Rating: 
Summary: Great story, but...
Review: ...a meandering narrative with highly confusing dream sequences and flashbacks. While Kalogridis gives us excellent visuals and brilliant plotlines, the 'flowus interruptis' is distracting and annoying. Reads like it's trying to be a gothic horror story told in the style of a Harlequin Romance, and not succeeding very well at either. I'd recommend finding another book to read!
Rating:
Summary: my review
Review: At first I thought the book would be about the story of a person fleeing the inquisition in France in the mid 1400's. Many totally innocent people were accused and burned during those times, but I was not ready to find the story of cult followers to "the goddess" and their fight against the enemy.Even though the story is interesting and the plot holds till the end of the book, it sometimes felt too mystical and surreal. You don't know whether to take this book as a faithfull recount of those times and situations or as a fantasy set in historical times. However, the book is entertaining and well written. All characters are alive and interesting and the places and situations are very well described.
Rating: 
Summary: A pleasant surprise of a read
Review: I hadn't expected to get hooked when I first picked up "The Burning Times," but let's just say that I didn't get much accomplished that particular weekend other than reading this novel straight through. I had thought I would be reading a fairly mundane story about the inquisition and medieval witch burnings, and I was happily caught off-guard by Kalogridis' more trascendent tale. This is a story that can be read and understood on a number of levels, and the message about the unfortunate consequences of love tainted with fear -- even with the best intentions -- is a quite relevant and timely one just now
Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise of a read
Review: I hadn't expected to get hooked when I first picked up "The Burning Times," but let's just say that I didn't get much accomplished that particular weekend other than reading this novel straight through. I had thought I would be reading a fairly mundane story about the inquisition and medieval witch burnings, and I was happily caught off-guard by Kalogridis' more trascendent tale. This is a story that can be read and understood on a number of levels, and the message about the unfortunate consequences of love tainted with fear -- even with the best intentions -- is a quite relevant and timely one just now
Rating:
Summary: A Winner on my List
Review: I have just recently read this book ( a friend lent it to me) It is one of the most well written ,interesting books I have read. It was full of interesting likeable characters and some not so likeable I couldn't put it down for 3 days.It had a storyline that grabbed your attention and so many twists to the story,that you couldn't help but keep reading to find out what happened.Although I probably wouldn't read her previous books (on vampires) I would read any others she wrote on paganism or wicca
Rating:
Summary: The Burning Times
Review: I loved this book! In the spirit of the Mists of Avalon, it keeps you hooked from cover to cover. After losing her parents to the Plague, and watching her grandmother burned at the stake for heresy, Sybille follows her destiny to become the leader of the race. Along with her Beloved, they must conquer the many faces of the enemy in a world gone mad with war, the Black Death and the Inquisition. First though, they must find each other, to rule as the lord and the lady.
Rating:
Summary: a missed chance to write a really good book on this topic
Review: I read this book because the subject matter really intrigued me - 14th century France, the Inquisition, The Goddess versus Christianity. The book tells the story of Marie Sybille, a poor immigrant's daughter, whose destination it is to become a reincarnatin of The Goddess, and of Luc de la Rose, the son of a nobel man, who is destined to become the lover of the Goddess, and both together will have to save their ancient people from the Enemy. (what the ancient people is exactly is never explained, unfortunately) There are interesting facts (and fictions) about life in the 14th century, about the church and the Inquisition, but mostly not told with convincing detail, the scene doesn't really spring to life before your eyes. What is even less convincing are the accounts of the Goddess cult which remain too vague and fantasy-like to really inspire the reader. The twist of the plot towards the end makes interesting reading but if the author had taken care to make her characters more human and less black&white it could have been even more interesting. But when the good guys are always beautiful, tall, noble and trust-inspiring and the bad guys ugly, fat, mean-looking or otherwise dislikable, it becomes easy to guess what will happen next. In my opinion this could have become a really good book if the author had spent some more time and effort researching the background and making the book a bit more substantial. A story like that lives from the details, not from the plot. If the subject matter interests you I would recommend to read The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer-Bradley, which is far better told than this book.
Rating:
Summary: very nice read
Review: I thorough enjoyed this FICTIONAL piece of literature. It was fun. Alot of fun. And it is not meant to be historical, I think some of the other reviewers need to stop taking themselves so seriously and read history books if they want just facts. Anyone can take a piece of history and put a person into it and imagine what their life would have been like. Sure this is a little bit more than that, but that's what makes it so much fun. It's not your average boring novel about a "regular" person from a time in history. The characters are larger than life, what I expect in a good fiction novel. I will be moving on to the Vampire Chronicles next, as I thoroughly enjoy Ms. Kalogridis' writing.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reading!
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I couldn't wait to get back to it. I read it in two days. Your basic good vs. evil with some history mixed in. Wish I hadn't read it yet so I could experience it again.
Rating: 
Summary: A missed opportunity
Review: I was hoping to read a historical novel on the inquisition, but it is just a vague and overambitious attempt to embrace too many subjects (battles, pestilences, monastic life, paganism, inquisition, magic etc.). The flow of the narration is continuosly interrupted by dreams and flash-backs and the "final surprise" can be guessed almost at the beginning of the book for you know from the start the real nature of certain characters. The idea was good, but this book is definitely a missed opportunity. The author seems only too eager to imitate the more mature and complex narrative by Marion Zimmer Bradley.
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