What, if anything, could be better than a Regency romance by Mary Balogh? To be sure, it could only be a LONGER, more in-depth Regency romance by Mary Balogh. This was the first in a new series from Berkley as just such a lavish, extremely fulfilling treat. It is NOT a historical disguised as a Regency, but the very real thing.

From her first greeting to Viscount Rawleigh, Catherine Winters finds herself annoyingly attracted to the man, whom she had initially taken for his twin-brother and her near neighbor, Mr. Adams. The Viscount, on the other hand, makes erroneous suppositions about the lovely widow, and during the whole of this long and lovely book, sparks fly between these two strong and independent characters.

Against his better judgment, the Viscount accompanies his brother back to Bodley-on-the-water, for a change of scenery. His brother's wife is determined to make a match between her younger sister and the handsome Rex, refusing to believe he is not interested in the untried chit. He is equally determined to avoid her snares, protecting his heart from further damage, it having been broken once already.

Catherine is obviously a lady, or at least with some pretensions toward gentility, if a bit young to be a widow at the age of five-and-twenty. Content with her current existence, she has a dog for companionship, and enjoys the society (although knowing it for exactly the condescension that it is) of the occupants of the small village, from the Viscount's brother to the garrulous rector.

Of course, Rawleigh believes the toothsome widow to be eminently beddable, based on little more than a smile or two, and pursues his goal with admirable intent. She must certainly be interested in him, for how else could she so readily tell him apart from his identical brother? No one else ever could! No matter how impregnable any woman believes her fortress to be, the gates may nearly always be opened by the right key. He inadvertently compromises her; they must marry, and all the long-held secrets come tumbling out.

As usual, Mary Balogh does not disappoint the reader; this is truly (to borrow a word coined by her original publisher) a SUPER Regency!

Catherine Winters smiles and curtsies at a gentleman passing her in the street, thinking him to be her landlord, Mr Adams. Instead, he is her landlord's twin brother, Viscount Rawleigh, who assumes that she's throwing out lures. So he pursues her, and eventually makes an improper proposal, which she rejects angrily. Not that he gives up; he continues to pursue her. Although she is attracted to him, she has no wish to become anyone's mistress and keeps refusing him... until the night when he's careless and she's compromised utterly...

One of the things Balogh does really well in this book is to give us an excellent picture of the nature of English society in the Regency era. First we have the claustrophobic village atmosphere, and the incredibly judgemental inhabitants; it's hard to imagine how people could have coped with that. Later, we have London society: the ton, for whom an eternity would be a short time, and who were not likely to have forgotten Catherine's indiscretion in a mere six years.

Rex was at his best in the scenes after his and Catherine's marriage; up until that point he appeared shallow and uncaring, but it was after they arrived at his estate that I started to like him. And in the end this was a lovely love story.

Can't wait to read the sequel next, to find out why Ken had to hurry off so suddenly!

If you are a lover of the regency period, this book is a must read for you.

When a bored young Viscount goes to the country to visit his twin brother he sees a beautiful young widow and is determined to have her as his "temporary" mistress. Just to pass the time. Viscount Rawleigh is shocked with beautiful Catherine Winters refuses him. Catherine is mortified when Viscount Rawleigh makes the inappropriate proposition to her, mostly because she was very, very tempted.

Determined to keep her reputation in tact, Catherine does all she can to stay away from the rake. Things don't turn out as Catherine plans and one night he is seen leaving her cottage after hours. Her reputation is ruined. Rex does the right thing and marries the young widow, but soon finds out that she is not as she appears. Catherine has many dark secrets. Secrets she would rather keep hidden.

This is a wonderful book that I'm sure the regency lover will adore. Catherine is charming and Rex is well, Rex is a rake. But don't we all love the rakes? Mary Balogh tells the story like no other can. Highly recommended.

This is a great book, even for those of us who are not traditional garden-lovers. It tempts you to plan your weekends and vacations to see the glorious and diverse gardens displayed with lush photography. Now that winter is upon us, this is a great book to read. When it is cold outside, the glorious photos and informative descriptions will color my evenings at home. Congratulations on a wonderful book.

I recently had to do a project on different types of plants and gardens, for my biology class. This book was very helpful, and allowed me to complete my project. The photographs were beautiful, and enjoyable to look at. I would very enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone interested in gardening. It was a great book!

I personally think the book is fasanaiting and it covers so many beautiful gardens, what a brilliant book. exellent pictures, and the quality of the pictures is amazing! I'm a big fan of the "National Giographic" series, and it's certainly one of the best i've read... (sorry about the spelling errors, i can't spell..)

