Customer Reviews

Three Women

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This was a fascinating book, one that I have reread many times. In the three stories you can see the personal growth and writing ability of the author evolve. The first story deals with the WWII era and the heroine is a plucky, independent (but careful not to be too independent) young woman. The story reflects the situation of women of the time - marry and raise a family, no career. The second story, written I would guess in 70's, involves a woman with a career, who ends up with a guy who's going to be head of the family and major decision-maker with her as handy dandy, qualified helper-but-not-quite-equal partner. The 3rd story (written in late 70's or early 80's I would guess)is of a emotionally-abused wife, now divorced, with 2 teenagers, who goes to Ireland. She's more independent than the 1st two and becomes more independent still in Ireland but still able to make the story into a romantic novel (with a real plot I must add!). If you find it, buy it and send! ! me another copy too! Linda Zoldoske

Three Women is three separate stories written by Anne McCaffrey quite a while ago. All three of the stories are markedly different, but all are very well written and quite engaging.

Ring of Fear is about Nialla Dunn, a young woman who has been on the run ever since she found her horse-trainer father murdered and she was raped by her father's ex-employer. She has disguised her looks and stays on the move by traveling from horse show to horse show to compete. Her only friends are her two horses Orfeo and Phi Bete and her cat Dice. Falling in love with handsome, mysterious Rafe Clery is the last thing she has planned...

The Mark of Merlin takes place during World War II and is the story of Carla and her big german shepherd, Merlin. James Carlylse "Carla" Murdock threw herself into her studies when she received the news of her father's death in combat. When she fell desperately ill, she was sent off to stay with her guardian, Major Laird, whom she had never met. Unfortunately, Major Laird had no idea that "James" was a girl. He also had no idea about how stubborn she was and how vengeful she would be when she discovered that her father was murdered in Europe...

The Kilternan Legacy is the story of Irene "Rene" Teasey, a recent divorcee with two hilarious twins, Snow and Simon. Rene is ready for a change when she hears that she inherited some property from an unknown great aunt in Ireland. Little does Rene know that she is going to have a major battle on her hands as real estate agents, sleazy land developers and her own family battle it out for her new property. Rene feels that she can deal with this, but she cannot understand why her great aunt hated Shay Kerrigan because she is beginning to fall in love with him...

Of the three stories, I enjoyed Ring of Fear the most and feel that this one is worth buying the book for. I also enjoyed the Kilternan Legacy, although there isn't really a lot of romance in that story, per se. I didn't care for The Mark of Merlin, but it was okay. All three stories are well written and have nicely developed characters and a clear plot. None of the stories are very long and they are all currently available in reprint editions, but you have to buy them separately, which gets to be pretty expensive. If you keep watch for a little while, you should be able to find a used copy of Three Women that isn't too expensive and this book is worth your time, especially if you have enjoyed any other McCaffrey books!

I, like many, am a huge Anne McCaffrey fan. I've read almost every book she's ever written. Thinking this was a new book, I checked this out here on Amazon.com. Reading through the other reviews, I realized that this is an omnibus of three novels Anne has recently re-released.

Ring of Fear is a mystery, romance, and horse story about a young woman in the horse show business. Various catastrophes throughout the book all link back to her father's murder, which changed her life forever. She meets up with Rafe Cleary, who helps her to deal with all her problems, and plenty more happens before the book is done.

The Mark of Merlin is about a college student during WWII whose father (a colonel) was killed in questionable circumstances. Her father's will appoints Major Regan Laird her guardian, but Carla is eighteen years old and wonders why her father appointed the twenty-something and very aggravating Regan her guardian. Together with her dog Merlin, various army friends of her father's, and the Major, Carla has to puzzle out the mystery of her father's death and break a war-time crime ring.

The Kilternan Legacy is the only one of the three I haven't read (yet), but from the various summaries I saw it's about a recently divorced woman who moves to Ireland and finds love.

Anyway, you can find all of these novels separately on Amazon.com, so without having to go through the misery of finding a used copy of this, you can get everything that's included separately. Happy reading, McCaffrey gurus.

Three women, three gentle stories, filled with personal memories of times before most of us were born. A story about horses and drugs before drugs were all-pervasive leads to in improbable romance between a young woman and a short guy! World War II and a great dog and young woman with a man's name come together with a recuperating veteran and stolen art works. A divorcee goes to Ireland for her inheritance and falls in love with the land and an Irishman while her two children become acclimated to a different sort of life. This must have come from the author's observations--the places are real, the people may be. Throughout them all, Anne McCaffrey enchants the reader--without dragons, without Pern, without telepathy. These were written from her heart.

Something about these stories has brought me back to this collection time and time again. Rafe and Nialla's story caught my eye when I read through the book in the library, and I immediately went out and purchased a copy! All three stories reflect this talented writer's development, and focus on times and places that are currently beyond our reach. These are tender, enthralling tales, and show that Ms. McCaffrey does not need fantasy worlds in order to spin a great tale!

I read this book many years ago in university and thoroughly enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced it as I would love to become familiar with these characters again, but am unwilling to pay the exorbitant prices that are being asked for these books.

I have always enjoyed Anne McCaffrey's science fiction, but she is as talented at writing regular fiction as she is with science fiction.

Three Women is one of my favourite books. A book that I can read again and again. These stories of three women each of their time gets to you. You are there and you feel you know them, you understand why they react to whatever happens to them as they do. You laugh, you cry, and you rebel with them - and enjoy their personal successes. The stories are finely balaced in drama and humor as the various characters are portraied with a great knowledge of human nature and a lot of self-irony.

I love this book...Anne McCaffrey is superior. Her characters leap out and talk to you. The heroine(s) have a sense of humor and utilmately strong characters. This one I want in hardback to keep for as long as I live!