Customer Reviews

The Dream Maker

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If the major point of this book was: it wasn't fun to be a woman in this timeframe, then that point was made clear!

Unfortunately the main character, had a dreary life, family, and love.

The father is clinically depressed, the mother is a nag, the sister is self-centered and migrates to wacko, the Grandparents are cold and uncaring.

The friends are a kind prostitute and weird tinkerer.

The love of her life doesn't have the guts to even pursue her and then marries the sister. When she marries an adventurer who turns out to be an abusive sicko, I was wondering good grief, can it get any worse? Oh yes, it can. A trip to a remote region, total isolation and despair, then finally the love interest helps when all is almost lost. But the moments of bliss are brief and our heroine is dumped and alone again. But don't worry her love finally comes back.

I didn't like the main character. Why was she relentlessly determined when only faced with the bad that life had to offer? I don't know, but maybe I'd have cared about the character and what happened to her if I'd had more insight.

This book is the best book I've ever read. I love the Author's work, and I would tell anyone to read it. Although some aspects of the fiction are complex (may account for the previous critic's dislike), it all adds to the novel. Buy this. Read this. I promise you'll enjoy it.
McLeay's family must be the luckiest around.

In 1638, John Tradescant travels from England to Virginia in search of exotic plants that might successfully grow in the royal gardens. The Jamestown colony magistrate Mr. Joseph reluctantly arranges for an Indian child to serve as John's guide for the next month since the child's mother is serving that much prison time for slander. At the end of the month, John meets his guide's mother and finally learns the name of his escort is Suckahanna and she is member of the Powhatan tribe. Before leaving for England with his treasures, John vows to return to live and protect Suckahanna and her mother.

John returns home to find his father, the royal gardener died during his trip overseas. His father left him a note asking John to marry Hester Pooks to help raise his two children from a previous marriage. Leaving his family behind, John flees England for Virginia when war civil war seems eminent. He sets up a plantation in Virginia that survives only because Suckahanna and her people help him. History repeats itself, as war seems imminent between the Powhatan and the Virginia colonists.

VIRGIN EARTH is a brilliant historical fiction that makes the personal and national conflicts of seventeenth century England and the Virginia Colony seem real. The story line centers on John's simple desires to garden turning to inner turmoil due external forces pulling at him from varying sides. Suckahanna and her mother are genuine players critical to the plot. The colonists and John's English family adds to the lead character's dilemmas. Philippa Gregory provides readers with an exciting tale that sub- genre fans and Anglo-American history buffs will fully enjoy.

Harriet Klausner