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Summary: Lady of Hay
Review: Lady of Hay is one of my all time favorite books! I have read this book at least three times and will one day read it again. I loved all the characters and the depth in which Ms. Erskine gives them. This book is hard to put put down once started and will keep you until the wee hours of the morning!!
Rating: 
Summary: Promising start...but ultimately disappointing
Review: Lady of Hay makes a promising start. Jo is a young journalist who researches past life regression for a magazine article. As research, she undergoes hypnosis and discovers that she is not only easily hypnotized (so easily that later in the book someone calls and hypnotizes her over the phone!) but in a previous life she was Matilda de Braose, a 12th century Welshwoman. How exciting, I said to myself. This could be very fun. Matilda is a real historical figure. I love historical fiction. I would enjoy the puzzle of matching past lives with present characters, and of course I hoped for romance. But alas...it was not to be. The first half of the book was great. It keeps up a good pace and intriguing events unfold as Jo and her present life alternate with regressions to Matilda's existence. But by the second half of the book there is no new material and far too much repetition as well inexplicable violence against the main character that simply turned me off to her possible love interests. In the 1st half of the book we learn that 3 men love Jo in both the past and the present and we know who they were in their past lives. We also learn about the end of Matilda's life very early in the story. So where can the author take us from here? I hoped that some of the modern day characters besides the 3 men would eventually be revealed to have some involvement in the past lives or a more important role in the present. However, they don't. I also expected that that the author might expand on history and offer an explanation for the legend of Matilda building Hay castle in one night. She doesn't. And I was disappointed with the mundane theory about rumors that Matilda was a witch. The explanation: she studied herb lore with her nurse Jeanne and rides horses swiftly, like a man. But perhaps most disappointing of all is the fact that Nick, the man she is in love with in the present was very cruel to her in her past life and not very nice to her in the present and there is no satisfactory explanation of why. Nor did it seem that his behavior was ever an obstacle to their relationship in the present. And what about Sam's behavior? The actions of 2 of Jo's lovers leaves me questioning how much if at all, they really care(d) for her. Richard was the one nice guy and I was hoping he would somehow turn out to be a hero, but when he turns out to be a junkie I think my hopes for a satisfying finale were extinguished. Maybe the fact that 3 men are supposedly in love with the main character is the romantic attraction of this book. Or is it Jo's suffering that is intended to be attractive? Perhaps I was ultimately disappointed because of the promising start, but my advice is to skip this book.
Rating: 
Summary: I enjoyed it
Review: Like the other reviewer said earlier, had I not recently read Diana Gabaldon's Outlander Series, this book would have been much more enjoyable to me. But Outlander is definitely better. I came across this book while I am waiting impatiently for DG's fifth book in her series. I usually not quite like recarnation stories, but this book is very interesting and I couldnt put it down, I finished in One day!! Jo is a 20th century free lance writer whose previous life was Matilda 800 years ago, 3 men loved her back then and followed her into 20th century as well, Jo was trying to figure out what indeed happened in the past and what she can do to right the wrong in the present, and as for the men in her life now, she tries to sort out which is which from the past, I thought I figoured it out myself soon , but was I wrong! The only thing I dont quite like about the story is there weren't enough said about the relationship between Matilda and the one she was destinated to be with, why did he punish her so hard if he really loved her?? I dont quite understand that.. Otherwise the book is very enjoyable, I recemend it!
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Summary: Overated melodrama
Review: On the positive side, this was a page-turner. I did read the whole thing, because I wanted to find out what happened to poor Matilda. But please, the male and female roles are so stereotyped! I just wanted to slap the modern heroine for being so stupid as to let these men dominate her life. This is fine for summer beach reading when you have nothing better, but it absolutely is NOT the best book I've ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh. I'm so sorry I picked this book up.
Review: This book is a horrid combination of writing that is good enough to keep you reading and bad enough that you wish you weren't. The book is 700+ pages. The heroine is repeatedly raped (forceably and not) or otherwise abused by men who supposedly love her. She repeatedly makes stupid choices, leaving the reader to wonder how "smart" she really is. There are too many irrelevant characters. The ending is completely unsatisfying, given how long I spent to slog through the book. The author is not bad in terms of description, but the only real suspense is apparent by page 100 or so of the book and it is not enough to carry a reader happily through to page 700. Avoid this book.
Rating:
Summary: Ugh. I'm so sorry I picked this book up.
Review: This book is a horrid combination of writing that is good enough to keep you reading and bad enough that you wish you weren't. The book is 700+ pages. The heroine is repeatedly raped (forceably and not) or otherwise abused by men who supposedly love her. She repeatedly makes stupid choices, leaving the reader to wonder how "smart" she really is. There are too many irrelevant characters. The ending is completely unsatisfying, given how long I spent to slog through the book. The author is not bad in terms of description, but the only real suspense is apparent by page 100 or so of the book and it is not enough to carry a reader happily through to page 700. Avoid this book.
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Summary: Love Lady of Hay; please write more LIKE THIS ONE!
Review: This book was read in turn by every member of the family. I am not particularly fond of scary stories and hence am disappointed with Barbara Erskine's subsequent fiction. I liked this book's intertwining of history and reincarnation. I keep wishing that Ms. Erskine would get inspired to write something more along these lines again - the occult yes; hauntings for the sake of scaring the reader - no.
Rating:
Summary: "Unputdownable"
Review: This is my favorite book and ever since I read "Lady of Hay" I have been addicted to Barbara Erskine's novels. The book is beautifully written and takes the reader to a different place and into another world. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Lady Jane Say's It's A Good Fun Summers Read.
Review: This was a very interesting read. At first the story line and plot was slow- but when the action got going ,I could barely put the book down. The attention to geographic and historical detail was wonderful and I enjoyed the setting of the book,as it was so refreshingly written in an un-american flavor.
I take into consideration that this was her first book. Inspite of that- the sex scenes were unrealisticly written and dissapointing. I wish she had been more diverse with her descriptive repotoire.Finally I wish the main character Joe was more multi-dimensional. I got a sense that she was more at the mercey of outside forces rather than being able to take control of her own destiny:A strenth that I did sense from the character: Matilda.
For a first Novel it is a good book- and great read to get immersed in but don't take it too seriously..
Rating:
Summary: Lady Jane Say's It's A Good Fun Summers Read.
Review: This was a very interesting read. At first the story line and plot was slow- but when the action got going ,I could barely put the book down. The attention to geographic and historical detail was wonderful and I enjoyed the setting of the book,as it was so refreshingly written in an un-american flavor.
I take into consideration that this was her first book. Inspite of that- the sex scenes were unrealisticly written and dissapointing. I wish she had been more diverse with her descriptive repotoire.Finally I wish the main character Joe was more multi-dimensional. I got a sense that she was more at the mercey of outside forces rather than being able to take control of her own destiny:A strenth that I did sense from the character: Matilda.
For a first Novel it is a good book- and great read to get immersed in but don't take it too seriously..
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