The Moon-Spinners

Rating:
Summary: Sentimental Journey
Review: Most writers and other English major types had their middlebrow beginnings as young adult readers. I had Mary Stewart's THE MOONSPINNERS. I just returned to it after, ahem, 36 years, and found that in many ways it held up the 14-year-old's original assessment. It is witty, the characters attractive, the action spritely and believable. The scenery of the Greek isle of Crete is rendered intoxicatingly, so much so that I can see why it helped inspire the 14-year-old to become the 16-year-old who went off on her own parentless adventure overseas. The almost 50-year-old is surprised to relearn that the oh-so adult heroine and hero are in their very early twenties. Mere children! Ultimately, the book does not hide its romance genre genes or its era. The heroine, who initially bristles at the male characters' sense of superiority does give in a little to it, and a little gratefully at that, at the end. There is use of the word "greedily" in place of "hungrily"--a pet peeve of mine. The author's ability to quote classic works at the drop of a hat was awe inspiring to the 14-year-old reader; it has all the suspicious cache of Bartlett's to the almost 50-year-old. There is a bit of a nationalist subtext, too: the Brit abroad sees American characters as friendly and naïve and the native Cretes as rather primitive and amusing. The 14-year-old went on to read other novels by Mary Stewart and others like her but none matched THE MOONSPINNERS. There is something about it that is better than what I know of its genre, and it may have sent me on the path to serious literature sooner rather than later as much as it sent me abroad.

Rating:
Summary: Mary Stewart's best
Review: Quite simply, Mary Stewart's best book, with an beautiful setting and finely-drawn suspense. For sheer magic, this book can't be matched.

Rating:
Summary: Romance, Adventure, and Mystery join together classically
Review: The ancient greek setting in Crete, romance in the air for a young girl, death and mystery await. The spell-binding mysteries and adventure only add to the romance that Mary Stewart has captured in not only this adventurous love affair, but in all of her Historical romances. I have read all of her novels and wish there were more to savor.

Rating:
Summary: One of Mary Stewart's Best
Review: The Moon Spinners is definitely one of Mary Stewart's best. It was the first book of hers I had read and it led me to search for and purchase all of her writings. The stories are suspenseful, there is always a hint of romance, and the ending is not always obvious (a problem in some so called mysteries). There is also a movie version of The Moon Spinners, but do not read the book first if you want to enjoy it - it changes too much of the story. Reading The Moon Spinners will induct you into the Mary Stewart fan club. This and Touch Not the Cat are definitely her finest.

Rating:
Summary: One of Mary Stewart's Best
Review: The Moon Spinners is definitely one of Mary Stewart's best. It was the first book of hers I had read and it led me to search for and purchase all of her writings. The stories are suspenseful, there is always a hint of romance, and the ending is not always obvious (a problem in some so called mysteries). There is also a movie version of The Moon Spinners, but do not read the book first if you want to enjoy it - it changes too much of the story. Reading The Moon Spinners will induct you into the Mary Stewart fan club. This and Touch Not the Cat are definitely her finest.

Rating:
Summary: Too bad there aren't six possible stars
Review: This is absolutely, hands-down, my favorite book in the whole entire world. The plot is suspenseful and has the mastermind twists and turns of Mary Stewart's writing. By the way, the movie is also very cool. Hayley Mills is excellent, as usual, and a great performance by Peter McEnery.

Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: This is one of my favorite books, I've wore out several copies and it's very difficult to find. My current copy is held together by tape. Well worth the effort it takes to find it..

Rating:
Summary: One of My All-Time Favorites
Review: Who can resist the spell that Mary Stewart weaves in one of her best novels?
No one.
Technically, it has all the right ingredients, beginning with a fantastically deceptive setting--the untamed Cretan countryside, described to perfection with its whirling white-sailed windmills, its craggy landscape peppered with enough fragrant wildflowers to fill Dioscorides' Greek Herbal and its people, proud, fiercely patriotic, bravely bearing the scars of war and the miseries of a sparse existence.

The protagonists are charmingly intrepid, managing to keep their British stiff upper lips intact even in the face of a wildly unstable group of gun-happy thugs-turned kidnappers. Our narrator is a deliciously innocent, well-meaning and attractive vacationer, Nicola Ferris, (don't think perky Hayley Mills who in the movie of the same name was a burgeoning adolescent--this Nicola is a consummate situation-manager with a mission, accustomed to controlling her life and the people around her)who in refusing to back out of an affair she unwittingly steps into, discovers the one situation she cannot manage without help. It takes the handsome stranger, in the guise of competent English tourist Mark Langley (yes, a young Peter McEnery might come to mind,) to turn the tables on her while pressing her into a less dominant role that she finds she actually likes. Mark's teenaged brother, the kidnapped Colin and his clever forays into the stranger world of British slang, provides an effective comedic foil for the straight-laced Mark and his Greek counterpart, the Englishly-challenged caique-owner, Lambis. The insiduous-pallikarathes villan, Stratos, one part charm to two parts unstable lethal weapon, the slithering eel-like Tony, and sadly-complaisant, hard-working Sofia, round up the players along with Nicola's older but wiser cousin, Frances.
Don't miss this one--the prose alone will have you chucking your stalward life and buying a Greek wildflower guide along with a one-way ticket to Crete!

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: You know how people always say," read the book first then see the movie." Well it really doesn't matter. Do you know why? Because even though the Movie and the Book were great, they are almost different stories. I must say though that the book has little more mystery. The rising action parts were really great too.