Rating: 
Summary: You need to read the whole book! Starts slow....
Review: but is well worth the wait. If you've read Ms. Dain before then you know that she is a good writer. This book starts slow. I should say the first few pages are intriguing and then the next 25 are slow. This is called "building the characters".If you put the book down at this point then you really miss out on the whole story. Elsbeth's "Period" plays a small part in the beginning of her unwanted marriage to Hugh of Jeruselem. Maybe someone didn't continue on but the story of an unwanted marriage and trickery on Hugh's part are what the story are about.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: I can understand Ms. Dain's trying to explain how hard women really had it back then with the period situation (which took up too much of the story ) and the childbirthing deaths not to mention no rights on what they did with their lives. The book covers a lot of subjects that were very depressing with not enough humor or romance to get over the sad parts. I don't know why Ms. Dain made the book so sad. But I still think she's a good writer. I've read other books by her so maybe she was just showing the dark side of living back then.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-developed characters and a fabulous sense of the period
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. Although the book goes on about the girl's menstrual cycle, the way it was used, to me, was not so much disgusting as... well, I'm not sure how to describe it.This girl's struggle to remain grounded in her ideals of faith and religion, and be submissive to what the historical period's idea of how she was to act made it a good read. In today's society, the way this girl is treated would be an outrage. Its an outrage that women were treated this way in any age, but she comes through it like a champ. I recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: This book holds some "taboo" subjects, however.....
Review: I enjoyed reading this book. Although the book goes on about the girl's menstrual cycle, the way it was used, to me, was not so much disgusting as... well, I'm not sure how to describe it. This girl's struggle to remain grounded in her ideals of faith and religion, and be submissive to what the historical period's idea of how she was to act made it a good read. In today's society, the way this girl is treated would be an outrage. Its an outrage that women were treated this way in any age, but she comes through it like a champ. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Nasty, disgusting, a complete and utter failure of a book!
Review: I got this book as a Christmas gift from my sister L, I don't know what I did to deserve this. I thought she loved me. Claudia Dain has a preoccupation with the minstral cycle and any questions that anyone has regarding it are answered by this book. Seriously, I like the other reveiwers have read many upon many romances and just books in general. I think that I am not alone in my opion that not even James Patterson, Dean Koontz or Stephen King cannot compare with the "blood letting" in this book. I will never EVER read another book by this aurthor. The good news is if she got published there is hope for us all.
Rating:
Summary: One Word... ICK.....
Review: I have been reading romance novels for years and this has got to be the absolute worst "Wallbanger" I have ever run across! This was the worst waste of paper I have ever seen. Ms Dain what were you thinking? 300 pages of bloody female cycles. Yuck.... This is romantic???
Rating:
Summary: Don't even consider buying this book...
Review: I have read Claudia Dain's book before and they were okay in quality. This book hits a new low...was there a plot? There was--if the plot centered simply on a woman's period for over 300 pages. Romance novels are for escapism...this most definitely was not...about half way through I wanted to escape and donated the book to charity without finishing it.
Rating: 
Summary: Unappetizing
Review: I like Claudia Dain and her other books. This book was too focused on her period, which occurs for 330 out of 390 pages.
So obviously nothing happens for that entire time. As well,
the entire concept of having relations during one's period is very unappealing, and not worth buying a book to read about that possibly happening.
Plus, the heroine is a shrew, never softening towards Hugh, or making peace with her world, as she tells herself she will and must. Hugh is too easily forgiven for lying through his teeth, although he comes to care for her more readily and honestly than she does for him. Skip this book and try another one of Ms. Dain's.
Rating:
Summary: Worst "Romance" I've Ever (Not) Read
Review: I picked up this book on impulse, on a trip. The alluring cover completely fails to deliver... It's more than 300 pages before this couple gets together! How do I know that?? Because I gave up after the first hundred or so pages of vicariously experiencing the heroine's period, and skipped ahead to see when it finally ended. I have read HUNDREDS of "romance" novels - this is the worst, and one of the few I've been unable to complete. It should not be categorized under "romance", nor "historical"..maybe "medieval medicine", or "religious debate."
Rating:
Summary: A disapointment!
Review: I waited several months for this book and I was so disapointed! The story would have been really good if it had been written differently then what it was. The story had great potential if the writer had not used most of the story on the heroine's problem, which was her monthly ministration. I got tired of reading about that over and over again. The writer wrote more about the heroines period and forgot about the main meat of the story. There is only so much you can read about a woman's period and how it affects the couples relationship before it gets monotonous.
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