Product Description
When Father is taken away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have to leave their comfortable life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. Each day, Roberta, Peter and Phyllis run down the field to the railway track and wave at the passing London train, sending their love to Father. Little do they know that the kindly old gentleman passenger who waves back holds the key to their father's disappearance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dunmore can do no wrong! Wonderful novel
Exceptionally engaging novel set in Cornwall in 1917 as WWI has less than a year to go but still was horrifying times for the U.K. with no sense of the "victory" to come. A group of artists and writers including the not wildly-popular D.H. Lawrence and Freida, his German-born wife, occupy the center of this tale. Our narrator is Clare who, in her intelligent naivete tells us quite a lot. Rich and special. Perhaps especially so the literati but I don't think that's what Dunmore intended and, truth to tell, this novel works just fine even if one doesn't know who is D.H. Lawrence. ... Read more

Product Description
At thirty two, Harriet Swift thinks she has the perfect life - a satisfying career, her own flat and a new boyfriend. But when her only sister is killed in a car crash, Harriet is forced to give up her well ordered life and to help parents look after her orphaned niece and nephew. Moving back to her childhood home and sacrificing so much doesn't come easy and Harriet discovers things about her family she never believed possible. As she uncovers a web of secrets and lies, while rekindling old friendships with the McKendrick boys - the dangerously dynamic Dominic and his brother, Miles - she learns that the sister to whom she was devoted was not all she seemed. The drive's shabbiest house has a new occupant. In his mid-forties, Will Hart also thinks he has the perfect life. Having dispensed with an early mid-life crisis and swapped his career as a lawyer for that of an antiques dealer, he believes in living for the moment and is happy with his lot. He has everything he needs; two fantastic daughters to whom he is devoted and a comfortable home, but when he discovers he's about to become a grandfather, things unravel.From nowhere tragedy strikes and he faces the biggest challenge of his life.Harriet and Will have no choice but to piece together a new future, but can they see it through? ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Good story!
I loved this book because it kept my interest all the way.The story is unpredictable and entertaining.If you want a book that lights up your day, read this one.

A lovely read
Erica James is a well-known and award-winning British author who will appeal to many US readers. Reading this book is like curling up with a cup of tea and having a wise and thoughtful friend recount a good story. The subject matter is sad - a young woman and her husband are killed in a car wreck, leaving two children to be raised by an unmarried sister and her parents. But the tale is well told and there are many moments of humor. A romance unfolds, and a prominent character is attracted to two different men, but it's not like typical schlock where you know from the outset which one she's going to end up with. Over the course of the book, a mystery is resolved, a marriage strengthed, people suffer and grow, and of course much tea is consumed. The plot lines are not especially original, but they're also never hackneyed. All the characters (and we readers, for that matter) are treated with affection and respect.A thoroughly enjoyable read.

Lives up to it's title.
Great Book!!!

Will: 45, self employed, carefree, once stay-at-home Dad devoted to his daughters & still butting heads with his (re-married) ex-wife.

Harriet: 32, independent career oriented & keeping her promise to take care of her sister's kids while feeling second best.

Jaw-dropping circumstances, twist & turns and occasional humor all work together to form a very realistic story that will keep the pages turning. Ms. James also does an excellent job intermingling the supporting characters.

Well worth reading. So, curl up and enjoy this walk into the lives of neighbors Harriet & Will as they deal with the hand life deals them. ... Read more

Product Description
'The rope hung from top to bottom of his dream. The rope hung softly, saying nothing, doing nothing. Then the rope began to swing very softly, very gently ...Towards him.' The need to face your fears; the comedy of family life; the pressure of others' expectations...Intense experiences of childhood are vividly brought to life in this beautifully written collection of short stories by the author of "Tom's Midnight Garden." ... Read more

Product Description
First published in 1848, a novel in which a woman flees from a disastrous marriage with her child to a desolate moorland mansion. It portrays one woman's struggle for independence at a time when law and society defined a married woman as her husband's property. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (66)

Powerful and compelling
This book took me quite some time to read. There were times when I needed to take a break from it, but somehow it always called me back.

There's a fairly complex narrative structure. The enveloping narrative is in the form of letters from a man to his friend, recounting events that happened years before. Several chapters in, the narrator tells of a journal that came into his hands, and the bulk of the book consists of entries from this journal. Within these narrative strands we at times get quotes from *other* correspondence. That Anne maintains this structure without ever confusing the reader as to which level of narrative we're in, and without thoroughly distancing her audience, says much for her skill.

The narrator, Gilbert Markham, comes across as a bluff, cheerful character, giving something of a leavening to the account. This leavening is most welcome, because oh! the central narrative is dark, dark, dark in its portrayal of the collapse of a marriage. And Helen, the "tenant" of the title, is not a comfortable character. She made one disastrous mistake, and has been doing penance for it ever since. She's strong and unyielding, clinging to self-respect by a rigid moral rectitude, and not afraid to tell others when she considers them to be in error. At times I found the unremitting darkness too oppressive, but always the book called me back, because I simply had to know what happened in the end.

Some of the subject matter was found shocking at the time. By making Helen's life more and more unbearable, the author makes us confront the question of when (if ever) it might be morally acceptable for a woman to leave her husband. And how is a woman to do so, in a time when she has no right to property of her own, and would almost certainly lose all access to her children?

There were places when I found my credibility strained, such as the narrator's being privy to the thoughts of a character he had never met. And some of the minor characters gave the impression of being "types": the rough diamond who only needed a stern talking-to to change from being a drunken wife-beater to a fine and upright husband; the man who exuded evil; the villain plotting a woman's downfall. But the central characters, and indeed most of the minor ones, are beautifully drawn, and the plot goes through its many twists and turns to reach an ending I found most satisfying.

