Rating: 
Summary: Captivating
Review: I've been a fan of Joanne Harris since reading Chocolat, which is one of my favourite books of all time. I've read all her work and find her style of writing absolutely delicious.
In this book, she tells the story of a woman who tries to break away from her past by joining in a monastery in rural France, though her philosophy is much more gypsy than Christian.
This book is darker and more dramatic than her previous work, but once again, the characters are both compelling and well-drawn, and the plot is unpredictable and captivating.
Short chapters and a flowing storyline make it very easy to read - in fact, I didn't like having to take a break from it and ended up staying up very late one night to finish it.
All in all it's a good book, but it's not quite Chocolat.
Rating: 
Summary: a pageturner set in 1610 France...
Review: Juliette is part of a travelling circus of sorts ~ a group of 'holy fools'. She finds herself involved with the leader, LeMerle. He is a sneaky trickster who is only out for number one. The group performs and an incident occurs which leaves a pregnant Juliette on the run.She ends up in a convent and the novel begins five years after this however, it flashbacks now and then to embrace the reader with facts. A stranger arrives after the Rev Mother dies who Juliette knows. Events move fast and the plot thickens. Juliette and her daughter, Fleur, are seperated and only toward the end does the reader find out truths. This is the first book I have read by Harris and I was not disappointed. Title has a symbolic meaning as well. Great historical novel.
Rating:
Summary: Intriguing characters
Review: Set in 1600s Brittany, HOLY FOOLS is principally the story of two engaging characters: a gypsy-born nun with pagan ideas, hiding behind her veil the secrets of her adventuresome past as a famous acrobat, and a consummate actor who wears many faces -- even to himself -- and to whom all of life is but a high-stakes game.
The two of them, incredibly well-drawn, carry the story, narrating it alternately in shorter and shorter chapters, as the plot unfolds with increasing urgency, mirroring the events it details. They tell a tale of secrets and revenge, of religious zeal and the ways it can be corrupted, of intrigues that grow into accusations, cruelty that cuts more subtly than any knife, kindnesses that carry a terrible price, and -- the thread that binds it all together -- of the caprice of love, which cannot always be defined -- or denied.
The book is poetic, and I feel inclined to review it as such, but here is the short version: HOLY FOOLS is very, very good. I have yet to read Ms. Harris' famous CHOCOLAT or FIVE QUARTERS OF THE ORANGE, but it is evident from this novel that her writing talents extend far beyond food and love and forgiveness, and far into the darkness and mystery of what it means to be human.
Rating:
Summary: Another bit of mesmerizing fiction from author of Chocolat
Review: Soeur Auguste is but one of several names assumed by a women in 17th century France, hiding with her daughter within the walls of a convent. She's hiding from a wicked lover and also hiding from her somewhat shabby and sensational past. But the convent proves to be far from an ideal sanctuary, isolated from the real world by the daily ebb and flow of the tides as it is also caught within the ebb and flow of desire, passion, and nearly medieval ignorance. Into this caldron of frustration and confusion come a new abbess and her confessor, who is none other than the wicked lover in disguise.
Sensual, descriptive, mesmerizing, poetic - all of these terms apply to Harris's writing, and her skills do not fail her in Holy Fools
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