Rating: 
Summary: A heroine to thoroughly dislike....
Review: As with all Phillipa Gregory novels, Wideacre is beautifully written and rich with details of the period, especially about how estates really worked, and as such, I'd like to recommend it. But the trouble is that the central character, Beatrice, is so thoroughly unsympathetic and so many of the events of the book are so vile that it's hard to view the book with anything but distaste. On top of everything else, most of the characters are pretty sketchy... Beatrice has one motivation only, and nothing that much makes you care about her plight, and nearly everyone else is a stick figure for her to play with. There are many wonderful books by this author; this, unfortunately, isn't one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: AMAZING Historical fiction--but NOT a romance
Review: Absolutely fantastic historical fiction! Wonderfully written, amazing story, amazing characters--but be warned, this is not for the fan of the romance formula. There is no happy ending and no love story. I keep reading historical romances because every now & then I do discover a book like this.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible
Review: This book is absolutely horrible. I bought it new and sold it to the used book store after 75 pages. Please don't waste your money.
Rating:
Summary: Surreal.
Review: As most of the other reviewers -- mostly women in their 30s, I expect -- have justified their reading this novel, I enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl (despite its dubious historical accuracy) and expected more of the same from Wideacre. Well.. don't hope too hard. The novel chronicles the rise and fall of an incestuous sociopath, Beatrice Lacey, whose already-tenuous grasp on reality is almost severed by a shock she receives at the end of her childhood. In that moment she becomes detached from her emotions, which stay mired in that one summer, and becomes wholly, insanely fixated on ruling her family estate. Almost numb, the emotions and desires she does feel are blown way out of proportion (except her wholly understandable love for Dr. MacAndrew, a thread that only serves to deepen one's disgust for her). I find her wholly unbelievable as a character, especially the fact that it took so long for anyone to catch on to her. It's not like she was exactly subtle! This isn't really historical fiction, except for Beatrice's fight with the entail and constant self-congratulation about running her estate so well and her good relationships with the peasants. The language is contemporary and the narrative is almost completely devoid of that detail which makes historical fiction so rich. I wonder if Gregory can write anything but crazy, incestuous girls who have, from a very small crisis, gone so far over the edge as to ruin anyone and sacrifice anything to achieve what they want. She by no means justifies Beatrice's motivation to become what she does and the other characters capitulate far too easily, things work out far too well. The ending of The Other Boleyn Girl was obvious to anyone familiar with English history, but the end of Wideacre is even more blatantly obvious because the story is so heavy-handed. A little more than halfway through the book, and there's no question about how it will end, one only marvels that it takes her 300 more pages to get around to it. Blah.
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Read but.......
Review: I like the way Philippa Gregory writes and enjoyed The Other Boleyn Girl, so much. This book I also liked, you just have to get past the whole incest thing, which I couldn't really get over but still read on anyway. I felt angry at the sister-in-law for never really nailing Beatrice. I felt that was lacking in the book. She did get her come uppance, but I would've like to see a little more, since she was so wicked the entire book. Definately worth reading though.
Rating:
Summary: Unreadable
Review: Disgusting tripe-certainly not the caliber of Anne Bolyn. I will think again before purchasing another book by Philippa Gregory.
Rating:
Summary: SMUT
Review: I loved THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL and was excited to start this one. Disappointment is an understatement. I find it difficult to enjoy a book in which I have no sympathy for the heroine. I'm turning the pages only because I can't wait for her to get what's coming to her, only it can't come soon enough. Beatrice's lies, incest and selfishness drag on for pages and pages and pages. Needless to say, I will not be reading the next books in this series since I'm struggling to finish this one.
Rating:
Summary: I hated to love her.
Review: I am reluctant to admit it, but I loved the heroine of this book. Beatrice is greedy, selfish, manipulative, undoubtedly mentally ill, and all-around horrible. In spite of all her faults she comes across as a strong likeable character determined to live life on her own terms. Philippa Gregory does an outstanding job of creating a realistic historical setting full of vivid description and colorful characters. Beatrice, for all of her horrible and evil deeds, made me laugh out loud many times as I read this book.
Rating:
Summary: Almost Great
Review: At fist I was so excited to read another of Philippa's books after finishing the SO GREAT book THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL, and for the first 10 chapters I was hangging on just because I knew how good Ms. Gregory could write. But I could not read past chapter 13. Its horrid. So much incest, so many lies. I first wanted to see Beatrice, the main character, threw them but it was no use my mind could not handle it any longer. Anyone reading this do not buy this book, Read the OTHER BOLEYN GIRL instead its wonderfull.
Rating:
Summary: FAB-U-LOUS!!!!
Review: This is one of the best books I've read in ages. The main heroine - Beatrice - is very much like Scarlett O'Hara but to the 9th Power. She will stop at nothing. Even though she does dispicable things - you still feel for her because she is done wrong just because she is a woman. And she doesn't always mean for her actions to end in the horrible ways they do. So I didn't think she was totally bad - but she is bad very very bad. You won't be able to put this one down. It is totally enjoyable all the way through - and the ending just makes you want to read the other two in this series immediately. I absolutely adored the ending to this book. As for the two follow up novels in this series - I didn't enjoy them nearly as much although I am glad I read them.
|
