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There are currently 37 member reviews
for The Tea Planter's Wife
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Judy M. (East Haven, CT)
The Tea Planters Wife
The Tea Planter's Wife is a lovely, flowing love story which takes place in Ceylon.
It is a somewhat typical story of love & secrets, sorrow, but more importantly touches on the subject of social injustice.
The struggles between how people from the same culture but speak two different dialects are put in a caste system which keeps them divided. This struck me as pertinent in the world today-still! It also shows how an outsider can never really understand a culture, or people if they are not part of it.
All in all it is a light read, and did manage to keep my attention throughout.
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Patricia T. (Fallbrook, CA)
The Tea Planter's Wife
The Tea Planter's Wife is above all a romance, backed up by dark deeds, misunderstandings, mystery, more misunderstandings, deceit, more misunderstandings, heartache and betrayal, shameful secrets, more misunderstandings. All this in an exotic setting, a tea plantation in Ceylon during colonial days. The culture of those days is totally captured, the novel is atmospheric, you can feel the heat and tension. In spite of all this I was not drawn in, found many of the characters one dimensional. I wanted to reach into the pages and give our noble heroine, Gwen, a good shake. A happy conclusion of course, in the end all is revealed, resolved and forgiven. If you enjoy a tumultuous love story with a myriad of twists and turns, villains real and imagined, this is a book for you.
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Barbara K. (Brooklyn, NY)
The Tea Planter's Wife
As I began to read The Tea Planter's Wife, I was transported to another time & place, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka , 1913-1934. The author's detailed language created pictures of the place, the characters, the tea factory, a woman's world in the early 1900s, even race relations.
A good story keeps a reader invested in the details, wondering 'What will happen next?' Dinah Jefferies did just that. For this reason I recommend this book.
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Donna W. (Lansing, NY)
Romantic novel with an element of mystery...
This was for me, a quick read, and most definitely a "chic book", with some intrigue thrown in.
While touching on some historical elements to make it believable, the ending was somewhat unrealistic and not necessarily plausible given that it was the main focus of the main protagonist, Gwen throughout the novel. There really was only one explanation for the main action taken by Gwen, yet the reader was led to believe that Gwen's confusion was mostly naive and reactionary given her young age and mere isolation in the setting of Ceylon.
I would recommend this book as a light, entertaining read.
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Linda S. (Milford, CT)
The Tea Planter's Wife
The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies is a journey into Ceylon, a lush country, taking place early in 1900. Gwendolyn Hooper is a very likable character, if very young and naive. There is at least one lesson to be learned from this story and that is keeping secrets leads to misconceptions, misunderstandings and often unhappiness. I think it would appeal to book clubs, given the variety of characters and their personalities. I enjoyed the book but found the author much too descriptive, using far too many adjectives.
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Carol N. (Indian Springs Village, AL)
The Tea Planter'w Wife
I enjoyed this book and read it very quickly, in about 3 days. It kept my attention and I was interested enough in the characters to find out what happened to them. The one character I did not like, was Laurence's sister. I'm still not quite sure why she acted the way she did all these years later and to me, she came across as a spoiled, self-centered brat. This story did have some interesting theories and I feel like it brought the age-old problem of race relations out in the open. I did feel like the wife was somewhat timid although I guess that was normal in the time period this took place in. It just seemed like there was a lot of dancing around issues that would have been out in the open now. All in all, I enjoyed the book and think it would be excellent for book clubs to read. The only reason I gave it four stars instead of five is that I felt like some of the story kind of dragged on at times.
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Rosemary S. (Somers, NY)
Easy and Interesting Read
This book was easy and quick to read and held my attention. The Tea Planter's Wife is a historical fiction novel that takes place in Ceylon (which is now Sri Lanka,) between 1913 and 1933. The book intrigued me because of it's setting. The history of the area, the culture and the tea trade was something I did not know anything about. I was fascinated by the author's description of the tea factory and inner working of a tea empire. However, I did find myself wishing that the author would incorporate more of this history into the novel.
Family relationships, romance, discrimination, loss, and the keeping of secrets were all themes in this novel. Gwen, the main character, was developed well. I did wish there was a little more information about Gwen's husband, Laurence, and his sister, Verity. What emotions ran through their heads? What were the motives for their actions?
I think this is an excellent vacation read, interesting and easy. I enjoyed this book for the simplicity, after reading a heavier novel, this was perfect. I wanted to learn the secrets at the end of the novel, and quickly finished the book.
