Search - Earthly Joys (Earthly Joys, Bk 1)

Very enjoyable book especially for those who love history as there is a great deal of historical detail. According to the New York Times Book Review, "This tale of forbidden love set against the turmoil of a country in chaos makes for both intelligent and satisfying reading" The "forbidden love" mentioned in this quote is a male/male love affair by the way so if you find that theme offensive you may not want this book. That love affair is actually a fairly small part of the plot of this book.

Interesting historical fiction, but not one of my favorite of Gregory's stories. It was well written, I just did not empathize with the protagonist, John Trandescant, until well into the story, which made it a little harder for me to get into. I did not understand his unquestioning views and acceptance of some things that seemed very unfair, but realized later that these traits that I found unlikeable were part of his character growth and story arc.

My difficulty relating to the character may have just been because I had certain expectations due to the other Gregory novels that I have read and loved. A big part of what drew me into her other books were the female protagonists and the struggles that women had to face in the time periods that her other books are set in.

This one begins in England in 1603, the year that Queen Elizabeth died and the Stuart era began. The main character is a gardener who works for a few different courtiers over the decades of his career, designing and planting great gardens.

He gets involved with traveling and bringing rare plants back to England, and being a collector of rarities becomes his trademark in the gardening world. This was interesting and a bit different, since I have never read a historical fiction novel that covered this ground before(I tend to get bored with the same old court intrigue and bitchy, rich people spending money and having affairs).

If you garden and know plants you will probably enjoy this book very much and if you don't, you may find yourself a bit bored with all of the plant talk, but it is still worth reading.

There is a sequel called Virgin Earth that I am interested in reading to see what happens next. It will follow the main character's son to Virginia and I think that I will enjoy that one more. I found the son a little easier to identify with and I empathized with him more.

Enjoyed this book so much have been reading way too late at night. Cannot put it down. I am that way with most of Gregorys books.

Not one of my Gregory favorites, this novel tells the tale of a lowly, loyal gardener and his service to two shockingly different lords. Perhaps because she does not have real life, larger than life kings to write about, the characters feel small and unreal. A decent, easy read, but not her best.

I enjoyed this book, it was a little slower than some of her other books but as a gardener it was fascinating

This is Philippa Gregory’s usual well written story of English royalty and the politics, intrigue, deception and corruption of 17th century England. King James is newly crowned the King of England and he has surrounded himself with loyal trusted advisors such as Cecil Roberts and the Duke of Buckingham. The story is told from the point of view of John Tradescant, the gardener for these men. John’s skill as a gardener catches the attention of the powerful men of England who want to create a showcase garden in their palaces to show off their wealth to the royal court.

Although this book has a lot of details of plants, I enjoyed all the descriptions and especially of the travels to procure plants rare to England. This is not simply a book about the gardens of England, but the character development of John and his son John show how the attitudes of the English common people are changing towards their royalty and their quest for freedom and the ability to possess their own private land. What is happening in America at this time is having an impact on the English populace and they are starting to get dissatisfied with the extravagance of the English royalty while the country is suffering from bad harvests and the plague. Although I enjoyed this book, this is not my favorite book by this author. There were some places where she went into too much of the same detail and the book dragged in a few places.