This is yet another book that I've had on my bookshelf for quite sometime. Sometimes picking it up, only to abandon it again for other books that caught my interest. It's a serious shame that I didn't give this a full chance.

The Beginning - This story starts off with a young woman named Gilly who lives in the a broken down hut with two old wise woman. The story telling is wonderfully told, and it's not hard to imagine the three woman picking through the dead bodies on the battlefield. Soon, Gilly begins to ask the two woman when they will kill Him (Macbeth). I am worried at this point that I have never read any Shakespeare other than the required reading of Romeo and Juliet in High School. Hopefully I will be able to follow along, as this book is written about the three witches that foretell the downfall of the great Macbeth.

The Middle - Even though this story uses slightly different English and phrases used today it isn't hard at all to follow along. Speaking of phrases, there are a few that Gilly repeats over and over again. I'm a little tired of reading it. The author has done a good job with the characters, they are likable and easily imagined, but sometimes it's hard to take Gilly's "always have to be tough attitude." I also wish I knew more of Macbeth and why Gilly hates him. I don't know if it apart of Shakespeare's play or not.

Ending Review

Beginning

Started out eerily enough. Man spies another man out in the front yard with a rifle, what else is there to do but go chase him through the woods in the middle of the night? I think it's needless to say that the man doing the chasing (DV) ends up dying, but not in the way you would have guessed it. Now his assistant (Lucy) has to fly over to Italy and start the process of going through the dead man's belongings.

Middle

*Sigh* With over forty pages of the main character being ill and lying in bed, it's enough to make you want to hurl, hurl the damn book across the room. Really, it's nothing more than endless chapters filled with the phrases "and she awoke" and "she still didn't feel well", oh and "just when she thought her stomach could hold the liquid down". Give me a break.

Finally when Lucy does feel well she immediately starts a fling with a married Italian (Massimo - who will now be known as Mass) who has been caring for her. Now the reader is meant with the challenge of figuring out if she is in love with him, or is really just having a good old romp in the hay. Good luck figuring it out though, because in one paragraph she is watching his every move, acting on every word he says; and in the next chapter she is commenting on how she will leave him soon to return home.

At this point you will also start noting sudden jumps in the story. In one chapter, Lucy and Mass are eating dinner with the local family and suddenly out of nowhere Lucy is reading the next few pages in DV manuscript. Hopefully the end will be better.

End

And it wasn't. I wish Martin would have chose a side. Is this going to be a Gothic Mystery, or a Romance? Or a unique blend of both, which is certainly doable, but Martin failed to do it. It remained a Romance with barely a hint of what the book started off as, and continued right up until the last 40 pages, where it clicked back into Mystery mode and although these last pages were written beautifully, with enough suspense that it literally gave me goosebumps, it was still too little too late.

Linkage

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Lamb is a story about the first 30 years of Jesus's life, told by his best friend Biff (aka Levi). It is a beautifully written story that I'm really upset to be finished with. I honestly debated about reading the book again for the second time after just having finished it.

Biff is brought back from the dead to write another gospel, so the book is interlaced mostly with the story of his time and travels with Jesus, but also with his time with an angel in the present. Some of this time with Jesus includes travels towards the east looking for the three wise men who visited Jesus on the day of his birth.

Biff is an incredible character whose voice is hard to erase from your head. And Jesus is of course what should be expected, but add a smart ass best friend who will help bring some lightness to his character.

Let me state that you do not to be Christian or even have a religion in order to read this book, although if you know some of the bible, you'll begin to recognize bits of it towards the end. Of course this story has little to no truth in it, but I think everyone could get something out of it.

I just may become one of those crazy fangirls now ;-)

Linkage

My take:

It was a little slow to get into, but in the end it was worth finishing. The Egyptologist is among one of my favorites. There was so much description that it was hard not to imagine the scenery unfolding.

Book Description:
Suze Wilding and Lloyd Rockwell are complete strangers. She lives in London; he lives in New York. But when their advertising firm sponsors a job swap, having them trade apartments and jobs for the summer, they find themselves living each other’s lives.

From the beginning, these two seem polar opposites—Suze is impetuous, brash, and commitment phobic, whereas Lloyd, cautious and thoughtful, is looking to settle down with his suitable girlfriend. But when Suze discovers a plot at work to get Lloyd fired, the two begin communicating long-distance, and can’t help wondering if they might just be perfect for one another.

My take:

This book was horrible at first, I forced my way through it. It does pick up, but it's mediocre at best.

Book Description:

In September 1863 Jacob Grimm travels through rural western Germany with his devoted niece, Auguste-- who longs to learn, at last, the truth about her family-- and Kummel, their new and enigmatic manservant. As relations between the three reach the boiling point, Jacob's traumas and heartbreaks here in his original homeland are revealed in vivid flashbacks. Now, old, Jacob resists Auguste's attempts to make him take stock of his life, but memories that are repressed have a tendency to reappear in other places and in other guises.

Throughout Jacob's travels, he is reminded of the folk tales he and his brother Wilhelm collected in their Tales for the Young and Old. Although the brothers were renowned language scholars and passionate supporters of German unification, they were haunted throughout their lives by the Tales. Most notable is the feverish fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty, which holds a shattered mirror to a life, a country, and a history. The Sleeping Beauty recounted here is neither the Disney version nor even the Grimms' version, but an enchanting tale that goes beyond the marriage of the prince and princess to reveal the surprising truth behind the evil spell.

In his compelling historical novel, Haydn Middleton re-creates the life story of literature's most famous brothers. It is a history that could almost be a fairy tale itself, with its fabulous changes of fortune, tests of duty and honor, arrogant princes, lost loves, and twisted family relationships-- all unfolding in a world of dark forests and even darker politics.

My take:

I've had this book on my bookshelf for over three years, and finally picked it up to read. What an amazing story, it's a shame I waited so long.