Lilies on the Lake

Rating:
Summary: First Timer!!!
Review: This is my first time reading any of Kingsley's books, and I have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed Lilies on the Lake. Although it gave WAY to much information about the characters past, it helped focus on why the characters are the way they are. The other thing that caught my attention was Egypt. I love that place and its history. The meeting of 'old friends' on the Egyptian soil solidifies the romantic aspect of the story. Also it was noble of Pip to adopt the baby, and good of John Henry to help them on their way. At the beginning, the two characters didn't fit together, but hey! They DO say opposite attract right? Well, in my opinion, Ms, Kingsley did a wonderful job showing that its small world and that past love never dies.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Plot Falls Short
Review: Though they haven't seen each other in ten years, Portia "Pip" Merriem and John Henry Lovell come face to face again on a houseboat in the middle of the Nile amidst a strife-filled Egypt of 1836. When Portia's companion dies in childbirth, John Henry plays the gallant and steps in to marry Pip and provide for the child.
It is almost inconceivable that John Henry would have pined away for Pip all these years after her last callous treatment of him. Selfish to the core, she believes that John H. married her because of her noble birth (he was only a lowly farmer's son). Pip goes so far as to suggest John H. wants to "humiliate" her by asking her to live in a gatekeeper's house at Manleigh Park where he is the steward.
Portia is such an unlikable heroine that it is difficult to believe that she acts the way she does merely to resist a man controlling her life. Even harder to believe is that she has a sudden and total transformation on Christmas Day making her happy with her life and in love with her husband.
Predictably, that love doesn't seem to last long as soon as Pip sees that John H. hasn't been totally truthful with her. In keeping with her true nature, she refuses to see him and calls him "the most horrible deceitful man on the face of the earth." While the initial plot shows promise, it seems quite a stretch to think that a self-made man such as John Henry would continue to harbor love for Pip considering her horrible treatment of him years before as well as her abominable behavior towards him after they married. Though the spiritual element adds a nice touch, Pip's lack of humility would seem to preclude her relying on a higher power.