Rating: 
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: A smart book with rich, mature writing. After a wave of gee-aren't-I-clever tomes, like "A Staggering Work of Heartbreaking Genius" and "The Corrections" I was thrilled to get this passed to me by a friend.Davis-Goff is amusing and intelligent, telling a story of a young woman in a time and place that seems very far away and, in the shadow of recent world events, not that distant at the same time. This book is not packed with action, just wonderful words -- it will remind you why you like reading so much in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: "Land Girls" Meets "Rebecca"
Review: Annabel Davis-Goff wrote two wonderfully evocative books about her Irish roots-- "The Dower House" and "Walled Gardens." Unfortunately, she has either run out of material or she wrote "This Cold Country" in haste. We begin, for no apparent reason, following Daisy on a farm in Wales, where she works as a land girl. Rather quickly, she marries and moves to Ireland where she has to manage a very large house with little guidance. (Where are we but the familiar territory plumbed by Daphne DuMaurier in "Rebecca?") Questions about her asocial brother-in-law Mickey are never answered. (What's wrong with him? Does he really keep bats?) It's not clear why we sometimes veer from Daisy's point-of-view to enter the mind of her near-catatonic grandmother-in-law. And the atmosphere of the war years just doesn't ring quite true. (Does anyone in the entire novel smoke a cigarette?) The plot is thin and wrapped up in a perfunctory manner in the end. All in all, not Davis-Goff's best work despite a bit of really fine writing.
Rating: 
Summary: Starts out well, then languishes
Review: I enjoyed the first hundred pages of this book, as Daisy, a 20 year old English girl, tries to find her way in the world. But after she marries and moves to Ireland, the book starts to drag. The characters she meets there are never fully fleshed out, so their eccentricities seem incomprehensible.
I skimmed the second half.
I recommend The Dower House, also by Annabel David Goff, instead of this book.
Rating: 
Summary: this Cold Country leaves me cold
Review: I finished this book only because it was assigned by my book club. It reminds me of the books I read in sixth and seventh grade, found in the "Young Adult" section of my neighborhood library in the l950's. Everything about the book, both plot and character development, as well as use of language, is thin, without depth or complexity or passion. If one likes simple reading, and this is a novel of simple reading, I would recommend Catherine Cookson. At least, she has great stories told with feeling.
Rating:
Summary: this Cold Country leaves me cold
Review: I finished this book only because it was assigned by my book club. It reminds me of the books I read in sixth and seventh grade, found in the "Young Adult" section of my neighborhood library in the l950's. Everything about the book, both plot and character development, as well as use of language, is thin, without depth or complexity or passion. If one likes simple reading, and this is a novel of simple reading, I would recommend Catherine Cookson. At least, she has great stories told with feeling.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating World War II Novel
Review: I found this book to be more boring as it went along. The characters are thin and undeveloped -- couldn't even get a handle on Daisy and what made her the way she was, or the other characters for that matter. They just seem to appear out of nowhere. The reader is denied any glimpse into the development of Daisy's romance. The prose is thin and boring, the author shows no gift for a turn of phrase. Even a bad plot can be saved by wonderful writing -- this book gave me no investment in anything going on. I only finished it because I blew 20 bucks on it.
Rating:
Summary: Save your money
Review: I found this book to be more boring as it went along. The characters are thin and undeveloped -- couldn't even get a handle on Daisy and what made her the way she was, or the other characters for that matter. They just seem to appear out of nowhere. The reader is denied any glimpse into the development of Daisy's romance. The prose is thin and boring, the author shows no gift for a turn of phrase. Even a bad plot can be saved by wonderful writing -- this book gave me no investment in anything going on. I only finished it because I blew 20 bucks on it.
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother
Review: I haven't read the other works by Annabel Davis-Goff, but after finishing (plowing through) the book, then looking at her picture on the back cover, it explained some things. She looks unhappy and searching, and the book is written in that vein. I kept waiting for clarity on the questions our heroine was searching out, but was left hanging at every paragraph end. All in all a frustrating book.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating World War II Novel
Review: I loved this book! After reading Davis-Goff's first novel, The Dower House, I rushed out and bought This Cold Country. I was not disappointed. Davis-Goff writes beautifully, and her story of Daisy Creed, a land girl who marries an Irish officer and then must cope alone with his eccentric family in a chilly house in Ireland, is a page-turner. I had to put my life on hold so I could finish this book. Daisy is a truly sympathetic character, a reader of Dickens, a giggler, and too young and polite to question her in-laws about their customs. I would have loved to have her as a friend when I was younger. I'm shocked to see all these one-star reviews. Did we read the same book?
Rating:
Summary: No passion
Review: I picked up this title hoping to lose myself in an engrossing tale with some emotional intensity to it. Instead, I found myself asking over and over again, "Why am I still reading?" I am not familiar with Ms. Davis-Goff's other writings, so perhaps this was simply not her best effort. The story became duller and thinner as I continued to slog through the Irish mists which it attempts to invoke. The beginning of the story drew me in, as the main character, 20-year old Daisy Creed, finds her life suddenly altered by the coming of war. Sadly, as soon as Daisy marries and moves to Ireland the narrative becomes attenuated to the point that I lost sympathy for her and her eccentric in-laws. The author's attempts to insert short snippets of Irish history into the narrative were annoying and not sufficiently illuminating for a reader who comes to the story without a background knowledge of the subject. There were also some careless flaws in sentence structure that left me wondering whether anyone read the proofs before publication. Handled more carefully, this story might have been full of a subtle, haunting ambience. I kept thinking this elusive goal was just disappearing around the next page as I read, but I was never able to catch up to it. The title says it all. Frustrating.
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