Godiva (Viking Sagas)

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Summary: From a descendent comes: Godiva's Life & Legend
Review: <P>
This epic tale begins in the spring of 1016 with Viking ships, adrift, choppy seas along the coast of England. A fearsome King Canute the Dane, Viking conqueror, invades. One town after another is devoured until reaching the castle of Lord Leofwine and then Godiva's hometown of Coventry.

Death and destruction overwhelms this northern region, while a thirteen-year old Godiva watches helplessly as the bloodthirsty invaders pillage her once peaceful world. Canute's vicious army coldly murders her parents, as well as friends. Godiva barely survives and only due to the heroism of Sister Osburga. Sister Osburga boldly draws the Vikings away from the hidden Godiva giving her the opportunity to escape.

Ten years pass and King Canute now controls Northern Mercia. Godiva now an exquisite woman marries the Earl of Mercia, Lord Leofric. Leofric under orders from Canute is to collect the "danegeld" --an exaggerated amount of taxes from the townspeople. Against the taxation Godiva implores and tries to reason with Leofric, requesting relief upon the people of Coventry. Her appeals are ignored.

Taking matter into her own hands Godiva relinquishes her wealth. Her jewels are contributed to pay for all the taxes of Coventry's villagers. This is pure insolence in King Canute's eyes. To alleviate Canute's anger and postpone taxation Godiva now faces dishonor and shame if his challenge of riding naked on her horse through Coventry is accepted.

Godiva is David Rose's debut novel. The tale of Godiva, a unique woman of her time, as Rose tells it, has been handed down from generation to generation in his family lineage. Rose is an Academy Award-winner for film special effects, and it clearly shows through description. Dialog on the other hand is at times klutzy and characters in need of more development. Still none of this takes away from this legendary tale.

Godiva is an entertaining book that highlights a number of topics: religious beliefs, courage, love, and survival. It is no doubt David Rose's debut novel is a promising start as an author, and I certainly hope to read more of this upcoming series! Thank you Mr. Rose. Definitely recommended!

Reviewed by Betsie


Rating:
Summary: Very Sweet, no pun intended
Review: Excellent Read!! I picked up Godiva because of the beautiful cover and was pleasantly surprised when it was a great read. I fell in love with the story and read it in one night.

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Summary: A lush, romantic, sweeping saga
Review: Godiva is an elaborate debut novel by David Rose, veteran film producer, Emmy award winner and developer of more than 40 screenplays. Set in England during the 11th century, Godiva tells of a young girl witness to horror as Viking legions raid and conquer her homeland. Though she manages to settle down and find love, the threat of the terrible enemy's destructive return looms ever closer. Her desire to protect her home and her people could cost Godiva her faith, or even her very soul. A lush, romantic, sweeping saga centered upon a brilliant and strong-willed heroine.


Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Read!!
Review: I enjoyed reading Godiva tremendously!

The Viking scenes were believable and interesting and were a great beginning for this epic story. I fell in love with Godiva and felt the author showed her as an amazing example for women all over the world.

I reccomend this book for all readers who love a good story that makes you fall in love with the characters and stay up to finish it.

Rating:
Summary: Give the guy a chance!
Review: I felt compelled to write a review of "Godiva" because of the unduly harsh words that the editors of "Publisher's Weekly" used in their own review of the book. As a professional editor myself, I agree that the book does indeed fall short in some of the areas flagged by "Publisher's Weekly" (but certainly not all of the areas, especially in regard to characterization). Having now read the work twice (once as a preview copy and now as a finished book), I am giving "Godiva" four stars for two reasons.

First, it's a great story. It has all of the elements that make for a timeless tale--actually, an EPIC tale. I found it difficult to put the book down, as the author's pacing kept me turning the pages. I also appreciated the author's sensitivity to the difficult decision that Godiva was forced to make. Mr. Rose creatively captured her crisis of conscience and did a fine job of weaving it into the fabric of the story.

My other reason for giving the book four stars is the potential I see in David Rose. Throughout "Godiva," I caught the heart of Mr. Rose, and it's easy to discern that he loves telling a good story. It's also obvious that he did his homework in regard to the background research.

Fine-tuning the mechanics of writing fiction will come as Mr. Rose learns the discipline of crafting a novel. For now, though, I'm more than happy to applaud what he's done with his first crack at tackling a novel.

Keep your eyes on the prize, Mr. Rose. I look forward to the next installment in your saga of Viking tales of yore!

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I Have Read This Year !
Review: I loved Godiva and it is the best book I have read this year.
The story is well written and I could not put it down. Thank you Mr. Rose for a beautifully written story about an incredible woman.



Rating:
Summary: fantastic, and deeply moving
Review: My husband, and I could not put this deeply moving book down. It was as if it were a film playing in my mind. The ability of the author to touch on so many tender truths was amazing. I know it was a fictional book, but I have researched, and he did give us a true to life picture of the true Godiva the hero so many in Coventry speak about to this day. Americans were told a half truth about this woman for decades. She was a unique woman of her time. We see her as a sales lady to candy, and a harlot, but she was nothing of the sort. Among women she did have the ability to stand up out of the horror of her time when women were more like cattle than a co-equal. She is a modern day role model for feminists. A women like me today can look her to find strength, this is desperately needed today. I take my hat off to David Rose whose goal was to tell the truth about how wonderful a woman Godiva was. I hope people do the home work go to England find out about this woman from her own country before they mock Davids' picture of the true Godiva, a god fearing woman before her time. Thank you for telling us the truth about Godiva. The world needs to hear this story.

Rating:
Summary: Godiva's Life & Legendary Ride!
Review: This was an excellent first novel by David Rose concerning the life of the legendary Godiva. King Canute and his Viking legions come to England to conquer but find a people that are willing to fight for what they believe in. He destroys Coventry where a young Godiva witnesses the destruction of her town and nearly her entire family and friends.

As she grows and matures into the beautiful women we've all heard of she marries her rescuer, Leofric, who becomes the Earl of Mercia and tries to have a normal life minus the violence. However, King Canute demands the "danegeld" be collected by none other than her husband and events become more and more shadowed by either protecting her village or honoring her husband.

Overall, the story was well-written but could use some polishing here and there. A few typos did not detract from the plot, however, the constant piety of the Christians, primarily Godiva, needs to be toned down. I'm sure she was a faithful Christian, however, she was not a saint that I'm aware of. I will be looking forward to reading the rest in this series which is known as The Viking Sagas.