Customer Reviews

The Heir

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

After his splendid performance of the audio edition of The Ravenscar Dynasty who else to give voice to the second in Bradford's trilogy than British actor and playwright John Lee? His delivery is again impeccable as he successfully brings to life a large cast of characters. His voice is deep with a slight British accent - all the better to read these roles with.

Listeners who have felt withdrawal symptoms without a Bradford saga to lose themselves in have shown they're delighted with the trials and tribulations, maladies and machinations of the Deravenel family. Bradford is deft at plotting stories of multi generational families and The Heir is not an exception as the now 33-year-old Edward Deravenel struggles to hold his company together in the midst of an influenza epidemic, and the plotting of brother George. As if this were not enough, he finds no solace or comfort in the arms of his wife Elizabeth.

While Bradford's storyline is unsurprising, it's pure magic for many.

- Gail Cooke

I loved, loved, loved "The Ravenscar Dynasty", but "The Heir" was a poor sequel. The books starts out strong, reminding the reader why they fell in love with Edward Deravanel. However, it quickly becomes apparent that Ms. Bradford must have been writing for a deadline. The book is full of tragedy, which is not necessarily a bad thing. But, more often that not, the tragedy strikes with little to no set up and even less explanation. The number of characters that die in this book is staggering.

For me the story ended with the main character. However, the book continues into 2 more generations of this family. It seems the author overlooked an opportunity for at least two or three additional books for this family. We love Ms. Bradford for the epic family stories (a la Emma Harte), so it was rather shocking to fly through a generation of this family in just a chapter or two.

Finally, her last character in this story, Harry Turner, does not seem to fit the 1970s. The ideas of his grandfather, Edward Deravanel, were actually more advanced than Harry's over 50 years later. I was relieved when the story finally ended, but horribly disappointed in the journey.

I think that Barbara Taylor Bradford forgot to plan out this story before sat down to write. I normally love her books but this was a big dissapointment. Characters keep dying, some murdered, but there is no resolution and it seems like the remaining characters don't really care to find out what happened. I kept expecting the bad guy to appear and get his just rewards, but it never happened. The story skips huge chunks of time. The characters could be interesting but are never really utilized in any manner. Reread one of the Emma Harte books and save yourself the misery of this one!

***Warning, this review may contain spoilers***

Let me first start out by saying that the Ravenscar books are the first BTB books that I have read - from the other reviews I get a sense that these are not her best. I really only bought the Ravenscar series because I live in a foreign country and this series was one of the few that I could get in English; however I wish I had saved my money. Here's the thing: as a previous reviewer stated, these books (set from 1904-1974 or so in England) are based on the events in the 15th and 16th centuries in British royal history - From Edward IV all the way up to Henry VIII; however this is not "loosely" based or even what I would call a "clever twist" - this is basically stealing the plotlines, changing "kingdom" to "company," altering names (slightly), and fast forwarding a few hundred years (which allows for contemporary political commentary like "I think that Winston Churchill/Margaret Thatcher is really going places"). The Heir tries to tackle the reigns of several kings and deal with one of the more complicated periods in British history, which is why I think there is so much time jumping and dying. Plus I'm sorry, but did anyone else emit an audible groan when "Henry Turner" tried to divorce Catherine (of Spanish blood) to marry "Anne Bowles"??? But really the whole novel was like this, as was the previous book in the series, although at least the Ravenscar Dynasty only spanned 10 years. My advice? Unless you want to try to Play Who's Who in British History (e.g. Neville Watkins = Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick) read Allison Weir or Phillippa Gregory or even William Shakespeare to get a better rendition of these particular historical events.

this books is so cruel with all the early deaths of so many that it is hard to read and then try to sleep at night, got rid of so many that she had to just mention a lot in a one line sentence, so she could get to the rest, and ended it so sad and unnecessary that I don't plan on reading any more of her books. was tragic to small children,I knew early on she was going to get rid of all male boys before grown but did not expect so cruel. and then the heir(bess) had to die real young also, and it just continued