During her "Scandalous Life" (1800's), Jane Digby was often written about in the press and provided foder for the tea room gossips for over 50 years. The stories seldom had more than a grain of truth but her ability to live her own life outside of the conventional standards of her day needed no embellishments. I have read other books and accounts of her life but Mary S Lovell has now set the standard that the other biographers will be judged. Her attention to details and access to the volumes of diaries and letters brought this biography its validity. She presents Jane's life without moralizing and judging her actions. Noone could make up a story with the twists and turns found in Jane's biography. After the episode with Isabel Burton(who tried to capitalize on Jane's story and her brief acquaintance with her when she thought Jane has died), must have left Jane Digby very cynical of biographers but I believe that she would have been very happy with Mary Lovell's. What greater compliment can an author garner from their subject? I will add my lament about the "out of print" status of this biography here in the states. I was thrilled to find a copy displayed casually in the biography section of a village bookstore in Ashburton,Devon, England while I was visiting the area with friends. The cover was bent and battered but it was their last copy. They told me it would take a few days until their next order arrived. The title was changed to "A Scandalous Life", The Biography of Jane Digby published by Fourth Estate,London. I bought the battered copy and thoroughly enjoyed it. I have also added Mary S.Lovell to my list of favorite biographers!.

I have read this book and the only thing Scandalous about is is that the publisher has not reprinted it! The herstory of the Middle East has many intriguing women who have done remarkable things. These women like Jane Digby, loved the desert no less than many of the "heroes" we all can still read about today. Yet their travels are scarcely cited. Jane Digby's romantic trysts may have stunned her peers, but today her story is fascinating. Visiting Damascus, travelling to Palmyra, each had such a different impact knowing I was seeing what she saw over a hundred years ago. In a region where the dominance of males, Islam and the harsh desert life is well documented, it is a shame more interested readers cannot learn why a western woman would chose it as her home in the 19th century. The author stays away from judgements about Jane Digby, and presents her as honestly as she was-a rebel of the heart.

I adore biography - especially those of the great characters of the second half of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. I knew of Jane Digby el Mezrab from Irving Wallace's Nymphos and Other Maniacs which I read many years ago and also via several biographies of Sir Richard Burton. This is a well written, carefully and extensively researched book which benefited enormously from the author's good luck in uncovering much new, previously unseen and unpublished family material in Dorset and New Zealand. This, the author says in her acknowledgements, is more satisfying than the publication of the book itself. I agree, for this sort of discovery is palpably thrilling and the author's excitement shines through her narrative.

This biography reads like fiction and Jane Digby, firstly Lady Ellenborough, was one of those larger than life people who followed their own path, irrespective of the mores of their own time. Following Jane's life is a tour through the drawing rooms of Regency England, several European and Balkan courts to the deserts of Syria and Arabia. It is the story of a woman (thrice divorced) who eventually found happiness and fulfilment with a man of great nobility from an entirely different race, culture and religion. Jane's interest in the minutiae of life in Damascus in the mid 19th century makes fascinating reading and her wit and fondness for her adopted "tribe" in the desert is moving.

Highly recommended!

When I was 9 years old I read this book. I didn't remember much about the story, but when I saw it in a book store all the warm feelings came flooding back, and I bought it to read to my daughters.

They have so enjoyed it! Our oldest is 8, and our youngest is 5, and we've had a difficult time getting the 5-year-old to sit through "chapter books". But she was enthralled from the start, especially because of the cat and the kittens!

It's a gentle story that depicts the love of Jesus in a simple way, without forcing it. It's just part of life, exactly as it's supposed to be.

A beautiful story that I'm sure my daughters will carry with them, too!

This is a very good book. The author is obviously indebted to Johanna Spyri's Heidi, but in a good way. This book can be read aloud to children as young as 5, but young teenagers will also enjoy it. Be aware, though, that St. John's original text is out of print. What Moody and Scripture Union currently publish is an "updated" version--good if your child struggles with reading; but if your child is literate, get a used copy!

Treasures of the Snow is a great book. I sat down and read it to our kids (11,8 & 5). They loved it and kept asking for "just one more chapter".

It reminds me of the movie Heidi as far as the setting. The love and wisdom of the grandmother is what I pray I will attain one day. It is a touching story of sin, anger, bad choices and redemption. God used a bad situation and turned it around for great good. Gpd can and will forgive every sin, no matter how bad, if we open the door to give Him a place in our heart.

I highly recommend this book!

I borrowed a copy of "The Homeschooling Handbook" from the library and signed it out several times. This book is the best book I have read, so far, on the basics of homeschooling. It was very informative and helped me to get through my second year as a homeschooling parent with less stress. I would recommend it to anyone who is open to, or looking for new ideas or new ways to home school. This book is very un-schooling oriented but it helped me to find a balance between both the "normal" homeshooling methods and un-schooling. I would highly recommend it for first time home schoolers and those with gifted or special needs children.

