Rated of 5
by Maggie P. (Redmond, WA) Historically Interesting
I loved the authors use of adjectives to really give you a clear picture of the the surroundings and the characters feelings. I enjoyed the historical facts, but I felt let down. I had a hard time wanting to continue reading the book. By the middle and into the end of the book, I didn't have a strong connection to the characters. It is a good book for the historical information, just wish I'd felt more for the characters.
Rated of 5
by Deanna W. (Port Jefferson, NY) Not So Gripping
I enjoy historic fiction and like to learn information about a specific time period. However, this story was too heavy on historic detail and not enough on character. This book is based on the true story of the first French settlers in America and the women sent to be their wives. There are three protagonists : Elisabeth, Auguste,and Jean-Claude. Had I cared enough about any of them I might have finished this book.
Rated of 5
by Eileen F. (Ephrata, WA) Savage Lands Savage Lands is a historical page turning novel of France's attempt to settle and claim the Louisiana territory. Her main characters, Elizabeth a casket girl, and Auguste a poor cabin boy, developed into very strong characters. It is a story of hope, survival, betrayal, fear, and strength. The history of the slaves, the local Indian tribes, the attempt to cultivate the land,and the other immigrants, all held my attention.
Clark's prose is at times almost poetic. She keeps the drama of her story flowing by intricately weaving parts of the present into future chapters. Her author's notes at the end of the book were very informative. They detailed the actual history of the time. Clark now has me hooked, I will have to read her other novels.
Rated of 5
by John D. (Garland, TX) Going nowhere
I gave this book the 50 page test and gave it up. Too many paragraphs like "She dreamed about it when he was gone, the images in bright fragments like shards of broken glass catching the light. His gold-flecked eyes in a plump infant face. His long fingers in dimpled fists. A lean, sunburned face and a creamy new one, cheek to cheek, like a slippage in time". UGH.
Rated of 5
by Mary M. (Lexingtin, KY) Disappointing
I finished this book not liking the characters very much and without a clear picture or understanding of the time period. One thing I really did not like was that the author moved the story forward too quickly. For instance the main female character was on the boat and then she was married. No explanation of what happened in between. I needed a bit more background and story development. I kept expecting to get a real insight into the time period and the people, but I never did. Something was missing.
Rated of 5
by Sande O. (Rochester, NY) Riveting and Thought-provoking Read
Clare Clark takes the reader into a very primitive land in her historical novel, Savage Lands. This is not the Louisiana of the antebellum South, this is the pioneer land of 18th century French, English and Native American combatants. The initial background is the French effort to "civilize" settlement of the frontier by sending "casket wives" to the territory and it ends with the Louisiana Bubble, an economic disaster.
Throughout the well-researched narrative we follow the lives of women caught in the drama of settlement, love, betrayal and survival. It is reminiscent in many ways of novels coming out of third world countries today: women's lives playing against a much larger backdrop they cannot control.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Judge rules unused Borders gift cards to be worthless(May 23 2013) Borders owes nothing to holders of roughly $210.5 million of gift cards that had not been used by the time the bookstore chain shut down, a Manhattan federal...
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of 5
by Maggie P. (Redmond, WA) 
of 5
by Eileen F. (Ephrata, WA) 
of 5
by John D. (Garland, TX) 
