11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A magnificent, exciting and inspiring novel, July 6, 2008
This review is from: White Rose Rebel (Hardcover)
Magnificent, engrossing and inspiring
I absolutely loved White Rose Rebel. It's an astonishing and deeply moving story of the 1745 Jacobite war in Britain which opens with a hunting scene. In the mountains, a dirge plays faintly on distant pipes and drums. There is a shot and a deer falls. A young girl in a velvet and lace highland dress rushes from cover to claim her kill. From that beginning, the action never stops. The girl is Anne Farquharson who becomes Colonel Anne, a real-life Highland heroine of the Jacobite Rising.
By chapter two, when her adult story starts, we've already met the two men who will love her. They're clan chiefs and bonded friends. In keeping with her nature, she marries the most challenging one. The relationship is passionate but they try to dominate each other. When the Rising starts, Anne expects her husband to join it, especially after brutal action against their clan by government forces. Instead, he joins the British side. Appalled, Anne raises his people to fight for the Jacobites and with her ex-lover at her side, goes to war.
Janet Paisley's research is excellent, using period documents for the earliest facts except where those are not known. She also understands the ethos of Scottish clans, the equality between the sexes and their democracy, and uses the erosion of those after Scotland's union with England as the reason why so many women support the Jacobite bid to regain the throne. These were women who had rights which English women at the time couldn't even dream of, and they behaved accordingly. There is an interesting writer's note at the back and a glossary though the few Gaelic and Scots words are easily understood while reading.
The battle scenes, when husband and wife face each other on opposite sides, are superb, bloody and brutal, but accurate. The sex scenes, as Colonel Anne sways between love for her errant husband and for her supportive lover, are the best I've read, tense, exciting and beautifully written. Even the minor characters in White Rose Rebel leap off the page, real and alive. I laughed with them as they danced and joked, and cried for them when they suffered pain and loss. These brave and admirable men and women are caught up in the reality of civil war as it tears apart the British union and the Scottish nation, splitting families, friends and couples.
Their clan culture is destroyed at the battle of Culloden. This must be the best fictional account of that battle ever written. Visual and visceral, the sounds and smells surround the reader. We're on that field, and we know and care about those who fight and die. Only the hardest heart could fail to be moved by the carnage. The book is written from a Jacobite point-of-view but even among the enemy there are people to love or to despise and fear. The danger to Anne's life increases with every rapidly-turning page as the aftermath of defeat brings difficult and painful times before the story reaches a satisfying, moving conclusion.
I can't praise this book enough. Packed with adventure, sexual tension, political intrigue, betrayal, cruelty and heartbreak, it also manages to be uplifting and inspiring. The writing is scenic, filmic and easy to visualise. It's literary and poetic but eminently readable with a powerful love story which is honest rather than romantic. White Rose Rebel brings period and people to life in a magnificent novel with themes of equality and democracy which are still being fought for today. It's also a brilliantly researched fictional tribute to a heroine who should be better known. A great read which I thoroughly recommend.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Heroine to Remember, February 23, 2009
This review is from: White Rose Rebel (Hardcover)
This heroine, Anne, Scottish Rebel is one I will never forget reading about. Her story is truly the most gutsy and courageous one yet. I absolutely loved her. The story begins with her marriage to a clans chief and then leads to the return of the Prince and her and her husband end up fighting on opposite sides. She and her lover fight for Scots freedom and independence and right to maintain their way of life. She is next to him in battle, faces her husband down, aides and abets Scottish prisoners. I HATED her husband and I HATED how she forgave and went back to him. I felt he was a coward catering to the English and allowing his people to be raped and murdered. Besides that, my only qualms with this book was that there was often too many characters with similar names. I had to go back thru it and figure out whom I was reading about at the moment and what they had done before in previous chapters. A "people tree" was almost needed. There was a quite a bit of sexual obsession too. I am curious as to how women in this day and age had so much say so and independence, when just a century before (according to other novels) women were mere adornments on men's arms. So I wonder at the accuracy. I thoroughly enjoyed it tho. What a woman and she fought till the end. Even the English could not put out the flame of her rebellious spirit. Also, there is some gory and violent scenes so not for the faint of heart.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolute must-read historical novel, July 11, 2008
This review is from: White Rose Rebel (Hardcover)
This is a first-rate historical novel centering on an irresistible heroine, Colonel Anne. Janet Paisley has done an astonishing job of rescuing, and brilliantly imagining, a little-known 'real' historical figure who fought, against her husband's wishes, in the Jacobite Rebellion.
Compelling, enlightening and hugely entertaining, don't miss it.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
