Customer Reviews

The Rose Labyrinth [Library Binding]

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I put this book on my Christmas list, because I saw it in the bookstore and was intrigued by the beautiful cover (yes, I admit I sometimes judge books by their cover) and the synopsis on the back. It sounded right up my alley - a little psychological suspense, historical interest, a mystery, a little romance, and to top it off, something a little mystical or mythical about it.

It started out well, and was an intelligent and intriguing read. But halfway through I started to lose interest. The plot began to be bogged down with tons of arcane information, there was sometimes marginal reference to some of the puzzles (which I only realized were reproduced in the back of the softcover version when I went online to see if I could find them) and the suspenseful element completely broke down. I only read the whole thing because my young daughter had bought it for me with her allowance -- had it been a library book, I would have given up, because it began to be more work than seemed worthwhile.

I am normally very good at suspending disbelief but I came away not understanding how the puzzle makers in the 16th century were able to create puzzles about events in the 20th century, how numerology and the number 34 really fit into the puzzles and the plot, why Lucy herself and her childhood and birth date were apparently crucial to the resolution of a story that did not directly involve her family (except for the somewhat tangential heart transplant) etc. (I have university degrees, am well read, and reasonably intelligent, and I love books that are smartly written and sophisticated, yet I came away from this book feeling really dumb -- or else it was geared only toward gifted intellectuals and lovers of the arcane and esoteric). Many facets of the plot seemed to go nowhere in the end.

I was disappointed because I did catch glimpses now and then of how the book could have been a really good one. There are a lot of so-called bestsellers out there by authors who don't know how to construct a proper sentence and who write dumb fiction. I am rooting for Ms. Hardie and hoping that she learns from her mistakes and manages to write a much more pared down and plot-driven book with better-developed characters who manage to hold the reader's interest and keep him/her awake at night to finish another chapter.

From the moment I picked up this book, I just knew it was going to be an amazing read. It truly is a love story of great poetic brilliance. Enchanting from the outset, I always had a strong suspicion that Lucy, with her heart transplant, would be the key to a world of enticing mysteries.

Finding it hard to put down, I raced through the pages of the Rose Labyrinth absolutely enticed by this amazing story of love and romance. Indeed, I do admit that some parts were quite dense, but the force of this book towards a deeper revelation kept me enticed throughout.

This book itself is presented ever so beautifully: a hard back cover with puzzle pieces to unravel, the Rose Labyrinth is presented just as well as it is written. However, this book may not be for all - especially those who have aversions about questioning our beliefs and re-incarnations - but it is definitely intriguing.

The author presents such a wide range of knowledge about Shakespeare and indeed the Elizabethan era that sometimes I felt like I was on a history tour. Titania is able to incorporate these all important facts into a modern London setting that everyone can recognize with ease.

This book will challenge you, but it will provide you with a delightful sense of pleasure. A must read for anyone looking to stimulate their minds while getting lost in a truly romantic love story.

*spoiler alert, btw*

I wanted so badly to like this book, I really did. I read it all the way through, got to the end, and was happy it was over.

The only likable character in the entire book is killed off in the third chapter - always a good sign. The main female is supposed to be a strong willed woman who's been given a second chance at life, but instead is a whiny, crying brat who puts herself into danger for the purposes of tension. The main male is supposed to be a stoic man with a loving interior, but instead comes off as creepy protective and possessive. The main 'villain' is propped up as some horribly EVIL man, despicable, insane, and deadly. He kidnaps the main female, offers her tea and biscuits, and lets her go in the morning - he even forgets to make any clear demands. The four main protagonists are supposed to be laymen, yet they all suddenly become experts in history, and all talk with the same unrealistic, non relevant tone about information that you'll never retain, and don't need to since it has nothing to do with the plot.

This book tries so hard to have The Da Vinci Code's gripping writing, and fails in every way. The characters are given riddles that you never see. They solve them, but you're rarely told why. They use the solutions in their decisions, but you're barely ever told why it's significant. You're taken to many historical settings, which are in reality beautiful and mysterious, though they're nothing but skimmed over plot devices barely worth a description beyond 'It a church and it has windows'.

'Flashbacks' in history are supposed to be mystical and meaningful, but really come across as smarmy, enigmatic, and pointless.