A powerful criticism of British property law in marriage
Anne Brontë's "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is much, much more than mere gothic romance or the puffery that a modern reader might categorize as Victorian chick lit. A powerful feminist novel that excoriates repressive British laws surrounding marriage and the property rights of females with respect to their husbands, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" tells the story of Helen Huntingdon, a female, who like so many others of her sex both then and now, fell prey to the fantasy that the questionable values and dubious behaviour of the man with whom she had fallen in love could be changed by her example, by her loving care and tutelage.

There are few vices that do not appeal to Arthur Huntingdon. A philanderer, a hard-drinker, a cool and inattentive husband, a devil-may-care sportsman, a man whose attitudes toward church and religion are irreverent, flip and impious, and a profligate, if moderately successful, gambler, a man who cannot even search his heart to find love for his own son, Huntingdon has made his wife's life an unending lonely and miserable existence in which she has to suffer in silence, to hide her poor choices and incorrect decisions from the family who argued so eloquently against the marriage at the outset.

When Huntingdon hijacks his own son and seeks to teach him his evil ways, even to the point of cursing his own mother, Helen Huntingdon realizes that she must find a way for her and her innocent son to escape the relationship. But the unconscionable repression of Victorian property laws in marriage, which effectively make a wife her husband's property, force her to abandon everything and to escape into hiding with her son under the assumed name, Mary Graham.

Now earning a meagre living as a talented artist in a few rooms at the exquisitely isolated and all but abandoned Wildfell Hall, Mary Graham and her son are forced to endure the abusive, malicious gossip and imaginings of the local townsfolk ... well, that is, all of the local townsfolk except for Gilbert Markham who, much to his own surprise, works past his initial disdain for Mary and falls so deeply into love with her that an existence without her becomes a prospect that he cannot bear to dwell upon.

Powerful, haunting, violent, disturbing, and moving, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" is an eloquent critique of the legally codified sexual double standards that exemplified Victorian behaviour. From the standpoint of a modern reader, the only criticism I could possibly make is that, for my tastes at least, Markham and Huntingdon are just a little too saintly and long-suffering. I prefer my protagonists to be moderately more human.

That said, "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" was certainly a gripping story that, while not a modern thriller, is undeniably a page turner. As a newcomer to the writing of the entire Brontë family, I'll be looking for more in the very near future. Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss

A feminist book read from a male perspective
Anne Bronte's novel "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall" exposes the extreme double standard that existed between men and women in England during the mid nineteenth century. The evil male in the story and a few of his associates are easy to dislike whether the reader be male or female, but what is refreshing about the novel is that several men are reported as decent, loving and hard working individuals who help restore our faith in the male gender before the book ends. Helen, the heroin in the story, is portrayed as almost a saint like figure who few of us, male or female, could readily identify because of the abuse for which she allows herself to be subjected by her husband and the continued attempts by her to love and forgive him in spite of himself. But, for someone who wishes to see the ultimate examples ofChrist-like behavior, this is the book to read.

Loved this book.
This book was so good it suprised me! I was very happy with the price and the order shipped really fast. Much less expensive than a book store and convienent.

an absolutely worthless description
This book is clearly labelled Spanish edition and yet by the accompanying picture is in fact in English. Messages to sellers about such matters are NEVER answered, and Amazon should work to correct such obvious mislabelling of products which leads to returns and bad feeling. Why not be honest and tell the truth? ... Read more

Product Description
Overlooking Angel Sands, an idyllic bay tucked into the Pembrokeshire coastline, sits Paradise House. It is home to the Baxter girls, or the Sisters of Whimsy as they're known locally. Despite their own chaotic love lives - there's no one brave enough to take them on and stay the course - they're determined to find a suitable partner for their divorced father. But this will be no easy task, for he's a man so shy of women he would rather climb up onto the roof in a howling gale to fix a broken slate than go on a date. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Contemporary English Romance
This is another great read from Erica James. Paradise House tells the story of Genevieve Baxter and her family who own and run a bed and breakfast in a small seaside town. Genevieve has come home to help her father and two sisters run the family B&B after her mother takes off needing a break. Genevieve herself is trying to find an inner peace following a recent tramautic event. The situation isn't helped when an old flame from her past, Christian, re-enters their lives. In support of the two leading characters are a wonderful mix of supporting characters who are all very life-like and contribute to the storyline with their own sideline stories.

This is a contemporary romance so the storyline was always headed to a nice ending but there are a few twists and turns along the way that add depth to the story. I myself always wonder why readers of romance novels complain about predictable endings, after all isn't that why we read them?

To me it's the wonderful characters that Erica James creates that have now made her one of my favorite authors and with Paradise House she once again delivers a wonderful story with loveable characters.
... Read more

Product Description
A new saga from the author of OTHER PEOPLE'S MARRIAGES, about a woman living in America, who has a happy, normal family life, but who also has a secret connected with England which could tear her marriage apart. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A Simple Life
I've read many books by Rosie Thomas and thoroughly enjoyed them - all very different though, but all remarkably well researched. I enjoyed A Simple Life too, but not one of my favourites by her.I found it a little implausible in parts and somewhat predictable. I bought it on the basis of rave reviews by other readers, so was slightly disappointed. However, if you're looking for a good read, which is not too taxing, then this will be good for you. Maybe a good one to put in a suitcase to read on the beach.

