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24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
*SIGH*, June 4, 2009
Okay, I finally finished this book - but it took me 4 weeks. As an avid reader, I can easily read a riveting book within a few days. However, this book is slow and plodding. Yet I did have high expectations since I enjoyed the author's previous book, The Expected One.
The majority of the book is about Matilda of Tuscany rather than the heroine from the prior book (Maureen.) For me, TEO promised to delve into the alleged Cathar's "Book of Love" and its contents in this second book of the trilogy. Unfortunately, very little further information is revealed on that 'lost' book. Maureen supposedly finds the book which she cannot translate due to its undecipherable language. Then she magically absorbs light from it, and it glows, and she is able to understand the contents. Weird, huh? Yet we still don't learn what the BoL contained since it's never really explained.
Other than that silliness, it was difficult to keep up with all of the flashbacks. The reader has to contantly flip back-and-forth to try to keep track of characters, time-frames and events. For me, this is just too much work since I want entertainment from a good novel! It just got too exasperating and was a very fragmented read.
I honestly could not recommend this book to anyone unless they are suffering from insomnia- this book is the perfect remedy. I'm generously giving it a 2-star since I can tell that the author worked diligently on her new novel. But overall, it reads like a cheap modern romance - not a historical novel but instead a modern story set in medieval times. If you're looking for an experience of medieval immersion, get another book. However, if you're looking for a 21st century "emotion-fest" set in 12th century clothes, this book is for you.
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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fearless and Uncompromising, March 5, 2009
I was floored by this novel.
At a time when so much of what I read is grave and bleak and hopeless (the Dow dropped below 7000 today,) Kathleen McGowan has managed to lift my heart and spirit to a new and enlightened place. As epic as this book is in its breadth, there is something about it that feels so personal - as though the author were whispering an enormous secret right in my ear.
And did I say epic?
Here are just a few of the fascinating concepts/topics McGowan tackles in this novel:
Matilda of Tuscany
Pope Gregory VII
The Song of Songs
Solomon and Sheba
Hieros-Gamos
The Libro Rosso
The Order of the Holy Sepulcher
DEMORI
The Unicorn Tapestries
Ariadne and Theseus and the Labyrinth
The Pater Noster
The Volto Santo
...and even Good King Wenceslaus!
(As you can imagine, I did a lot of Google-ing along the way - so fun!)
In addition, as an avid traveler, I enjoyed all the exotic locations in the book such as Orval, San Benedetto Po, Lucca, Galamus and the beloved Chartres Cathedral to name but a few. Plus, as a lifelong student of art and architecture, I loved all the references to the works of Lippi, Bernini, Brunelleschi, Ribera among Salvador Dali and many others.
All at once, The Book of Love is a secret adventure through history and a deeply moving love story that spans the centuries. Seriously, I can't remember when reading one novel has inspired me more. Inspired me to read more, investigate more and travel more.
Ultimately, there are lessons in this book that are fresh and profoundly relevant to our world today. Kudos Ms. McGowan, I can't wait for The Source of Miracles and The Poet Prince.
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15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Low Three Stars, April 2, 2009
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
I really enjoy reading books about conspiracy stories and alternate histories and about the Marys in Jesus' life. This looked like it would be a good combination of the three. I fully expected to enjoy this book.
The story itself was interesting. The plot was interesting. The story about the women in history; such as Matilda de Canossa, was interesting. In fact it was fascinating and left me wanting to learn more.
Here were some of the things that I think needed to be shared with others reading this book.
1. It is not a fast moving novel. It moves fairly slow. IF you have read DaVinci Code (Dan Brown); while this book is marketed and seems like it will be similar to that- it is not. This is a fairly slow moving book with much less drama. Even the climatic point of the novel seemed to be somewhat flat.
2. The book was overly melodramatic at times. This was the biggest problem I had with this book. Other reviewers have used the word cheesy. I think it is an apt discription of some of the dream sequences.
3. The other big problem I had with this book was the phrase that is repeated over and over again. Almost every third or fourth page is the phrase 'for those with ears to hear..' For me it became this hammer that kept hitting away and saying 'you don't get it because you don't have ears to hear', if you really read it, really understood this book, really believed, you would hear the truth. It became very old very quickly.
I have rated as high as I have because despite the three problems I had with this book- it is an overall interesting read with a fascinating concept behind it. It was not a complete waste of time to read this book. I simply believe it could be better written without the overly melodramatic language and the push through repitition to force you to believe, as this author does, that this is truth embodied in fiction.
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