Virgin Earth: A Novel (Earthly Joys) by Philippa Gregory
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Book Reviews of Virgin Earth: A Novel (Earthly Joys)
Book Review: Virgin Earth - Bummer Book
Summary: 2 Stars
This will be the last Philippa Gregory book that I will read. The prequel, Earthly Joys was good but in the sequel, she has destroyed the characters. It was a bummer. One bad thing after another and the ending was the worst. She took the man's son we learned to love in the first book and made him into a man with no character, who ran from every hardship and left his wife and kids to rot alone during a war. She made his grandson a psych show and married his teenage daughter to a 50 year old man. No happiness in this book. No smiles while reading it. I put the finished book down and my shoulders hung lower all day. YUCK.Book Review: Virgin Earth
Summary: 5 Stars
Virgin Earth, the sequel to Earthly Paradise by Philippa Gregory is every bit as good as the first book. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading historical fiction. I liked these because the story is told in the first book through the eyes and life of the court gardener, and his son in the second book, and includes the varieties of plants and flowers for which they are always seeking while telling the good and bad events of the times in England and America.Book Review: I love Phillippa Gregory
Summary: 4 Stars
Since i finished reading The Other Boleyn Girl, i have become obsessed with Ms. Gregory's books. This is the 6th book of hers that i have read (all in order). I don't know what i am going to do when i have finished all of her books.Book Review: Beautiful Prose, Thrilling Plot
Summary: 5 Stars
I wasn't really expecting to become a big fan of Philippa Gregory, but in the past couple years, I have become a huge fan. This book, the stand-alone sequel to Earthly Joys, follows the son of John Tradescant, our first book's narrator, and gives us another generation's perspective. Different from his father (for better or for worse, he's always conflicted), John is never sure whether he wants to be in England or the new-found America, and knows he doesn't agree with the political strife of the day, but isn't sure who he should believe are "the good guys," trying to rectify the economy. Giving dazzling perspective to both continents, peppering with the perfect amount of historical detail, real characters (I must confess I search Wikipedia about characters after I finish reading her books!) sneaking in subtle sex... this is what Gregory does best. Her descriptions of flora in both lands are again what makes these books unique in her series- gorgeous language that has me itching to plant something pretty in the yard.Book Review: If only history books read like this
Summary: 4 Stars
Ms. Gregory has a fabulous talent for making history come alive. After reading each of her books, I've felt connected with that historical period because the characters became real people to me. In this story, the earliest days of Colonial America are presented through the protagonist's eyes. Ms. Gregory's clear unblinking view of life encountered by early settlers feels the most authentic of any I've read. Many early inhabitants, like her protagonist, John Tradescant, probably had little or no experience with real wilderness. Their first exposure to life in the colonies was further complicated by romantic views they'd held of the bountiful new world. The lofty dreams were quickly crushed by the harshness encountered--and all but the strongest people were too. While John found romance in his time there, it was one born of desperation. He was not the man his father was and struggled to meet goals that didn't entirely suit him. Even in England, through the tumultuous period of the time, one gets the sense of the difficult and compromising complexity of living near or at court as John deals with a more civilized and better-dressed harshness.
Many books romanticize royal life; Ms. Gregory's don't. She does a marvelous job of immersing the reader into the reality of that world. My only criticism of this book is that the ending is a bit weak. Still, it's well worth the read.