Touching story-beautifully written from the heart.
Rosie Thomas's story of a mothers love for the child she gave up for adoption is heartwarming.Her shame of this secret eats away at her until she finds the courage to do something about it.Her characters spring to life and are so real you can "see" them.In this audio version, Clare Higgins switches from character to character with ease and panache. Dinah's life comes full circle, and I'm so glad I was along for the ride.A must! ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

intense and impassioned
_Dusty Answer_ was Lehmann's first novel, published in 1927 when she was just 26.Sales were slow and not much critical notice was taken of the book until Alfred Noyes gave it a glowing review in the Sunday Times, making _Dusty Answer_ a bestseller almost overnight.Its heroine, Judith Earle, is an intelligent, earnest girl who becomes entangled in the lives of five cousins who have occasionally visited at the house next door to Judith's; Judith played with them as a child, and years later, comes to know them again as she enters adulthood.When they reenter her life, she falls desperately in love with one of them.It often lacks narrative drive (especially in the rather uncertain, diffuse ending), but its intense, often idyllic, and impassioned style is compelling, a foretaste of things to come.

Very well written
This is the kind of book that you can re-read. (I have several times.)It's really very sad that it and so many of Rosamond Lehmann's other books are out of print.The plot is about a young English girl who falls in lovewith the family next door...over several years, as she grows up, goes toCambridge, goes out into the world she keeps meeting various members andhas relationships with them.If you like English writers like ElizabethTaylor or Mary Webb as well as "women's fiction" I would highlyrecommend not only this book but Lehmann's others, especially"Invitation to the Waltz" and "The Weather in theStreets." ... Read more

Product Description
From a childhood of gothic proportions in a vicarage on the Welsh borders, through her adolescence, leaving herself teetering on the brink of the 1960s, Lorna Sage brings to life a vanished time and place, and illuminates the lives of three generations of women. Lorna Sage's memoir of childhood and adolescence brings to life her eccentric family and somewhat bizarre upbringing in the small town of Hanmer, on the border between Wales and Shropshire. The period as well as the place is evoked with crystal clarity: from the 1940s, dominated for Lorna by her dissolute but charismatic vicar grandfather, through the 1950s, where the invention of fish fingers revolutionised the lives of housewives like Lorna's mother, to the brink of the 1960s, where the community was shocked by Lorna's pregnancy at 16, an event which her grandmother blamed on "the fiendish invention of sex". ... Read more

Product Description
When the letter arrives opposite side of the ocean, Simone, a thirty-eight-year-old-judge, suspects that a long-ago lover has targeted her for "the most intimate of crimes," black-mail. The prospects shatters an already tenuous peace: Simone is shouldering the burden of her husband's breakdown, her family's mounting debts, and the unexpected demands of a new job. Soon the ripple of terror that flows through Simone's world like the ghost of a former self threatens to propel her public and private lives onto a harrowing collision course. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Unsettling
A disturbing desperation on almost every page.A 4 because one can't put this book down.The writing is superb.
Simone is 18, goes to be a camp counselor in Cape Cod from London.Has a love affair with Michael, 28. They are haunted everywhere they go by Calvin, a Vietnam vet friend of Michael's. With this unholy pair, the then naïve Simone is trapped inand a parasitic relationships. Skip to Simone age 38, now a district judge in civil court, two boys Joe and Matt and a husband who has recently brought the family to thebrink of bankruptcy due to a failed architectural firm.Michael looks them up where they live in the northern marsh land.He's got pictures, his own failed life, and the belief that only Simone can save him.There seems no way out of doom.That must be the point.

A buried, but never lost, past
Haunting.Disturbing.Turbulent.Emotional.

True, the story of Simone is an allegory illustrating the inability to return to past times, lost times, times that can never be reclaimed.As we know from our personal life's experience, Dunmore reiterates to us all that our passage through time, with its people and experiences come and gone, is a truth we can neither deny nor change.However, the final two chapters illustrate the idea that our times past will never truely depart us; the past will accompany us, or at least our psyche and conscience, forever, even when the it seems (or should seem) dead and buried.Whether or not we let those memories haunt us or bless us with a fondness and sweetness depends on many, many things, one of which is how we choose to treat such memories.Do we bury them in secrecy and anonymity or do we acknowledge and cherish them for what they are, if they are so worthy?Dunmore alludes to the idea, and I tend to agree, that it depends largely on how the memories might relate to each of us individually: as they force themselves on us how do we choose to deal with them?Is a memory used against us as a weapon or force to hurt us only to then be discarded?Or is it used in friendship as a common thread, perhaps connecting the individual with a singular person in the world that will tie them together forever?Only we - the single individual - can decide.

An exploration
Dunmore does more than tell a story, she shares her outlook on life and how it changes, how we change, which isn't such a bad thing. The uneventful side of the novel, the descriptions of the mundane and ordinary life were nearly poetic, and remain that way throughout for all other characters, apart from the protagonist and her old lover. We have all had times in our lives where on the surface everything seem completely normal, and no-one realises the tremendous trauma and changes we are undergoing beneath the facade, neither during or after, not even those closest to us. Dunmore captures this superbly. This is not a story for its own sake, it's a philosophy, an allegory, an exploration of that idea. You can never go back.

Good Book, Bad Ending
I really enjoyed this book and was looking forward to a satisfying ending; unfortunately that was not to be. I was almost angry at the way it ended. Too bad books don't have alternate ending choices the way some movies do. I probably would not buy another book from this author for this reason alone.

On irreversible decisions - a story of passing time
"Your Blue-Eyed Boy" is a novel about time lost. You cannot regain the features of the body you once had, every single cell of your flesh underwent many a transformation, and more to the point, your mind has changed. Irreversibly. The past cannot be brought back, feelings, if they ever return, soon vanish under the thick layer of the present, the overwhelming mindset that had gripped you long ago and refuses to let you loose. Perhaps it's for the best, perhaps it's as it should be, for what would happen if we were able to reverse the flow of time? Would we gain as much as we think we would? The answer is yes, indeed we would come straight back to the world of lost impressions, in spite of our altered bodies. The irony is that such reversal is insane. Our ever rational mind revolts against that very idea, for everything we have now, would be lost. You cannot eat the cake and still have the cake, as they say. There is a price for everything in this world. Are you willing to make that irreversible move?

