Women of Substance was one of my all-time favorites.And Barbara Taylor Bradford followed that one with a number of books that, if not earth shattering "mind grabbers", were eminently readable. But in the last few months I have read several Bradfords that did not even begin to capture my interest. It is hard to believe that these books came from the same author. I have just finished The Women in His Life and was delighted to find a book that is right up there with Woman of Substance. You could almost tell from the first page that this was written by "the first Mrs. Bradford"! Wish the author would slow down, be less prolific, and give us more of what we know she can do.

I was anxious to read this book after noting the good reviews it had recieved, but was very disappointed. The entire book dealt more with the details of remodeling Inns than it did with the characters. Too much time wasted telling a story that was mediocre at best. The ending was also tedious. dead end after dead end leaving no time for a proper conclusion.

This is a love story with a mysterious twist. It slips back and forth from present to the past, and the heroine discovers that the sad childhood she had has more to it than she actually remembers. She was a part of history. This story has a historical basis for her sad childhood. I was intrigued and went on-line to check out the news of the subject and discovered that my memory was correctly tweaked and found articles about English children in orphanages. A great listen!

Barbara Taylor Bradford really touched me with this book. I normally read mysteries, thriller, and suspense. This book held my attention through out the book. I really felt Merediths' pain and struggle. I recently saw the movie on channel 8, the producers did the novel no justice. For those who saw the movie and did not read the novel, please read the novel. This is must read.

Emma Harte is the most controlling woman ever, and her granddaughter Paula isn't much better. Page after page has Emma meddling in people's lives as if she was entitled to just because she had once, long ago, suffered long and hard, and was now wealthy and on top. Annoying and irritating. And isn't she just omniscient -she always sees through everyone's motives - she's always steps ahead of everyone. Oh, sure! If you hate control freaks, don't read this book.

I most certainly enjoyed the book Hold the Dream. I read the book about a year ago and my only regret was that I was not able to get all the books in this set for I only read the one part. I like women who know what they want and set their goals to achieve it. Women are no longer just homemakers but can be expert bussinesswomen. Keep up the good work.

Unfortunately, our currency is 2 to 1 US therefore some of the prices are steep.

Paula McGill Fairley is another replica of Emma Harte. She is badly suited against Jim Fairley who is a weak person. The way she dealt with Jonathan is what Emma Harte would have done. So to speak, pride comes before a fall.

This has to be the worst book I have ever read and I'm seriously not kidding either. It was boring with uninteresting characters. I kept reading thinking that it would get better and neatly come together at the end, but it never did. The bizarre, disturbing ending stamped it as the worst book ever for me. I never read a Bradford novel before and certainly expected something better than this. Don't even ask me how I was able to get through it, but somehow I did!

I only got about 1/3 through this book because it was written in the first person and I couldn't relate at all to the weird narrator or any of the other unrealistic characters, plus it was boring.

Even though I am no a big fan of this author I did find this book to be very entertaining even though I threw it against the wall of my prison cell many times. But Over all it was a good read. In prison there aren't a lot of good things to read. Heck I even told my mother about it and she had a tough time reading through it. But in the end she liked it too.

THIS WAS THE FIRST BOOK I HAVE READ OF MS.BARBARA'S. IN THE BEGINNING I COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN,BUT TOWARDS THE MIDDLE IT GOT A LITTLE DULL.I SORT OF LOST INTEREST,BUT IT GOT BETTER AT THE END. OVER ALL IT WAS A GOOD BOOK AND I PLAN ON READING MORE OF HER BOOKS.

I am a BTB fan but I feel this book was rather basic for her. I liked the story and there were many points that really made me thing and gave me hope for the future. I was disappointed in the length though and wished the story had continued. Overall a good read.

This novel had a very timely twist to it which made it a real page turner. It was much too short and I wanted to know more about some of the characters that were brought up such as Samantha -- what ever happened to her? Overall I enjoyed every page of the book and can't wait to read more of this author's works. This book was not cluttered with lots of characters and made for a quick and easy read!! Thoroughly enjoyable!