Ending tried so hard to be a Disney fairytale and all it ended up being was me thinking 'Uh... you guys... haven't... actually solved the plot.... you know that, right?'

What a mess! Other than the fact that the Hardback edition looks beautiful, there's not a positive thing I can say about The Rose Labyrinth. Well, maybe that the title has a nice ring to it, but thats the only other thing I can think of.

Considering it's a fairly lengthy novel, those are the only 2 good things I can come up with so that should tell you volumes.

It's not a good book. It made me cringe, it made me wince, it made me yawn, it made me rue the day I'd spent good money on it..... but not once did it make me want to find out where things were headed for the characters or the story. I didn't like it, I didn't care about what happened, I didn't believe in any of it and I definitely wouldn't recommend it.

Ms Hardie has thrown everything she can think of at the pages of this story and it has resulted in a a jumbled mess of facts and figures designed to illustrate how clever the authoress thinks she is.

Reading through the reviews here, I'm not alone in thinking that this is self-indulgence at it's worst....other than the (very obvious) friends and family reviews of course.

It's dire. I'm sorry, but it really is.

This book is an out an out joy to read. A love story with more than a little twist (you need to read it to understand!) this is an intelligent book that will stimulate, educate and at times make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up as the medieval mystery unfolds and reveals that the issue of religious tolerance is just as relevant today as it was in the time of Queen Elizabeth the first. Hardie has scored with this, her first novel and I cannot recommend it more highly.

I finally finished this book. It took a while because I kept debating on if it was even worth my time. I am a huge fan of historical fiction and this gave a few details that intrigued me. That is just about the only positive point I can find. I was extremely turned off by the anti-Christian preaching throughout the book. The author should actually study Christianity and its beliefs. She makes the assumption that all Christians are radical extremists.
Like others, the one character I found interesting was killed off early. I didn't even care that Lucy was kidnapped. I knew I was supposed to feel anxiety about it, but nothing came. All of the characters fell flat.
Overall I would not recommend this book.

Being a fan of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons I eagerly purchased The Rose Labyrinth and settled down for what I hoped would be a great read. However, the overwhelming detail -- though informative in its own way -- managed to smother the plot development. Reading was a laborous task and at several points I almost gave up the attempt to finish it. Perhaps I am too impatient a reader, or maybe I was just having difficulty following Hardie's detailed background info, but I was reminded of the advice included in many books on writing: the plot should drive the story. Though the subject matter intrigues me, I felt Hardie's knowledge and wanting to include so much of it in her novel caused her to lose sight of the plot far too often.

"The Rose Labyrinth" by Titania Hardie creates a veritable maze of information revolving around John Dee, Elizabeth I's spiritual advisor and his present day heirs who scramble to discover his secrets before a group of evangelical Christians grab the hidden cache for their own devises. Although Hardie succeeds on a romantic level, bringing together two literally star-crossed lovers that spout poetry and other esoteric stuff of dreams, she fails to provide a satisfying solution to the multitude of riddles and hermetic quandaries posed to reader via her team of treasure seekers.

The romance between Lucy King and Alex Stafford works with an intelligent adult subtlety that in many ways is reminiscent of the love relationship in Barbara Taylor Bradford's "Voice of the Heart." The development of their attachment to one another over the duration of the book entertains as well as underlines the inner thinking that all participants in relationships fully understand but perhaps have not categorized and described with Hardie's exquisite nuance.

However, the novel attempts to present one of those age-old mysteries that circles around some olden day society either practicing the occult or dabbling in the alchemical arts while they meet clandestinely to avoid inquisition by a Church with its own motives of sole-propriety and self-protectiveness. The riddles created for John Dee and unearthed by Lucy and Alex are spoken of ad nauseum. There is much ado and discussion brought forth by all members of the King/Stafford entourage--each of the characters has an unwieldy amount of knowledge at his fingertips that must have taken Ms Hardie years and years of research. Much of the dialogue between the players waxes intelligent with regard to all manner of obscure factoids, much of which were lost on this reviewer simply because I was never able to read the original riddle. (I wonder if this was intentional or if because I read an advance reading copy, I did not receive the entire package complete with the facsimile Dee parchments.) Either way, much of the riddle-solving discussions meant nothing to me. The final denouement came as an anticlimactic `huh?' rather than a sated `sigh' of pleasure.