The life of a thirty-eight years old judge changes when she receives a call, and then a letter, and then a visitor from America, a sequence of intrusions in her steady life consisting mainly of desperate trials to make ends meet. In an instant, she travels back in time to the era when she had been just eighteen years old, a stranger in a strange land of America, where she met her blue-eyed boy. At that point you think that what you're reading is a mere blackmail thriller, but if you do, then you're deeply mistaken. The book has a barebone storyline, yes, and I strongly advise you to persevere and read the novel to its end, should you happen to have a deeply ingrained aversion to thrillers and mysteries as yours truly. Thanks Helen for small favors, the book didn't turn out to be shallow. The novel is a touching, and yet cruel evaluation of the primary truths of life, sad as they are. There are difficult choices to be made, and there is the horror of passing time we have to reconcile ourselves with. There is infinitely much more to this book than it appears from the terse descriptions, or even from what it seems to be about when you read a couple of chapters. Your "Blue-Eyed Boy" is a novel apt to be largely misunderstood, that seems inevitable. I might also add that those of you who like uplifting stories should better stay away from all books of Helen Dunmore. You might not endure the contents in one piece. ... Read more

Product Description
When Father is taken away unexpectedly, Roberta, Peter, Phyllis and their mother have to leave their comfortable life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. The children seek solace in the nearby railway station, and make friends with Perks the Porter and the Station Master himself. Each day Roberta, Peter and Phyllis run down the field to the railway track and wave at the passing London train, sending their love to father. Little do they know that the kindly old gentleman passenger who waves back holds the key to their father's disappearance. ... Read more

Product Description
Mr and Mrs Bennet live with their five daughters at Longbourn in Hertfordshire. Jane, the eldest, falls in love with Charles Bingley, a rich bachelor who takes a house nearby with his two sisters and friend Fitzwilliam Darcy. Darcy is attracted to the second daughter, Elizabeth.Amazon.com Review
"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife."

Next to the exhortation at the beginning of Moby-Dick,"Call me Ishmael," the first sentence of Jane Austen's Pride andPrejudice must be among the most quoted in literature. And certainlywhat Melville did for whaling Austen does for marriage--tracing theintricacies (not to mention the economics) of 19th-century British matingrituals with a sure hand and an unblinking eye.As usual, Austen trainsher sights on a country village and a few families--in this case, theBennets, the Philips, and the Lucases. Into their midst comes Mr. Bingley,a single man of good fortune, and his friend, Mr. Darcy, who is evenricher. Mrs. Bennet, who married above her station, sees their arrival asan opportunity to marry off at least one of her five daughters. Bingley iscomplaisant and easily charmed by the eldest Bennet girl, Jane; Darcy,however, is harder to please. Put off by Mrs. Bennet's vulgarity and theuntoward behavior of the three younger daughters, he is unable to see thetrue worth of the older girls, Jane and Elizabeth. His excessive prideoffends Lizzy, who is more than willing to believe the worst that other peoplehave to say of him; when George Wickham, a soldier stationed in thevillage, does indeed have a discreditable tale to tell, his words fall onfertile ground.

Having set up the central misunderstanding of the novel, Austen then bringsin her cast of fascinating secondary characters: Mr. Collins, thesycophantic clergyman who aspires to Lizzy's hand but settles for her bestfriend, Charlotte, instead; Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Darcy'sinsufferably snobbish aunt; and the Gardiners, Jane and Elizabeth'slow-born but noble-hearted aunt and uncle. Some of Austen's best comedycomes from mixing and matching these representatives of different classesand economic strata, demonstrating the hypocrisy at the heart of so manysocial interactions. And though the novel is rife with romanticmisunderstandings, rejected proposals, disastrous elopements, and arequisite happy ending for those who deserve one, Austen never gets socarried away with the romance that she loses sight of the hard economicrealities of 19th-century matrimonial maneuvering. Good marriages forpenniless girls such as the Bennets are hard to come by, and even Lizzy,who comes to sincerely value Mr. Darcy, remarks when asked when she firstbegan to love him: "It has been coming on so gradually, that I hardly knowwhen it began. But I believe I must date it from my first seeing hisbeautiful grounds at Pemberley." She may be joking, but there's more than alittle truth to her sentiment, as well.Jane Austen considered ElizabethBennet "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print". Readers ofPride and Prejudice would be hard-pressed to disagree. --AlixWilber ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1110)

History buffs, take note! But, if you're into a "quick read," pass...
This is a wonderful work that definitely is a window into the life of the 18th century. However, the reading of it is bogged down a little because of the speech ( wonderful, but tedious at the same time). Not for immediate gratification people but I will be reading all her works in due time...

NOT a children's version
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000JMLFLW/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_img

This puzzles me: In a society in which (a) Jane Austen is more popular than ever; and (b) more than half of all babies born in the United States are born out of wedlock, how can a book remain this popular when the key sentence to the entire book is this:

"But how little of permanent happiness could belong to a couple who were only brought together because their passions were stronger than their virtue, she could easily conjecture."

Pride and Prejudice, to the best of my knowledge, has not been out of print in over 200 years. That means that not only is it telling an entertaining tale, it is also calling to something deep in the readers' souls. Examination of available books shows that at least a dozen sequels to it have been written; I have reviewed one and will soon review another, but I am not going to buy and read all of them. Therefore I might be missing something I would enjoy.

But what I am not missing is this: Jane Austen believed in sense and sobriety. She believed that the happiest marriage was one between a man and woman who were intellectually and spiritually in tune with one another.

