General information

This is a story about Fleetwood, a 17-year-old wife of a noble person living in England, in the year 1692. Fleetwood is going through her new pregnancy, having miscarried several times before. She’s worried that this baby won’t survive too, and that her life is also in danger. She meets Alice who gives her some hope. Unfortunately, Alice might be one of those uncomfortable women who are not tolerated by people in power. This is a story about women who are trying to save and to be saved.

How was it?

I expected to be infuriated by the story, and I was. It could not be different with a book about women that are treated like cattle. It raised lots of questions. Was it truly that bad? How did it come to this?

Have things really changed much since then?

Good things about the book

The story

The story is very gripping, it’s hard to put the book down. There’s lots of action going on.

The ending

I liked it because it felt realistic and natural.

Things that I liked less

The editing

The passage of time feels very abrupt sometimes. The book feels raw and unpolished at places.

Those nasty bad men, those great good women

As I told in one of my reviews before, I’m tired of this concept. I understand that in a book about a witch hunt such element is inescapable, but I still believe that characters have to be more diverse in order to be plausible and interesting.

The husband issue

I find the eventual situation with the husband implausible and obscene, especially taking into account all the things we’ve read about him.

Questions that I still have

I wish I could learn more about Alice, but I’m also wondering about those historical times in general. If it was that bad could such brave, rebellious Fleetwoods really exist? Did they? Or was the mere thought of going against the current impossible for women then? Well, unless they were witches…

Would I recommend the book?

I’d definitely recommend it to those who are looking for an adventure story with strong female characters. The Familiars will be out in two weeks, on 19.02.19.

Many thanks to the publishers for the copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Seven Sisters drew the most attention in my Currently Reading in November post so I’m reviewing it first.

General information about The Seven Sisters by Lucinda Riley

The Seven Sisters is the first book in the series about young women who were adopted as kids by a rich man. They were brought up in a secluded castle in Switzerland, each of them developing their own skills and talents. When their father dies, he leaves them letters with clues on how to discover more about their histories. There are now 5 books in the series, but there will be more. The Seven Sisters focuses on the history of the eldest sister only. There’s actually a book trailer for The Seven Sisters! (I didn’t even know such things existed.) I don’t think the trailer does the book justice. It makes the book sound rather silly and simplistic. The Seven Sisters is much more sophisticated. Just in case you are interested, here’s the trailer.

What’s good about The Seven Sisters

This book is definitely a great way to travel across continents and times. When Maia, the protagonist, is discovering the truth about her great-grandparents, the narration shifts from modern times to Brazil during the times when the famous statue of Christ was being built.

The book is about relationships and love stories (right, not one but a few!) The writing is quite good. The story develops in an interesting and unpredictable way. There are many curious historical facts and descriptions of the life in old France and Brazil.

What I personally didn’t like that much in The Seven Sisters 

Some descriptions

I’m not a big fan of romance genre. I like any good stories, including love stories, but all these “he pressed his lips to hers” and other romanticised language yank me back from the book to reality. I can’t immerse myself into stories where women grew noticeably pale because they just thought about their lovers. It sounds overplayed and fake to me.

Erratic behaviour

One of the characters is pure Jekyll and Hyde. At one moment he’s warm and understanding, at another one he’s a selfish drunk, then he’s back to a good chap again. It was hard not to notice that his pendulum-like behaviour was for the sake of the plot only.

The protagonist also behaves strangely sometimes, but alright, I’ll agree to believe that this is just the way she is.

The series effect

It’s absolutely OK for the series not to uncover all information in the first book so that readers can look forward to some discoveries in the next one. To be fair, all the main questions about Maia were answered in the first book. Still, I’d been looking for the series that would attract by their protagonist only, by how good they are, not by leaving something untold. I mean the series like Sherlock Holmes, for example. People love it because of Sherlock and because of stories themselves, not because they need to know who that mysterious boy two books ago was. Thus, I will have to continue my search for the perfect series.

Final thought on The Seven Sisters

The Seven Sisters is very well-written and entertaining. If you like stories about love, relationships and different epochs, then this book is definitely for you.