The overall premise of the villains of this piece as a bellicose set of Evangelical Christians that want to utilize the Dee discoveries as an instrument that will enable them to communicate celestially seems incredible and unrealistic. With all of her wonderfully intellectual insights weaving a credible knighthood of famous Elizabethans, her focus on these adversaries almost seems wasted. The love story and tale of the riddles would have sufficed to produce a novel of great enjoyment.

Bottom line? `The Rose Labyrinth' tries hard to capture its audience early on by becoming another offering in the The Da Vinci Code cottage industry of conspiracy-theory-centric plotlines. Does it work? This aspect of the novel does not--it becomes encumbered with too much discussion over riddles that are not even clearly defined. Nevertheless, the romance between the main characters, Dr Alex Stafford and his heart transplant patient, Lucy King, along with author Hardie's wonderfully illustrative descriptions of place, makes the novel at least halfway worthwhile. Sadly, `The Rose Labyrinth' starts off with a bang but then suffocates itself with much too much information transmutes to be recommended.
Diana Faillace Von Behren
"reneofc"

I started out really liking this book. The writing was poetically descriptive and made me feel like I was visiting the English and French countryside where it's set. I was prompted to look up the labyrinth and rose windows at the Chartres Cathedral and was intrigued by the mystery the author was setting up. I also thought she did a great job making the first few main characters come to life, and I was absolutely shocked by a major plot twist only 60 pages into the book which kept my curiosity high.

Then the author finally revealed the antagonist, which was a group of murderous nutjob Christian fundamentalists. I had no problem with this because -- let's face it -- there are whackjobs in every group, including this one (the Tinky Winkly debaucle springs quickly to mind). Unfortunately, the author didn't leave it at that. Instead, she seemed intent on demonizing all Christian fundamentalists and having the main characters wax philosophical on and on (and on and on and on!) about it. At first, I decided to ignore it and try to enjoy the rest of the story, but it just got to be too much after a while.

By grouping the evil so-called Christians with all Christians, the author showed just how little she understands their beliefs. A true Christian fundamentalist would never seek out a mystic's 400-year-old writings to learn how to talk with angels and thus understand the mind of God.

Another problem with the author getting on her soapbox against Christians and Christianity is that it really wrecked the flow of the story. I found myself trudging through paragraph after paragraph of awkward exposition on the subject rather than being able to relate to how the characters were actually feeling about their situations. They started feeling flat, and I found I couldn't much relate to Simon or Grace. The second half of the book didn't live up to the promise of the first half.

One diatribe (by Simon) starts on the bottom of page 212 and doesn't finish until the top of 214. This continues throughout the remainder of the book, stopping the story at places to explain how Christian fundamentalism is a widespread conspiracy through the upper eschalons of education, politics and industry. Ms. Hardie even makes villains of the Left Behind series and President Bush in more than one place in the book, as if she is truly horrified that anyone can believe what she refers to as the Rapture philosophy. Her main characters complain more than once that Christians are intolerant, which I found a bit ironic.

This is definitely not a book for fundamentalist Christians. If you can ignore the diatribes and plod through the speeches, however, you might be able to enjoy it.

This debut novel shows promise aplenty, but somehow it never quite lived up to its advance billing. Why? For me there were a number of minuses:

1. The star of this show is esotericism. And as a subplot that's great, but as the main character, it's not enough. It arouses intellectual curiosity but never fully engages the emotions like happens in a first-rate novel. I found it easy to put this novel down.

2. The human characters were mostly flat. The most engaging character in the book, the one that actually captured my imagination, died early on in the story. From then on, I was never caught up in the characters' problems, never felt their fear or passion, never felt the terror of impending doom.

3. The puzzle parts of the book were intriguing, but, in my mind, drew the reader away from rather than toward the story line. In fact, I began to feel that they were a gimmick designed to capture the reader rather than an essential part of the story.

From these complaints, you might assume that I consider this a poor novel -- not so! It's a good first effort, based on a wealth of research. And that may be its downfall for me: Research should be seamless in a great story rather than quite so obvious.

A good but not great first effort in the historical romance niche. Three stars.