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37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
An Action Packed Ending to The Rose Trilogy, May 29, 2011
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Like many other fans of Jennifer Donnelly I have been anxiously awaiting the release of this third and final installment of the Rose trilogy.
I've read and enjoyed all of Jennifer Donnelly's novels and this one is no exception. I read 'The Tea Rose' and 'The Winter Rose' back in 2007 so to refresh my memory before I picked up the conclusion to the trilogy I read a bit of the ending from 'Winter Rose'. I loved the Winter Rose and count it among my all time favorite books.
This was an action packed adventure of an ending. We are reunited with characters we loved from 'The Winter Rose'; Fiona Finnegan, her husband Joe Bristow the honorable member of parliament, Fiona's brother Seamus Finnegan world renown polar explorer, the beloved but estranged Willa Alden, as well as the reformed Sid Malone and his wife Dr. India Selwyn Jones.
Donnelly also introduces us to some new characters, teacher Jennie Wilcott and her father Reverend Wilcott, Gladys Bigelow one of the success stories from Jennie's school and Max von Brandt, Harriet Hatcher's cousin who also happens to be a German spy.
The Prologue takes place in 1913, the story itself begins in 1914, the Epilogue is set in 1919. World War I is a prominent feature in the novel and Donnelly works Lawrence of Arabia very neatly into her story. Reunions with notorious crime lord Billy Madden and drug dealer Teddy Ko yield suspenseful results that keep the pages turning.
I enjoyed the conclusion to the story of the Finnegan clan and those who are near and dear to them. I found this an engrossing and quick read, I finish all six hundred plus pages in two days. I would have liked a little bit more character development with some of the more central characters. I felt like I learned what happened in the lives of these characters but not necessarily how they'd changed over the years.
I really enjoyed Donnelly's descriptions of the East End of London and I've found books where the author credits Henry Mayhew and his work 'London Labour and the London Poor' are generally to my taste as far as depicting the grit and grime of filth and disease that I generally enjoy in my fiction.
I would love to see Jennifer Donnelly create another trilogy or a spin off series from the Rose trilogy. She has created enough interesting characters and obviously has the skill to write suspenseful stories that keep readers interested and eagerly awaiting the next installment.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Adventure: Romance, Adventure, History, June 22, 2011
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
This is a book worth waiting a little for. I've been a fan of Jennifer Donnelly's book for some time and was pleased to be given an opportunity to read "The Wild Rose" early. The plot begins as the 19th century was drawing to a close and the chaos of World War I was just beginning. It's a love story as well as a cautionary history lesson. Thanks to historical fiction I have become interested in this period of history - which in the past had never held much interest for me. It truly was a Golden Age before the war split Europe apart and wreaked so much havoc in the lives of so many millions of people. So may lives were lost, so many dreams shattered.
"The Wild Rose" is a very well written book that is replete with intricate sub-plots and complex, well crafted, characters whose relationships cross and re-cross each other....all seamlessly presented and extremely readable.
The book follows the lives of a group of relatively upper crust Londoner's and the places that are highlighted in the book are Britain, France and the sands of Arabia. Some famous people are portrayed including Willa Alden who is based on the famous heroine, "Desert Queen", Gertrude Bell. Spotlighted is Willa's relationship with Lawrence of Arabia and her love of Seamus Finnegan. Willa is portrayed as a strong minded, self directed and thoroughly un-Victorian female while Seamus Finnegan (Seamie) is part of a well know British family who shares a love for mountainous adventures. Their love that was passionate, complicated, and star crossed. It would take pages to simply describe the complicated relationship that they shared.
Although there are many pages in this book I found that it read quickly. I was fascinated by Ms. Donnely's careful research that allowed her portrayal of historically correct glimpses of the fashions, mind set, morals, entertainments, foods and adventures of the time. This book is rife with well fleshed characters, intertwined relationships, excellent adventures and a solid taste for the historical importance of this amazing period of history - the sunset of the Golden Age and the beginning of the world's introduction to the real horrors of modern warfare.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
(3.5 stars) A bit of a let down from the previous two books., August 2, 2011
SPOILER WARNING. Those who have not yet read to the end of book #2, The Winter Rose, might find this review slightly spoilerish.
The Wild Rose begins about eight years after the close of The Winter Rose. Seamie Finnegan is now a famous explorer and the pride all of England. Willa Alden, on the other hand, still carries a lot of emotional baggage from her climbing accident on Mount Kilimanjaro, and when not drowning her sorrow and misery in alcohol and drugs, she lives by and climbs the *foothills* surrounding Mt. Everest. Just when Seamie thinks he can put Willa behind him and move on with life, Willa's father passes away and she returns to England for the funeral...
So as not to spoil, I'm not going to reveal anything else that happens in the book. This is another big ole' fat soap opera in the same style as the first two, cliff hanging chapters and all. I really liked the way Donnelly brings back characters from the earlier novels, plus she gives them an actual story instead of a quick nod and fade to black like you see in other series (although I would have like more of Fiona and Charlie after...). I also appreciate the way Donnelly brings social issues and prejudices into her stories and involves her characters in them, you can see that these are issues she cares a great deal about. That said, I do have a few quibbles.
One of the greatest aspects of the first two books were the strong female characters. No matter what adversities and crappy things life dealt them, Fiona and India always picked themselves back up, dusted themselves off and got on with life. Not so with Willa. She's self-destructive, pouty and some times just gawd-awful miserable, and she spreads that sunshine to everyone around her. Yes, I know it sucks she lost a limb, but Joe's in a wheelchair and gets on with life quite nicely thankyouverymuch. Willa would have been more sympathetic (and interesting), if the woe-is-me attitude was dropped and we see her carving out a new life dealing positively with her handicap.
As for the handicap itself? Willa has a prosthetic leg in lieu of the one she lost after her climbing injury at the end of book two. Unfortunately, there are times when that limb virtually disappears from the storyline for lengthy periods of time. While I don't want to be clubbed over the head with constant reminders of her artificial limb, I'd have preferred seeing more of the day-to-day impact it has on her. Does she take it off when she showers? Goes to sleep? What about when making love, and why is it when we do get *the big love scene*, is there no discussion/mention of it between the pair? Seriously, it wouldn't be far-fetched to imagine Willa being a bit sensitive about her partner's first look at it in the *flesh*, nor that her partner could reassure she's beautiful to him as she is. Why doesn't she worry about damage to it whilst hiking those dangerous slopes around Mt. Everest? After arresting a dangerous fall, all that's mentioned are a couple of broken fingernails??!!
I did enjoy this a lot, but just not as much as the first two books (which I loved to bits) and I'm knocking off a half star for the quibbles listed above. Fans will definitely lap this up like kittens with cream and I do recommend it, but I just wanted a little bit more. 3.5/5 stars.
FTC disclosure, I obtained a copy of this book from Net Galley.
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