Wheel of Fortune

Rating:
Summary: It's LONG but it is worth it
Review: Ms. Howatch's style of writing through the voices of her main characters is very effective. It could be a disasterous for a less able writer. Her stories are intricate without being impossible to follow. They are not predictable--I'm always a little surprised at the endings. The only predictable thing is a message of hope. Howatch's stories plumb the depths of human fraility and emotion without leaving the reader feeling that life is hopeless in the end. This is the 10th novel of Ms. Howatch's that I have read. I intend to read them all.

Rating:
Summary: Continuation of Cashelmara with another family ...
Review: Susan Howatch has used real historical families as the basis for Penmarric (Henry II), Cashelmara (Edward I) and The Rich Are Different and The Sins of the Fathers (Caesar and Cleopatra). Does The Wheel of Fortune reflect a historical family? If so, which one? You can e-mail me at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Doeas The Wheel of Fortune mirror a historical family?
Review: Susan Howatch has used real historical families as the basis for Penmarric (Henry II), Cashelmara (Edward I) and The Rich Are Different and The Sins of the Fathers (Caesar and Cleopatra). Does The Wheel of Fortune reflect a historical family? If so, which one? You can e-mail me at [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: I loved it
Review: This book had so much depth. Susan Howatch kept you spinning. Each chapter, you would get a different viewpoint of a different character that was completely believable. It gave you the impression that you weren't reading a book but you were living in a three dimensional world. Each of them, as well, had a moral dilemma, and each of them was strong in their own way. They were solid, real people, and more than that, they were people that you could like. Anyways, my favorite character was Harry.

Rating:
Summary: Doing the Done Thing and Here I Draw the Line
Review: This is by far one of the best books that I have ever read and that is saying alot since I have been reading for twenty years. Susan Howatch is a true storyteller. The book is divided into 6 chapters, the story being told from a different character. By the end of the book, characters you thought you hated because you saw life through their eyes, you ended up loving because another character would clue you into that character's hidden flaws and uniqueness.

When I first started reading the first chapter, I got to know Robert Goodwin and I hated him because he seemed like an egotistical, cold hearted man but when I turned to the second chapter which was narrated by Ginevra, his wife, I got to see another side of him that made me still not like him but at least understand what motivated him and what made him the type of person he turned out to be.

My favorite character in the book was John Goodwin. I felt that I related to him the most because he was always in conflict with himself. He wanted to be true to himself but could not because he had grown up being told that he had to maintain certain standards, do the done thing and know when to draw the line. Who couldn't relate to this? Many times we end up doing what we truly want only to feel guilty afterwards, yet if we do the "done thing", we usually are not happy and we feel like we are not being true to ourselves.

This book took me months to read but it was worth the "emotional" investment. At times I had to put the book down because I could not deal with the many catastrophe that seemed to haunt the Goodwin family but I would pick it up a few days later and find myself absorbed once again in the family drama.

All the other characters of this book, Kester, Harry and Hal are all equally fascinating and complex and I won't give the plot away but I urge you to read this book if you have the chance. The first few pages were difficult for me but I persevered and it was totally worth it. I cannot say enough about this awesome book and the author who brought it to life

Rating:
Summary: This book is worth 10 Stars.....ABSOLUTE BEST BOOK
Review: This is the BEST book I have ever read. I know that many people place Gone With The Wind at the top of the list (and rightly so) but I consider this book the "English Version" of Gone with the Wind.

Instead of Scarlett and the Tara Plantation, you get to meet the Goodwins and their magical home Oxmoon. This book is divided into six chapters with each chapter being told by a different character. By doing this, the author gives the readers a chance to see other characters from different points of view. She also ends each chapter with a bang and the next character picks it up where the last character left off.

If you are looking for a book filled with love, hate, envy, greed, murder and so forth, you don't need to look any further. The book is over a 1000 pages long but it moves right along. I found myself wishing that it had been 2000 pages long. I did not want the book to end. Lucky for me, this author has other great novels.

PLEASE GET THIS BOOK AND READ THE FIRST CHAPTER, YOU WILL BE HOOKED!!!!!

I would go on but I don't want to bore any readers and anyways I am starting on another Susan Howatch book.

If anyone has read this book and knows of another great author such as Susan Howatch (I doubt it), please email me at [e-mail].

Rating:
Summary: Magic, Mystery, Morality and Madness
Review: This novel has it all---a grand old family, the Godwins, with many more than their fair share of eccentricities; the beauty and poetry of early 20th century Wales; the glitter of the same-period London political arena; unrequited love; family jealousies and secrets galore; and finely-drawn characters whom you'll come to love and actually miss once you're finished with the book---what a read! Oh, and don't forget the brilliant use of that most romantic of all romantic waltzes, "The Blue Danube", as a literary device which instantly transports you into the characters' frame of reference. "Take me back to Oxmoon---the Oxmoon of my childhood!" is another recurring refrain, and the reader can almost reach out and touch the weathered stone of the old Godwin family mansion every time this line is spoken (and spoken it most definitely is, by many characters over a span of many years). There is Robert Godwin, the epitome of male chauvinism and veddy proper London barrister who turns into an insanely passionate and romantic-bordering-on-crazed lover when he falls for his cousin Ginevra. There is Ginevra herself---a silly, self-absorbed twit who develops into a woman of steel and substance and boundless compassion. There is John, whose deeply ingrained morality ("Here I have my standards, and HERE I DRAW THE LINE!") is challenged and vanquished when he meets Bronwen, the lower class Welsh mystic who taps into John's own mystical Welsh heritage and creates havoc in his orderly, moral world. Kester is perhaps the most enigmatic and surprising character, growing from a spoiled little boy into a creative genius with a propensity for intrigue; his nemesis, Harry, grows from a public school boy who seems to have it all---money, the "right" education, and later, a gorgeous, seductive wife--- into a frightened, paranoid, confused and very unhappy adult. Hal is the final generation of the Godwins, and it is his character who brings this huge, elaborately-plotted story full circle to its satisfying conclusion. There is plenty of romance ("Grand passion, darling!") in Ginevra's words, dual murder mysteries (one from the distant past, one in the current time frame), tragic illnesses and unexpected deaths, and wonderfully-drawn characters whose problems become ours and whose rides on the Wheel of Fortune we cheer and curse as if they were our own

Rating:
Summary: Quite Divine!
Review: This novel was the Absolute Best! It was so packed with Emotion and Passion that I was hopelessly addicted to it. I loved Ginevra and Kester the best though. Howatch writes a suspenseful intricate story of the most Fascinating Family Ever! This was just so complex and deep and emotional that I cried throughout it, and I cried when it was finished. I just wanted it to go on and on....

Rating:
Summary: Quite Divine!
Review: This novel was the Absolute Best! It was so packed with Emotion and Passion that I was hopelessly addicted to it. I loved Ginevra and Kester the best though. Howatch writes a suspenseful intricate story of the most Fascinating Family Ever! This was just so complex and deep and emotional that I cried throughout it, and I cried when it was finished. I just wanted it to go on and on....

Rating:
Summary: one of the best
Review: Why can't more authors (or Susan herself) write more novels this satisfying and interesting? It is a very complicated, wordy book, but worth every word. I wish I could visit Oxmoon. I love the characters who draw the line and do the done thing." If anyone out there in Cyberspace knows of another novel similar to this one, Please email me thetitle. Thanks, [e-mail]