Nine Coaches Waiting

Rating:
Summary: Classic romantic suspense at its very best!
Review: I first read this book years ago as a young girl. When I reread it, I was delightfully surprised and just as absorded as the first time that I traveled through the pages of the mind of this truly amazing writer! Mary Stewart has and will always be one of my favorite novelist. Do yourself a favor; enjoy the summer and take along the roadmap to exotic and unexpected travel (near & far);where excitment and suspense awaits; history unfolds, peppered with a just the right touch of romance. Let Mary Stewart be your guide on this adventure!

Rating:
Summary: A page-turner for all lovers of romance and suspense!
Review: Like most of Mary Stewart's novels, this one also centers around a beautiful and brave heroine. However, each and every one of these novels are different in content as well as in plot, so that even though you think you know what the outcome is going to be, in reality you don't! I read most of Mary Stewart's novels when I was a teenager (when I used to borrow them), but 15 years down the road, I find myself rummaging through bookstores for them - to be able to reread them, but more because I want to own my own copies (so that I can reread them yet again in a few year's time)! (Hint: London bookstores carry many of them, esp. Dillon's and Books Etc..) 'Nine Coaches Waiting' is great in the sense that it transports the reader into the rustic countryside of France, which Mary Stewart describes, as always, with so much pleasurable detail. The sense of mystery is heightened as the heroine searches for the truth behind the troubled family for whom she works; and the romance is made more even more romantic with the notions of 'unrequited love' and 'forbidden love'. I think that with most Mary Stewart's novels, there is never a huge emphasis on romantic love in terms of action or words, but better still, she concentrates on the inner feelings of longing and sacrifice (esp. before the official 'start' of a relationship) which serve to enhance the romantic atmosphere of her books.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: Next to Jane Eyre, the best "governess goes to the big spooky mansion" type of romantic novel. Has all the elements: a Cinderalla type love story, suspense, danger, and heroism. Excellently written and very superior to anything done in the past twenty or even thirty years. I first read this in high school, borrowed from the local library, and always wanted a copy, but was not able to find a copy of it until I started using Amazon. Reading it, I really became aware of how much romantic fiction has declined since then. The sheer quality of the writing is so good. Mary Stewart's best contemporary romance. I wish she had written more.