other novels. It covered the 10 years of her life when she met, hated, and fell in love with her husband, Arthur Bell Nichols. Many of the references to her own life are found in her novels. I loved this book.

ellenjoannecampbell's review against another edition

4.0

I picked up this book by chance, and didnt have high expectations, but the audiobook was very good, and it was certainly interesting to follow the Bronte sisters as they took up their secret literary career, and dealt with a series of terrible losses, while living as quiet daughters of a country parson. Interesting that such isolated women could produce such enduring classics!

nadoislandgirl's review against another edition

4.0

After a couple of false-starts, where I completely lost interest, I picked this up again a few weeks ago. I was pleasantly surprised by this sweet story! I do like Jane Eyre, but the other Bronte books, I'm not particularly a fan of. However, this look at the Bronte family was a sweet story of love, family and friendship.

srupp's review against another edition

emotional informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

cooks4eleven's review against another edition

5.0

I have always enjoyed biographies of and the writings of the Bronte sisters. This amazing book really brought Charlotte's story to light in such a personal way. I learned some new details about her life that I hadn't really paid attention to before.
I think that any fans of the Brontes and other books in the same era will enjoy reading this book - even if you have no interest in the history itself.

the_naptime_reader's review against another edition

4.0

Really enjoyed this book, James seemed to do a decent job intermixing fact and fiction, to allow readers a glimpse in to what Brönte might have felt and thought as the events in her life unfolded. Wish I had read this prior to my visit to her home growing up five years ago as I think I would have enjoyed my visit even more.