I borrowed a copy of this book from the library and signed it out several times. This book is the best book I have read, so far, on the basics of homeschooling. It was very informative and helped me to get through my second year as a homeschooling parent with less stress. I would recommend it to anyone who is open to, or looking for new ideas or new ways to home school. This book is very un-schooling oriented but it helped me to find a balance between both the "normal" homeshooling methods and un-schooling. I would highly recommend it for first time home schoolers and those with gifted or special needs children.

I'm a new homeschooling mom, and I found this book to be a great hands on resource book about how to start homeschooling your children. It has detailed learning ideas for primary, middle and teen years. If you are looking for answers to alot of tough questions like when, why, and how to homeschool your child, then "The Homeschooling Handbook"by Mary Griffith, will be a valuable tool for you. Whether you homeschool your child or not, read this book for it's many helpful fresh ideas for working with children.

The book I just read is the best! When I read a Pooh book it was awesome! Really, first I though it would be a babyish book,but it's not. My favourite chracter is Pooh. He is always thinking of hunny, and funny po ems and songs. I also like the words that A.A.MILNE invented I though those words came from another planet. I hope to read all of A.A.milne's books soon. If you don't read it you don't know what you are missing. I have only read The House At Pooh Corner and, I am now reading Winnie-The-Pooh.

Attention: all cranky four year olds, five year olds, eight year olds and thirty-five year olds on long car trips.

Attention all parents burned out by reading The Pokey Little Puppy over and over again.

Attention cynics whose primary memory of Winnie-the-Pooh is the Dorothy Parker quote (from her "Constant Reader" column in the New Yorker) "Tontant Weader frowed-up".

This book is a treasure for all who hear it. There is gentleness and not a little wit in these stories. Contray to the book description above, the book is read by the late Charles Kuralt. His inflection adds much to the story. One senses that he is amused; but he is never condesending. Now I will always prefer Kuralt's version to my own bedtime efforts with my children. Charles Kuralt must have loved Winne-the-Pooh mightily. How lucky we are that he left this delightful gift behind.

This book is a really good and funny book. My fav is Piglet because he is so shy and just goes along with what ever Pooh does. I think I read this book because Pooh and all his friends are coming back in now, to prove I love pooh I have a Pooh and FriendsPencil case.

Like a previous reviewer, Stella Gibbon's pastiche of the English rustic romance, 'Cold Comfort Farm' sprang to mind in the early stages of Mary Webb's 'Precious Bane'. But it must be borne in mind that Gibbon's book can be as easily read as a lampoon of the un-romantic no-nonsense 'bright young thing' of the twenties,as it can a pastiche of the English rustic romance. Furthermore,as I read on, this cynical thought was quickly replaced by a different one: that the book bears closer resemblence to Thomas Hardy than it does to Gibbons, or , for that matter, the works of the Brontes (the rustic romance as bestseller!)which may be hallmarks of style, but can hardly be read as sensitive examinations of the human condition. Webb writes from the heart. While the story is as romantic as a fairy tale, there is a subtltey in her writing, and a fatalistic view of the natural world that suggests a deep spirituality combined with mental resolve. The character of Gideon is comparable to Hardy's tragic figures such as Boldwood in 'Far from the Madding Crowd" or the mayor of 'The Mayor of Casterbridge'. The fact that this book was written some eighty or ninety years ago by a woman, that its central character is a woman, and that the Webb chose to write using words and phrases of indigenous dialect has probably meant that it has been treated as a quaint piece of naive rural handicraft, rather than the deceptively careful literary construction that it is. If one of Hardy's characters had written a book, this is the book they would have written.

I am a senior in high school. I read this book under reccomendation from both my father and sister. Precious Bane truly was a breathtaking story. It's a shame it's out of regular print; I think if more people knew about this book, it would be much more widely read. I reccomended it to all my friends in school, and we together convinced our English teacher to use it as material for the course. Unfortunatly we all might have to pay the hefty $14 price if the school won't pay for it! I was hoping to find some used or paperback editions but alas my search has been to no avail!

