The Tower Room: The Egerton Hall Novels, Volume One

Rating:
Summary: Oh...for a happy ending...
Review: A happy, resolved ending is the only thing missing from this book, and I still gave it five stars. Megan is Rapunzel, and she is a beautiful fairy tale. Megan lives in a tower (at her British all-girls school), with no other family in the world, save Sleeping Beauty (Alice) and Snow White (Bella). Megan falls madly in love with Simon and their whirlwind affair costs her almost everything. This is a wonderful book, it is not full of sex, like a few other reviews have suggested. Geras stays faithful to the original story and, like most original versions of fairy tales, sex is involved. I highly recommend this book and the rest of the trilogy, "Watching the Roses" and "Pictures of the Night." Trust me, if you read all three, your happy ending will come. Maybe your prince too...

Rating:
Summary: Terrific!
Review: A poetic, intelligent first-person prose is the first thing I remember about this book. The second is the beautiful characters that really personalize the general fairy-tale princesses. Bella has a beauty-obsessed stepmother who is jealous of Bella's creamy, perfect skin, figure, and jet-black hair. (Does that sound familiar?) She's the rebel of the trio, whereas Alison is the shy one, whose great-aunt made a fuss about not being invited to her christening. Megan's guardian expels her and Simon, her Prince, when she finds that they've been making love in the Tower Room.

Three well-developed characters and a boarding-school atmosphere make this book one that you'll remember years after you finish it.

P.S. I read this book at age 11 (I am 12) and was not "tainted" at all by thr sexual references. It is not too explicit, just implied, and adds intrigue to the story.

Rating:
Summary: Romantic
Review: I loved the romance of this book! This book is not for children 12 and under. Other then that it's great!

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous!
Review: I read this book first when I was 15. I loved it then and I still do now, 8 years later. From the trilogy this book is the best, dark and sensual with the magical overtones of a fairy-story. Like the original Rapunzel tale, this is really not meant for children.

Rating:
Summary: Calling all teenage girls...you're not too old 4 fairytales
Review: It was while reading Adele Geras' Egerton Hall trilogy that I realized why we girls like V.C. Andrews when we're in high school. We grow up on fairy tales, and we are enchanted by these stories of downtrodden young girls who persevere and find love, success, and happiness. Then, someone convinces us we're too old for "that stuff", and that we ought to read realistic stories instead. In Andrews' gothic novels, especially the Heaven and Dawn series, we find the very same kinds of stories--the stories of young women making it despite horrible circumstances--and that's why we take so easily to those books. They're "realistic" enough to satisfy our left brains, but I'm gaping at this point as I recall all the fairy-tale elements in those stories--the ash girls and wicked stepsisters and what-have-you.

In that vein, I recommend the Egerton Hall series. I don't mean to say they are just like V.C. Andrews novels; they're not. Geras has a COMPLETELY different and much brighter style; even the darkest book of the trilogy, _Watching the Roses_, has its moments of humor and lightness. And, there is no incest, fewer Dark Family Secrets, and almost no purely good or evil characters--everyone in Geras' books is only human, with good and bad qualities. What they do have, is three sensitive and talented young girls on the brink of adulthood, dealing with love, hate, family, friendship, jealousy, and schoolwork--and sometimes disowning, rape, and attempted murder. Each of the books tells the story of one of the girls' initiation, so to speak, when she learns about love and about the adult world. And each parallels a classic fairy tale the reader will remember from childhood--and yet they are not fantasy; it is human resourcefulness and not magic that wins the day here. I can't explain, without sounding pedantic, how much these novels affected me; all I can say is this: I am 23 now. I wish I had had these books at 14. They are going to be on the shelf of my (hypothetical) daughter once she reaches puberty.

This is the first novel of the trilogy. It parallels "Rapunzel", and tells the story of Megan, the most down-to-earth of the three girls. Orphaned in childhood, she lives at a boarding school with her guardian, Dorothy, who teaches at the school. She is sheltered, and has rarely met boys. Then, Dorothy hires a handsome young teaching assistant, with whom both Dorothy and Megan fall in love. He returns Megan's feelings, and a secret affair ensues. He seems oblivious to the fact that she is only seventeen, and she is soon in over her head. Then Dorothy finds out...

Is their relationship based only on sex and infatuation, or can it grow stronger, strong enough to endure ostracism, poverty, and hardship? The book's ending is a question mark. The romance is not resolved until three-quarters of the way through the third book, _Pictures of the Night_. (Note to Editor: Please compile the three books into one volume!) I recommend reading all three, both to read the end of Megan's tale, and to read the equally compelling stories of her friends Alice and Bella.

Rating:
Summary: Tender and thoughtful story that is also honest
Review: This book does not seem to arouse as much enthusiasm as the other two books in the trilogy, and I can see why. 'The Tower Room' is about a sudden passionate affair, and the ending is not comforting. Despite the inherent romance of the situation and the story-the lonely room in the tower, the secret affair, the exile-the book, like the narrator herself, is rooted in reality.

Megan is the sensible one of the tower room trio, and is used to being in the background, with her friends Alice and Bella getting all the attention. She is an orphan, looked after by Dorothy. Dorothy is adequate, but not motherly: in a nice touch, she is a Chemistry teacher, who regards teenage infatuation as 'silliness'. Megan, however, secretly wants more, and this is echoed in the poems she studies for her A-levels, and the epigraphs at the beginning. She even writes poetry herself. Simon, the man who her feelings are focused on, however, is never really explored as a character: Megan says that it is 'difficult to concentrate in between kissing', which hints that their relationship is based only on the physical. In the end, Megan has to face up to its limitations and her own: you feel sorry, but also agree with her.

Geras creates a very likeable character in Megan, yearning for love but at the same time knowing that there is a price to be paid. Megan is extremely close to her two friends, Alice and Bella, despite-or perhaps because of-the differences in character. It is almost as much their story as hers, and the fairy tale echoes are nicely sketched in. If you want a story that doesn't flinch from the hard facts, this is it.