Customer Reviews

Silk (Heart of India Series #1)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I picked up Silk at the library a while ago and I am so glad I did! Linda Chaikin writes in exciting, refreshing style and her plots are very well thought-out. Coral Kendall, an English silk heiress born and raised in India, adopts a young native boy, an "untouchable"... a child of the lowest caste of India. When he is kidnapped, she must seek the aid of her brother's friend, Captain Jace Buckley. They're still in the middle of an adventure at the end and so you have to go out and get the next book. The series is like one huge book actually. In some series, each novel could stand on its own and each book is a separate adventure. Linda Chaikin's series are like really long stories...that are thrilling and fun. There's hardly any boring, "skim-through-the-pages" parts, which is a plus. All in all, I loved it!

What can I say? This book is great! Linda Chaikin takes us to 1700s British India to a silk plantation of a wealthy British family: The Kendalls. Coral Kendall is one of the daughters of the plantation's owner: Hampton Kendall. Coral Kendall adopts a Hindu child, an untouchable, against the wishes of her uncle and the dashing, handsome officer Jace Buckley. A terrifying incident results in the kidnapping of Gem and the child's body that was found in the river. Coral is certain that the child that was found in the river is not Gem and she's determined to find him and bring him home. The book gets kind of slow towards the middle but you must read on!!! Romance, intrigue, danger surrounds everyone in the book. I believe this is one Linda Chaikin's best works!

This is a wonderful, exciting series full of romance, suspense, and adventure. Linda Chaikin's creative talent still surprises me, and I loved the story of Coral, Jace, and Gem. I finished the book in two sittings...I couldn't put it down! The book is far from perfect, however, and you can tell that this series came near the beginning of Linda Chaikin's writing career. Her formula of mystery and suspense with accurate historical facts is perfected with her Egypt series ("Arabian Winds", "Lions of the Desert", and "Valiant Hearts"). Her "Heart of India" series has many plot-holes, and the story can become too confusing at times. It's hard to remember all of the names, and I found myself looking back through the book, trying to remember which character is good and which character is evil.

The second book, "Under Eastern Stars", is my favorite in this series, so if you're slightly disappointed in "Silk", read on. It gets better (in my opinion). I would definitely recommend this series to any fans of Christian fiction, romance, mystery, and historical fiction.

This book is a wonderful, wonderful read. I simply could not put it down, and it ranked up there under my top 5. I simply can NOT wait to purchase the next two books in the series and begin devouring them as well!

Chaikin is my favorite author, and this is definitely one of my favorite books. Yes, it may not have a conclusion, but that makes it all the more enjoyable! This book is a must-read for any Christian romance lover. I totally recommend it!

I loved this series so much I want to read more about these characters. The only reason i give it four stars and not five is that they stopped short of fulfilling my desire for knowing what happened to the characters. I loved this book and those that follow it. Chaikin did an excelent job of bringing the story and its characters to life. I laughed, I cried, I was on the edge of my seat, and I loved. What more could you ask for?

This book was very well written. I love how the author incorporated the family in England in it! I also enjoyed how she portrayed The guy (JACE) in the story. I like his character, I also liked the girls character too. I reccomend to everyone to read this book. If you like history, intrigue romance. You'll love this book

Over all I thought Silk interesting, well written, and exotically intriguing. But unfortunately disappointing. The book does not resolve anything at the end. One must go and buy the next book to find out anything. Despite this however, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading book number two.

Well, this was a painful book to read. Inaccurate,slow, predictable, and preachy, I have no interest in reading the second, let alone the third, book in the series. The entire concept of a young, British woman in 1793 Bengal adopting an Untouchable boy seems ridiculous and casts a gloom over the whole book. I would be interested to see how Coral fares when the academia shifts, in the early 19th century, from Orientalism, and a focus on the connection between Indian and English culture, to Anglicism, where British culture is superior and Indian culture not worth spending academic time on, and her quest to learn Hindi is shot down by those who feel women shouldn't learn and those who feel Hindi is not a valuable language to learn. Hindi, incidentally, is spoken by a minority in Bengal, and apparently Jemani learned it whilst in Rajastan. Most natives in the area speak Bengali. I found the idea of Kathleen becoming a gown designer preposterous, particularly in such a high-class, wealthy family, as well as the grandmother's support of her granddaughter's "career". Additionally, Chaikin fudged on some historical detail, throwing out names like Macaulay and Cowper to try and give the novel an overall sense of accuracy. However, she misplaces Rajputs, claiming they are one of the four main castes. They are not. The four Varna are brahmins, ksatriyas, vaishyas, and sudras -- Untouchables (or Dalits, as they prefer to be called nowadays) are beyond the pale. Rajputs are a jati, which fits inside the warrior caste of ksatriyas. Also, the maharaja Michael and Jace were going to buy their land from was most likely a figurehead, and the British are the real ones running the government. Aside from the glaring historical inaccuracies and the preachiness of many of the passages (which, upon picking up the book I expected and knew about before reading it), the book failed to hold my attention, made me long for the Mahabharata or the Ramayana instead, and worried me that those who read it will get strange and incorrect ideas about early colonial India, like the absurd notion of throwing children to crocodiles or the incredibly large amount of Hindus in mainly Muslim Bengal (now modern-day Bangladesh, where Muslims constitute almost 90% of the population). Maybe in addition to this book, they should pick up a nice, peer-reviewed history of India from 1500 to 1947. I suggest Metcalf and Metcalf's "A Concise History of Modern India," available in any Barnes & Noble or Borders, as well as online on Amazon.com.

Coral and Jace are great charactors. I've read most of Linda's books and this is a very good book. Linda is my favourite author! Way to go Linda!