I inherited a 1920's hardcover copy of this book when my Grandmother died- it had always been one of her favorite books. When I read it, I begin to see why. My Grandmother was a person whose spirituality was unconventional, and this is a theme that strongly runs through this book. Traditional Christianity is there, but so is ecstatic spirituality inspired and manifested by nature. She sees God in nature. There are many many beautiful passages where the heroine is literally transported spiritually by the slight of flowers, or the songs of birds. Traditional beliefs and local magic are explored in detail and with an amazing lack of Judgement ( folklorists take note), and the Wizard, though he is not expected to go to Heaven, is a friend to a poor disabled girl and teaches her many good things. Her struggle for a "normal" life with her disability, a hare-lip, is very touching and inspiring. The author also deals with bigotry, persecution and rejection of those who are different, and the difficult question of what truly manefests Goodness- is Goodness something people truly strive for, or do most people simply go through life follow social pressures? Is the Wizard, who reached out to Prue and helped her with and open heart, a "better" person then the hard hearted comformity driven Churchgoes who would not even allow the Wizard's ( staunchly Christian) wife to enter their homes, condeming her to a lonely life?
There is Magic here, and unearthly beauty seen though the eyes of a sensative young girl, and what must have been a very different exploration of true human nature in those rigid times. A thoughtful, highly recommended book.

If your child is tedious, stubborn, persistent, full of chatter and ideas, and seems years beyond her actual age, then this book is for you! It is an excellent resource for understanding how to interact and bring out the best in your spirited child. It's a guide to treating your child like an intelligent person rather than crushing their spirit as some other parenting/"strong-willed" child books subtly imply. I also recommend Dr. Gary Chapman's "The Five Love Languages of Children".

This is the absolutely best book on parenting the "difficult" child. It made me realize that the combination of persistence, intensity, sensitivity, and high energy can be actually advantageous if well-channeled. I wish that she would write a sequel on raising spirited teenagers.

My friends thought I was crazy when I would tell them that my sweet, quiet,focused child was "difficult"; I lay awake at night wondering how it was that she was so "intense". Why does she awaken numerous times a night? When I read the first chapter of this book, I burst into tears -- I finally saw that I was not crazy, but that she perceives and feels her world differently than I. I gained so much insight from this book, that I have read parts of it 2, even 3 times at various stages in our relationship -- a must have if you think you may have a "spirited child"!

This excellent book is about two kids named Jack and Annie. One day they were walking in Frog Creek Woods and they found a magic treehouse. Then they travelled back to Ancient Japan where two ninjas capture them. Read to find out what happens next.
This is an exelent book and one of my favorites! I would recommend this book to any one that likes adventure.

"Night Of The Ninjas" is truly one of the best Magic Tree House books ever written. This is the book where they meet Peanut, a little mouse that is actually Morgan under a spell. However, they don't know that, but still they take Peanut on their journey. When they arrive in Japan, two Ninjas capture them and take them back to the Ninja master. Afterwards, the Ninjas learn that Samurai warriors are coming, and then the Ninjas all leave, leaving Jack and Annie on their own. Do they survive and escape the Samurai? You'll have to find out in this exciting Magic Tree house book that every fan will love.

I'm a 10 year boy who loves the Magic Tree House series. I especially like when Jack and Annie went to England and met William Shakespeare. This is an easy chapter book to read. It keeps your interest.

Having never read anything about Arthurian legend, I was hesitant to pick my first introduction to it. I feel that I chose wisely in Mary Stewart's trilogy. Her writing will draw you into the story, and each book assumes you have little to no knowledge from the previous books (which was great for me, it helped to hear some of it again). I just found myself wishing afterwards there could have been a little more romance! However, I guess these books were more about Merlin, not Arthur or Guinevere. Another confusing aspect is that some of the more familiar names have been changed, and some are repeated. Having no base knowlege of the legend this was slightly confusing for me. Anyway, these books are highly enjoyable and I would definitely recomend them.

This is a great book and concludes a fabulous triology. Stewart finds just the right balance of historical fiction and fantasy, creating a Merlin and King Arthur who are not as they really were but are has they might have been if we indulge a imagination just a little. The characters are real and compelling. And though all three books are accessible to young readers, the books are just as entertaining for adults. I can't say enough about this trilogy.

The Story: "The Last Enchantment" is Book Three of Mary Stewart's Merlin Trilogy, and focuses on how Merlin meets, trains, and falls in love with Nimue, while helping Arthur solidify his kingdom and deal with the follies of Guinevere and other members of Court. Merlin and Arthur have to decide what to do about Arthur's sister, Morgan, and half-sister, Morgause, who separately plot against Arthur, and as well deciding upon the disposition of Morgause's five sons, one of whom is Mordred, illegitimate son of Arthur.

Technical: The writing of Mary Stewart is highly detailed and takes patience, but nothing is extraneous or irrelevant. Ms. Stewart's writing style reminds me of Sir Walter Scott's writing style in "Ivanhoe".

Overall: A great epic continues, but the reader must be patient and up to the challenge of a long, intricate, and detailed saga. When I first read this trilogy, the fourth book did not yet exist. Because the fourth book, "The Wicked Day", focusing on Mordred, exists, I'm more satisfied with the ending of "The Last Enchantment".