Search - Meridon (Wideacre, Bk 3)

While I absolutely fell in love with every other book that Gregory wrote, I never really felt that way about this series. I read the first in the series and wasn't overly impressed and could not make myself finish the 2nd book. The third I didn't even attempt. Since the readers here mostly liked the book, I will save them and reread at a later date. See, people do read these reviews and let them influence them on books to read.

With this elaborate tapestry of a young woman's life, the Lacey family trilogy ( Wideacre and The Favored Child ) comes to a satisfying conclusion. Meridon is the lost child whose legacy is the estate of Wideacre. She and her very different sister, Dandy, were abandoned as infants and raised in a gypsy encampment, learning horsetrading and other tricks of survival. They are indentured to a circus master whose traveling show is made successful by Meridon's equestrian flair and Dandy's seductive beauty on the trapeze. Meridon's escape from this world is fueled by pregnant Dandy's murder and her own obsessive dream of her ancestral home. After claiming Wideacre, Meridon succumbs for a while to the temptation of the "quality" social scene, but eventually she comes to her senses, and, in a tricky card game near the end of the saga, triumphs fully. The hard-won homecoming in this historical novel is richly developed and impassioned.

Book 3 of the Wideacre trilogy by Phillipa Gregory concludes the saga of the Lacey Family...the entire series is slighly bodice ripping, but in a more erudite way (if that makes sense) than expected. If you are a fan of historical fiction, try the Wideacre trilogy. It can be read alone, but it is certainly enhanced by its predecessors.

This series of books by Phillipa Gregory were very good. I had trouble putting them down! There are truly page turners to keep you up at night!

This is the last book in the trilogy and I liked it best.

I myself have a personal problem with Phillipp Gregory which is based upon the disservice she does her readers with her recent so-called "historical" novels set during, before and after the Tudor period of English history. Her inaccuracies are all the more damning in my eyes because I get the impression that she does know the real historical data yet chooses to ignore it at the drop of a pin. (I could say "drop of a hat," but who drops hats these days?) And because she is such a GOOD story teller (she does get a grip on you), she has a ginormous fan base who believe they have learned "so much about history," by reading her books. And don't get me started on the movie based on The Other Boleyn Girl!

But Meridon is the third book of Gregory's first trilogy, which apparently is drawn from her thesis paper at University. These books seem to be more accurate historically. They do all contain quite a bit of Gregory's famous bodice-ripping, especially the first book of the series, Wideacre. She has a keen understanding of human nature, especially apparent in this, the last book of this series.

Ironically, I DO feel that I learned quite a bit about history from this Wideacre series. She portrays several classes of English society of what I believe is during the rules of James I and Charles I of England. (Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.)

Since this is the third book of the series, it would be very difficult to appreciate this book without having read the first two books. But I must warn you that the first two books can be a bit shocking unless a.) you have an open mind or b.) you have a bit of a kinky side to you.