To the readers, I say: Go thou and do likewise. Read the book. Then do what Elizabeth and Jane wold approve, and you will find yourself happier in the long run than those who ignore the principles Pride and Prejudice is meant to exhibit.

Shallow and Pretentious
I understand that Pride and Prejudice is an honored classic.However, for me personally, I finally listened to myself and put the book away after reading about half of the story.The problem is that the characters are shallow and pretentious, and are simply not very likable or compelling. I think the novel, with all its gossipy nature, is the 1812 version of celebrity gossip television shows.

I have read most of the English classics from the 1800s, including truly great romance novels such as Wuthering Heights or Tess of the D'UrberVilles, but sadly, found Pride and Prejudice to be boring and not worth my time. Full disclosure, as a middle-aged male, I may not actually be the target audience for the book. However, it should appeal to young women about the same age as the protagonists.

Austen's masterpiece
I've been a fan of Austen for 20 years and this is one of my favorites. It can appear to be a little stilted due to the time period it was written in, but the story is timeless and that's why movies keep getting made with it as a base story. This is my all time favorite Austen story!

Beloved Classic
I never tire of this story. Give me a romance based on humility any day!

Rather than review Pride and Prejudice or Jane Austen, I would like to compliment Bethany House Publishers on the margin notes in this Insight Edition. The editors supplemented this beloved classic with notes on historical and cultural details, facts from Austen's life that parallel or illuminate the novel, modern (including films) references, tips for love, themes of faith, comments on the characters and plot, and "parts of the novel that just make us smile." ... Read more

Product Description
One of Sidney Sheldon's most popular and bestselling titles, repackaged and reissued for a new generation of fans.The daughter of a rich and powerful father, Elizabeth Roffe is young, beautiful -- and sole heir to a billion dollar fortune.Then tragedy strikes. Her father is killed in a freak accident and Elizabeth must take command of his mighty global empire, the pharmaceutical company Roffe and Sons. It makes Elizabeth the richest girl in the world. But someone, somewhere, is determined that she must die.From the backstreets of Istanbul to the upmarket offices of New York, Bloodline is a hypnotic tale of love and ambition, danger, intrigue and death. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (45)

A good formula at work.
Sidney Sheldon remains as one of the few writers who really know how to move a story, keep his readers absorbed and root for a protagonist. He was skillful at constructing a complicated plot, and had the main storyline intertwined with the numerous side stories. I also like how the author was comfortable with writing about any time, place, or setting. He adapted to them all very well, as any good writer would.

He also knew when to throw a twist at a reader. Sometimes it's comes as a pleasant surprise; sometimes you could hear yourself say "oh, this was totally unnecessary."

Sidney Sheldon's books are soap operas wrapped in the paperback (or hardcover). He adroitly strikes chords and rattles reader's nerves. His novels are what critics typically call an "absorbing, fast-paced page-turner." However, if you read more than one of his novels you will notice couple things.

First, he never bothered with complex descriptions of physical appearances. His characters are all good-looking, men have "arresting and sharp" glance and a "determined chin." Women are all with "soft", "silk", "sensual" bodies, "voluptuous", "provocative", "seductive" looks, "stunning" eyes and "shrewd" personalities. Sometimes, Sidney Sheldon got a tinge of inspiration and an "arresting look" became an "arresting intelligent look." But you get the point? Many writers label this "lazy writing". Lazy or not, Sidney Sheldon still sold his novels.

Second, frequently, his female characters have a bad first sexual experience. I don't know what the fascination Sidney Sheldon had with that, but their virginity was lost in "oh-how-I-wish-it-was-different" kind of way.

And, of course, here and there Sidney Sheldon gets carried away with complicating a story and inadvertently leaves some holes in the plot. But, hey, who doesn't?

So, what does all this have to do with "Bloodline"? Well, a lot. If everything I wrote above appeals to you, then it does not matter if I talk about this book or any other of his books. The review applies to them all. It's a formula.... the book, not this review;-).

Brilliant Writing
Another fantastic, mind-gripping read, holding its audience from page one. Bloodline spins the tale of a family-run pharmaceutical conglomerate.Roffe and Sons has been passed down to the heirs of Samuel Roffe's family, Sam Roffe, the only male descendant and holder of the controlling interest of the company, Anna Roffe married to Walther Gassner, Ivo Palazzi, married to Simonetta Roffe, Charles Martel married to Helene Roffe and Sir Alec Nichols' mother had been a Roffe. Samuel Roffe, founder of the company, had decided from the beginning that his company never go public.His theory, "Never let a friendly fox into your hen house.One day he's going to get hungry."When Sam Roffe (an experienced climber) dies in a mysterious mountain climbing accident, Elizabeth inherits his controlling interest in the company.Suddenly, life-threatening events begin to happen to her as she holds onto her great-great grandfather's wishes after finding a book telling the story of Samuel Roffe's life and the tense, emotional and physical struggle he endured to build the company from the ground up.In her great-great grandfather's memory and approach, she is determined to keep the company private and uncover the person responsible for the evil doings within the upper echelon (that being one of four of her cousins) or possibly her father's right-hand man, Rhys Williams.Rhys, not being a member of the family, was brought into the company by Elizabeth's father, however, unless he married a Roffe, in this case, Elizabeth (since she was the only female left), would be unable to sit on the Board of Directors.Williams was always kind to Liz (is it merely business or personal?) who grew up without a father's presence in her life (just the comforts of his money).Liz felt, even though she harbored strong feelings for Rhys, she could not afford to trust him or anyone until she uncovered the person out to destroy all that Samuel Roffe had built.Each cousin has their own issues; Anna Roffe's husband is out to destroy their children, Ivo Palazzi is leading a double life with two families, Charles is being lead around by Helene as a boy toy, Sir Alec has married Vivian, a wild, crazy party girl and Rhys has worked long and hard his adult life for Sam without the benefit of even a share of stock in the multimillion dollar business.Each one has their own agenda for forcing first Sam and now Elizabeth to have the company go public and thereby attaining the financial means to destroy the "fly in the ointment" of their respective lives.I could not put this book down until the last page was turned.Sheldon is the "master of storytelling."

