Mrs. Poe Review

Better late then never, right? So let's get started. I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads. Mrs Poe is a fictional account of Edgar Allen Poe, his wife, and his mistress Frances Osgood. Although I had a hard time with the subject matter, infidelity doesn't sit well with me, I still really enjoyed the story. Mrs Poe is set during the 1840's in New York city. The authors description of that time and place was perfect. I love details, and I think she did a great job with it. I also enjoyed the main character, Frances, who was also a writer/poet like Poe. She was married with children, and had an absent husband, but she was willing to work hard and didn't like taking from others. I found her admirable in that way. Poe's wife was very young, beautiful, and also pretty darn clever. As a character, I loved and hated her at the same time. There's an interesting twist with her in the end, that I thought was well done. Poe I found to be quite miserable. I did not like him as a person at all. I found him arrogant, mean, and selfish. I was often amazed that Frances loved him. I didn't feel like the woman that she was described to be, would love a man like him. I really can't imagine anyone loving him. He annoyed me, can ya tell? Great writer, terrible guy. With that being said, it was still a good read. I would recommend it to historical fiction lovers, especially if you love New York!

The White Mare by Jules Watson Review

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to post a review on this book, since my review of The Pillars of The Earth was so terrible, but my thoughts on this book just have to be said. If I can save even one person from feeling like I do right now, then it's worth it. If you can't already tell, I did not like this book. I so wanted to. I had high hopes for this one. On paper, it had everything I could want in a book. But it truly failed to deliver. It is a historical epic tale set in 79 A.D. Scotland. It has Roman invaders, Druids, Warriors, and kings. It had all the makings for a great story. It just couldn't pull it off. The two main characters were mind numbingly boring. I never cared for either of them. They could get together or not, whatever. I ended up skipping pages of details, and I'm a details person. For instance, Diana Gabaldon and Ann Rice do it fantastically. This book is 600 pages long. I HATE quitting on a book. But at page 580, I put it down and said "NO MAS!" I just couldn't even give it the last 20 pages. If the author waited until those pages to wow me, then shame on her. Someone recently just told me to only give a book 100 pages, then feel free to quit it if it's not working for me. I think I'm going to have to adopt that rule. I could have read several other books that I might have loved instead of wasting my time on this one. Well, lesson learned.

Well, I didn't like it:(

OK, I know it's been forever since I've posted about reading The Pillars of The Earth, but hey, life happens. Here's my thoughts on it. It took me two tries, but I finally finished this book. The beginning is incredibly slow and boring, but I was told it gets better so I trudged through. By midway I was angry most of the time while reading it. There are several characters who are so incredibly evil and constantly getting away with horrific acts. It was like watching train wrecks and not being able to do anything about it. It would have been better if there were even one character that I truly liked, but even the so called good characters made me nuts. You need to be on anti-depressants to read this book. It was so draining to read about their horrible lives day after day. I couldn't wait to finish it to to see if something good would finally happen. I was not happy about the ending. All in all, I'm still kinda angry about the whole thing. On a side note, for anyone who has watched Days of Our Lives, did Waleran totally remind you of Stefano DiMara?

I'm reading Pillars of the Earth

 I'm a huge fan of historical fiction.  Just about any time period will do, although I do love me some Scottish Highlanders.  The book I'm currently reading is called The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.  I'm only about 30 pages in so I don't have much of an opinion on it yet.  I did come highly rated by my husband, who's the biggest reader I know.  He's been wanting me to read this book for years.  I actually did start to read it about 12 years ago.  We were living in England back then, and the book is set in medieval England, so he thought I'd love it.  For some reason I didn't enjoy it at that time, and I stopped reading it.  I rarely ever stop reading a book once I've started.  It's been on the book shelf for years taunting me and I've decided to give it another chance.  It's a pretty long book, so here's hoping I can get through it this time.  I'll keep ya'll posted on what I think.
OK, I know it's been forever since I've posted about reading The Pillars of The Earth, but hey, life happens. Here's my thoughts on it. It took me two tries, but I finally finished this book. The beginning is incredibly slow and boring, but I was told it gets better so I trudged through. By midway I was angry most of the time while reading it. There are several characters who are so incredibly evil and constantly getting away with horrific acts. It was like watching train wrecks and not being able to do anything about it. It would have been better if there were even one character that I truly liked, but even the so called good characters made me nuts. You need to be on anti-depressants to read this book. It was so draining to read about their horrible lives day after day. I couldn't wait to finish it to to see if something good would finally happen. I was not happy about the ending. All in all, I'm still kinda angry about the whole thing. On a side note, for anyone who has watched Days of Our Lives, did Waleran totally remind you of Stefano DiMara?