The Wedding Gift - Alexandra Raife

A Scottish saga

Advantages: Lovely characters, well-written plot, satisfactory ending
Disadvantages: One or two minor continuity flaws

boarding school. She takes Kate under her wing, shows her around, introduces her to various animals including her beloved horses, and generally helps her settle in more than anyone else. I didn't feel that Laura was as sympathetically drawn as the children in similar books by other authors, but she certainly helped to move the novel forward, and provided a much younger person's viewpoint. ? Other characters ? There are other minor characters: a significant one is James, the introverted widower who lives not far away with his small twin daughters. There are also various domestic and farm workers who play significant parts in Kate's new life. They are introduced gradually, and I didn't have any difficulty remembering who each one was. In addition, there are a few 'extras' whom I recognised from previous books - names Alexandra Raife has ...

Kukana 03.01.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Sun on Snow - Alexandra Raife

Gifted!

Advantages: Just brilliant in every way
Disadvantages: None

a joy to read from start to finish, and really had me sitting and thinking as I turned the final few pages. It is really a moral story, with a bit of magic thrown in to cheer it up, but come the ending everything comes together in a quite shocking ending which really made me sit up and reread what I had just read! Ahern seems to have the ability to create a magical world on paper which you can visualise yourself so deeply that you are thrown so deeply into the story, you want to keep reading right until the end all in one go! The shiny snowflake cover allows this book to be a great Christmas gift as well as a book that is going to be great to bring out for Christmas again and again. I borrowed by copy from the library but will getting myself a copy as soon as its out in paperback. Highly recommended, I absolutely loved it - this is one book ...

mummy2harry 15.11.2008 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of The Gift - Cecelia Ahern

Aga Saga Meets Mills and Boon?

Advantages: Great characters, enjoyable story, interesting issues explored
Disadvantages: Rather too many minor characters

mention of people who were featured as main protagonists in earlier books. So there are quite a few to catch up on, as this is her ninth novel. I've read all the others, although not recently, so I had a vague memory of who was who, and I still found the sheer number of people a bit overwhelming at times. I think this aspect could be really quite confusing for someone who hasn't read Alexandra Raife before. What's more, some of the returning characters seemed to me to be extraneous to the plot, such as a hotelier on the other side of the glen who has a seriously ill husband. I didn't have a problem myself with these people being included, as they had been the main characters of one of the earlier books I'd read, so there was a sense of catching up on news of old friends. However if this had been the first Raife book I'd come across ...

Kukana 22.05.2004 · Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Return to Drumveyn - Alexandra Raife