Sidney's style of the movie "CRASH" is seen in BLOODLINE
The first book I ever read was "If Tomorrow Comes" and that will always be a landmark favorite in my favorites written by Sidney Sheldon.Having some time to recooperate this summer, I took upon myself to start reading - - that's when my mom offered "BLOODLINE."The book is written in such a fashion of the hit movie "CRASH" where he talks about every character and at the end, he brings them all together!I do agree with another reader that he took a long time talkin' about Elizabeth's roots within the family because she felt like she didn't belong or the plot took too long to develop the story in the beginning that would shy readers away.But now that I look back, ALL of that was necessary for the story to be the way that it was.Upon reading other reviews, I stumbled upon one that made sense:Sheldon never revealed to us who planted the microphone behind Samuel's picture in the office...Overall, I think this book was great...I found "If Tomorrow Comes" to beat it as far as quality.The book still had the page turners in the beginning telling the family history, but it wasn't until the very end that one twist after another comes rolling in, which is what Sheldon does best.

COMPULSIVE!
This is master storyteller SIDNEY SHELDON at his best!The plot is breath-taking.The characters are rich and well described.Unputdownable.Finished the book in 2 days

Terrible prose
This was the first novel I've read by Sydney Sheldon.The character development, plot development and prose is drivel compared to books by Greg Iles, Joseph Finder, Nelson DeMille, Richard Crais, Michael Connelly, Sheldon Siegel, and Richard North Patterson.Its so bad, I'm throwing the book out so I won't make the mistake of rereading it.Raise your standards people! ... Read more

Product Description
Gilly Ramsey's lonely childhood were brightened only by visits to his godmother, Geillis. When she died, suddenly, the grownup Gilly inherited her cottage, Thornyhold. But nothing about his godmother prepared him for the strange and sinister life that awaited him there....
Amazon.com Review
This old-fashioned gothic romance is as good as they get. WhenGilly's witch aunt leaves Thornyhold to her, a house in the middle ofthe woods, Gilly finds that she has inherited far more than sherealized. Along with the house comes a cat, a still room filled withherbs (and a missing recipe book), an attic chamber with carrierpigeons (who have secret messages), and an attractive neighbor whoseyoung son offers the sacred and unique blessing of friendship. ButThornyhold possesses far more than even these simple offerings. Theplace itself seems to convoke otherworldly gifts as well: Gillycultivates the abilities to heal and to foresee the future once shemakes Thornyhold her home. (For those fans of DianaGabaldon's Outlander series, there is a Geilis the witch in thisbook, too.) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (27)

Liked it, but could've been much better
This book was an enjoyable read, however I found the storyline to be lacking a bit and highly predictable.It was still a good read and I would recommend it, however, if you're expecting something thrilling and romantic this book is not for you.It's entertaining at most, but the ending was rushed, like the author had only ten minutes to pop out an ending.If she had taken her time to write a hearty ending, I would have given this book five stars.

The sort of book you can curl up with and get lost in...
There are certain moments in nearly every Mary Stewart book where the author's descriptions of time and place truly resonate with the sensitive reader. You can feel the warmth of a summer day, smell an early morning or a rainfall, see the reflection of the moon on a starlit bay. What's more, you are transported into the life of the narrator: Your stomach tightens as Charity Selbourne flees her pursuer in "Madame, Will You Talk," or Linda Martin and her charge, Philippe, flee their imagined enemy in "Nine Coaches Waiting." Such is the case with "Thornyhold."

This is a book you can escape into, as it takes place a few years after World War II, when the world was on the precipice of a time of unbridled optimism and boundless change. But rural England was much the same as it had been 20 years before.

And that's the charm here: This is a story you get lost in, if only for a brief time. It is not as complex and layered as some of Stewart's books, but it is charming in a gentle way. As usual, Stewart's characters are deftly created.

The books gets off to a slow start, but it picks up once Gilly moves into her cousin's cottage. Stewart creates a vivid supporting cast, including an engaging young boy and a enigmatic cat.

If you are seeking a gentle respite from modern life and a story that calms you, read this book.

Something a bit different from my favorite mystery writer.
This book is a bit different from my favorite mystery writer. I love Mary Stewart's books, and thought I had read most of them, if not all. This one has a little different feel to it. Enjoyed it.

Nostalgic for an earlier time?
Mary Stewart can take you there. But they were not necessarily simpler or less complicated times...

Thornyhold is less well known than Steward's tour-de-force Merlin/Arthurian novels, but still one of my favorites. Where many of her novels have modern (for the time) heroines, fighting villains in the form of thieves, murderers, selfish relatives, whatever, Gillie has less obvious battles to fight. Set in post-World War II England, where rationing still held sway and everyone knew their neighbors, Thornyhold is much like it's heroine: deep, introspective, self-depreciating, and ultimately, quietly triumphant -- much like their author.