As I said in my review of The Ravenscar Dynasty, I bought this book at the same time and even though I didn't like the first book, I read this one partly because I'd spent money on it and partly just in the hope that it might be an improvement and become a story that I could get intrigued by. It wasn't and didn't. The story jumped around, with big chunks of time being explained away in a few trite sentences and was unsatisfying at best. The last few chapters were nothing short of complete rubbish. It seems BTB may have been writing a book about the Tudors at the same time and somehow she's got some of the pages mixed up. Oh, either that or else she just couldn't think of anywhere else for the (alleged) story to go but she still had a few pages to fill up so she created tall, wonderful, handsome, perfect Edward/Ned's descendant Henry/Harry, who somewhat predictably and yawningly has inherited Edward/Ned's looks but who blatantly morphs into Henry VIII. Seriously. This handsome wonderful-looking bla bla bla etc etc etc man marries a Spanish woman called Catherine, his brother's widow of course, and they have a daughter, Mary. Then he marries Anne Bowles (a little bit like Anne Boleyn only different) and they have a red-haired daughter called Elizabeth (what else?) and then he moves on to Jane Selmere - no, not Seymour, Selmere (by this stage I was feeling really really irritated) and she gives him the long-obsessed-over and almost-despaired-of heir, called, predictably, Edward. (I was surprised that Jane didn't die of childbed fever a few days after the birth). All of this nonsense was squished into a few hurried pages at the end of the book. And there the story ends for now. Thank goodness. I'm inclined to think that the original manuscript may have been written on toilet paper and should have been used accordingly.

I have read most of her books but this is by far the worst. Two hundred pages into the book there is no clear plot line and so many confusing charachters. It is a waste of time and money to buy or read this book.

Some spoilers in here!

Has anyone else noticed that this is a retelling of the story of Richard III, Henry Tudor, etc.? The two little boys (the "Princes") disappeared without a trace; Edward's brother is mysteriously killed, etc. And after Henry Turner becomes the protagonist, the parallels are clear. A Spanish wife named Katherine. A mistress named Anne Bowles. A red-haired daughter named Elizabeth. He marries Anne Bowles, and her head is severed. The next mistress is Jane Selmore. I can almost promise you the next book will be about red-haired Elizabeth running the company.

The first book was okay, but this book was astounding with regard to the number of characters who died and the chunks of time that passed with little description. Just as you think you're settling in to read about Bess, she dies in childbirth and the story switches to her son! And there are too damned many characters to keep track of. I'm assuming BTB plans to leave the fates of the little boys and the identity of George's killer a mystery, but she should rethink this--it would annoy the reader.

Let me start by saying I normally love this author, however, omg what a waste of time. First off there are so many unsolved murders in this book that it should run red! 2nd before you even start to care about a character they are dead, no follow up, no attempt to solve the mystery, no one mourns for more than a few sentences. The first part of the book was o.k., the 2nd half forget. It jumped from decade to decade, you never got a chance to get into the plot line because there is not one. People come into the picture, get killed, someone new comes in, your in a new decade and are left thinking, why did you even start to read this.

Barbara Taylor Bradford has a reputation for being a popular novelist. I had not read her books and was really looking forward to The Heir. I was very disappointed. Although Ms. Bradford painted a picture of opulent settings and wonderful characters, she left me hanging with tons of unfinished business.

The book tells of the Deravenels, a wealthy family with a global enterprise that handles everything from wine to oil. Edward Deravenel heads the company and brothers George and Richard also have positions.

The novel begins in 1918 just as the Great War has ended. Edward is an excellent manager and wants to grow the company even more. George is the jealous brother who spends his time womanizing and drinking, and has all sorts of gambling problems. Brother

Richard is more sensible and seems to show more allegiance to his brother, but has some weaknesses, too. Edward is very concerned about who will inherit the control of the company and spends much of his time trying to avert other members of the family from taking over when the time comes.

Several times during the 470-page novel I was lead to believe that some terrible thing was about to happen to the main character, Edward Deravenel. Warnings were at the end of several chapters, but in the next chapter, nothing happened and I started getting irritated.

All signs pointed to brother George doing something awful and trying to take over the company, but instead George is found dead. Later in the story Edward dies of natural causes, and I was disappointed not to discover what really happened to George.

The book just skipped ahead to the third brother Richard who takes over Deravenels. Richard was supposed to keep things in order until Edwards's son is old enough to inherit the company. Richard starts making major changes and suddenly Edward's two young sons are missing, a mystery that was never solved.

From about this point in the book each chapter skipped ahead several years-and I totally lost interest.

The book would have been better if it answered what happened to George and who took the boys?

Armchair Interview says: This book tried to cover such a long time frame.