If you are looking for excitement, battles, gunfights, and torrid love affairs, it isn't for you. But if you are looking for a truly brilliant example of character development, where gaining self knowledge is important...look into this gem.

a lovely read
Thornyhold is a magical read for those of you who love a genteel cozy.If you would like to curl up and imagine yourself in a cozy cottage with a touch of mystery and witchcraft....brew yourself a cup of tea, grab a scone or some great chocolate and allow yourself to enter the cottage.There is a gentle romance, a mysterious cat, and chanting in the woods.If you like the type of book where you can practically see the lace tablecloth and imagine the china teapot this book is for you.My mother, my daughter and my best friend concur with me....this is the best book i have ever read!They don't write em like this anymore!!!
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Product Description
When Father mysteriously goes away, the children and their mother leave their happy life in London to go and live in a small cottage in the country. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (32)

Wonderful author
I loved her books when I was a child in the sixties and I love to think that they have been around for over a hundred years and yet they are still wonderful stories that don't feel at all old-fashioned. The world they are set in is certainly different from ours, which adds to their interest, but the writing is immediate and there is nothing mannered or didactic that one might associate with books from Victorian times. A combination of lively, very real children, with sometimes a little magic thrown in and sometimes just the adventures children have when they're not too closely supervised, the books are fast-paced, humorous and adorably wholesome.
This is a story of a family under stress and the children's earnest attempts to put everything right. Heart-warming but very fun and convincing at the same time.

A new life
Roberta (known mostly as Bobbie), Peter, and Phyllis (we never learn their last names) are English siblings living in a London housing development in 1905.Their father works in a government office and their mother writes stories, and they have a pleasant, comfortable life--until, quite without warning, their beloved "daddy" vanishes out of their ken and they and their mother move out to the country, to a house called Three Chimneys near a railway line.Suddenly they're "poor," their mother is trying to support them by her pen, and nobody seems to know when their father will come back.But the railroad, whose engines become dragons with names owing to their way of bursting out of a nearby tunnel, makes up for much of the strangeness, and they make several adult friends too--the local stationmaster, his porter Mr. Perks, and "the old gentleman" who regularly rides one of the passing trains.As the months go by, an imperilled train, a lost and bewildered Russian, their mother's sudden illness, and eventually Bobbie's inadvertant discovery of the facts about Father's fate test their courage and resourcefulness.

E. Nesbit is probably best known for her fantasies, especially those starring the Five Children (Five Children and It (Puffin Classics), The Phoenix and the Carpet (Puffin classics), The story of the Amulet), but she could also write stories about ordinary, contemporary British children, and this one is described as "perhaps the most enduring."Modern readers may be confused by some of the references (hint: the "war" Mother refers to is the Russo-Japanese, arbitrated by our own Teddy Roosevelt), and will certainly disapprove of the children's not being told the truth at the very start, but the characters are lively and sympathetic, including Mother, who could be a later incarnation of the resourceful and cheerful wife in The Swiss Family Robinson (Signet Classics).And Nesbit knew how children think and behave: hers are very real--they quarrel occasionally, they don't always do right, but they try.This edition includes the original C. E. Brock pen-and-ink illustrations.

One of the best children's classics!
I'm just finished reading the Railway Children to my 10-year-old, and it is such a great read!

I loved it as a child, and this is my second time reading it aloud. I can't recommend it enough.

It's just a nice story. Set at the turn of the century, three children are forced to leave their comfortable life in London and go live in a smaller house near a railway when their father is mysteriously taken away from them. They don't know why; we don't find out until the end of the book. In the meantime, their mother is very brave, earning money by writing, and they try not to bother her by getting to know the railway and getting involved in everybody's lives all around them.

The children are very sweet, and there's a thread of definite morality throughout the book.

Don't miss it with your kids!

If you liked Railway Children, you may also want to try Little Women (Unabridged Classics) or Island of the Blue Dolphins. My children loved those ones as well!

Read It!!!
This is not simply a children's book. It is an extremely touching story of three children whose father is suddenly taken away from them and how they cope with the changed circumstances, how they adjust to "play at being poor" as their mother says. It is a book that is bound to enthrall you.

Lovely Edwardian Charmer
Utterly delightful. Loved it, ate it up. Need more Nesbit, soon as poss.

Three kids are taken to live in the English countryside when their father, well, disappears. While their mother suffers silently, and sells short fiction to help pay the bills (those were the days!), the children make a fantasy land out of their little village, especially the local railroad depot with all its fascinations. Imagine being fascinated with the steam train when it was cutting edge technology, not nostalgia!Communicating with the passengers via signs, befriending engineers, porters and station masters, even preventing a nasty rail accident, the kids end up both having fun and relieving the hardships of poor, careworn mother.

Beautiful book both remembers what its like to be a child and peeks into a childhood none of us ever knew. If you love the world of late Victorian/Edwardian Britain, read it. If you love the early parts of the Narnia books, before the kids enter the wardrobe, read it. It's precious.
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Product Description
A bold new novel from the author of Restoration and The Way I Found Her.

In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish court to join King Christian IV's royal orchestra. From the moment when he realizes that the musicians have to perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, he understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil, are waging war to the death. Designated the king's "Angel" because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the king's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided, how will Peter Claire find the path that will realize his hopes and save his soul?

With a sure, alchemical touch and the narrative finesse that always turns her histories into a kind of magic, Rose Tremain has fashioned a rich, provocative historical romance as pungent as Denmark's salty air. This is a tale of opposites: light and darkness, tenderness and violence, music and silence.Amazon.com Review
Rose Tremain deserves a hallelujah chorus dedicated to her alone. A decadeafter the appearance of Restoration, with itssuperb evocation of the British baroque, comes her glorious and enthrallingMusic and Silence. Like the earlier novel, this one is a treasurehouse of delights--as haunting as it is pleasurable and teeming with real andimagined characters, intrigues, searches, and betrayals. The vivid scenesloop in and out, back and forth, like overlapping and repeated chords in asingle, delicious composition.

The year is 1629, and King Christian IV of Denmark is living in a limbo offear for his life and rage over his country's ruin, not to mention his wife'snot-so-secret adultery. He consoles himself with impossible dreams and withmusic, the latter performed by his royal orchestra in a freezing cellarwhile he listens in his cozy chamber directly above. Music, he hopes, willcreate the sublime order he craves. The queen, meanwhile, detests nothingmore. The duty of assuaging the king's miseries falls to his absurdlyhandsome English lutenist, Peter Claire, who resigns himself to his (so tospeak) underground success:

They begin. It seems to Peter Claire as if they are playing only forthemselves, as if this is a rehearsal for some future performance in agrand, lighted room. He has to keep reminding himself that the music isbeing carried, as breath is carried through the body of a wind instrument,through the twisted pipes, and emerging clear and sharp in theVinterstue, where King Christian is eating his breakfast.... Hestrives, as always, for perfection and, because he is playing and listeningwith such fierce concentration, doesn't notice the cold in the cellar as hethought he would, and his fingers feel nimble and supple.

Customer Reviews (34)

People in music, and in silence
In spite of occasional lags and drags, the book was nonetheless engrossing, from the very first page -- from the very title, for that matter. The two opposing contrasts collide constantly throughout the story; lives of music and of silence, in sanity and insanity, and of those capable of love and those that are not.

The author's insightful human psychology and its use throughout the story never failed to surprise me, all the more appealing when combined with the profundity, the sheer magnanimity of Music. I couldn't agree more on the particular dialogue where King Christian calls on Peter Claire and discuss the potency of music, the effect and the power it yields upon apt listeners... 4 1/2 stars.

An Interesting Experiment
I don't know enough about the 17th century to know how accurately King Christian IV is drawn, but he does manage to keep the reader interested - he's real enough. In a novel with many narrators and not very much interaction among them, some characters come across as "someone" and some do not. It was basically an attractive idea: to make the telling of the tales an ensemble of various "instruments". And all in all, it's quite pleasant. It's just not very deep. As usually happens, the "evil" characters are more interesting than the "good". Many seemed derived from literature rather than life or history, which I would imagine is a great hazard in historical novels. Are they all so superficial though?
In any event, it is a superb title.

An imaginative entry into a little known world
The book opens in 1629, when Peter Claire, a young English lutenist, arrives to take up his post as a musician at the court of King Christian IV of Denmark.It then moves in a series of flashbacks and forward movements from this moment, both for Claire and for the King; for Kirsten Munk, the King's morganatic second wife;for Emilia Tilsen, one of Kirsten's young maid-servants;for the Countess O'Fingle in Ireland, whose husband is tortured unto madness by a tune he once heard and cannot recapture; for Marcus, Emilia's waif-like little brother; for Johann, her father in Jutland; and for the Rev. James Claire, Peter's father in Suffolk. For each of these characters Rose Tremain has created a distinctive style and voice, each a pleasure to read. She has great descriptive powers of people, place, and atmosphere.The personalities also, and the shifting relationships between them, are very distinctive:there is the huge, restless and tormented king, strangely confiding in Peter Claire;a truly monstrous regiment of women: the termagant and adulterous Kirsten, twenty-two years the King's junior, ruthlessly selfish and bullying all her attendants except for Emilia;Ellen Marsvin, Kirsten's mother;Sofia, the Queen Mother;and Magdalena, Marcus' wicked stepmother.Almost all the characters in the book are unhappy, and an air of sadness suffuses the whole novel.

Christian IV and Kirsten are certainly historical figures, as is the King's later mistress, Vibeke Kruse.Many times one feels sure that descriptions of the Danish court are based on historical research, as probably are the superstitious beliefs held by some of the characters.Personally I would have liked to know which of the other characters are inventions:Bror Brorson, for instance,Christian's boyhood friend and favourite who cannot read or write and who is banished for years from the court during Christian's minority: was there such a person?If he and others are invented, theyare a great tribute to the richness of Tremain's imagination.

The energy of the book seems to me to flag somewhat in the second and third part of the novel, and there is some meandering; but it builds up to a tense ending and remains a remarkable achievement.

Doings in Denmark
Setting a historical novel at the time of King Christian IV offers many ambiguities. For one not only is the fate of the main characters in suspense, but also are the real ones. The paucity of literture on the king and his consort adds to the suspense of the story.
This book is imbued with a strong sense of fantasy and what could be termed a form of magic realism.At times one feels as though one has entered a private world, much like the one that one of the characters a five year old named Marcus periodically inhabits.
But perhaps the most perfectly realized character in the book is not King Christian, his mother Sofia (who finds new ways of hoarding gold as Denmark heads towards bankruptcy), Peter Claire the lutinist, or even Emila, but the kings consort, Kirstin.Kirstin is the uncrowned queen of Denmark and quite the sensualist.No cruelty seems beyond her and the "selections from her private papers" are some of the best parts of the book.She is a creature of pure selfish instincts however she might argue against this view.Rose Tremain says in an interview published at the end of the book that she enjoyed writing these sections most of all.The reading of these sections are just as enjoyable.
Tremain also has a good sense of creating a fantastic world filled with many stimulating details.Her gift for prose makes even a blank piece of paper appear sexy, quite a feat for even the most polished prose stylist.
This is a remarkable book and the author well-deserves all the praise that she has received for this work.

At the center, a love story...
Peter Claire travels in 1629 from England to Denmark to be part of King Christian IV's orchestra. Swirling around him are tons of stories, and at least 12+ different viewpoints are used in the book, each showing the differences of how people's age, sex and status makes them view events. King Christian and his wife Kirsten's marriage is on the rocks, the country of Denmark is almost broke, and Peter and his love Emilia are kept away from each other. We also see the stories of how King Christian rose to become a king, and how Peter's sister prepares for a marriage at home, while Emilia's family falls apart because of her wicked stepmother's horrible games. You will not be able to predict what will happen next, and you often wonder if Peter and Emilia will EVER be reunited with all lies and deceptions surrounding them. This is truly one of the best historical fiction books I have ever read. ... Read more