Leigh reviewed on 3/4/2013 + 378 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 3

This is straight-up indulgent Irish Historical porn and I loved every minute of it. I feel spend and exhausted; my emotions were tossed back and forth, every which way as I followed Brian from early childhood to the end of the book. I just want to sit and bask in the glory of it all - how it made me feel. I want to cry that it's over. And when I recover, I know I'm going to want more.

If you're like me, you've at some point lost your voice after a night of drinking and yelling about the evils of the English during the Scottish Clearances. Reading this will only make you want to yell at the same decibel level in support of Ireland, for whatever they do. (But my goodness, they do seem to fight a lot for no good reason in this book).

Brian is as beautiful and flawed a character as ever there was one. His lifelong struggle with religion and constant doubts made him approachable and likeable. I didn't always understand his choice of women but the author handled that part well. I was even interested in the innumerable brutal battles that seemed to never end throughout the book.

Llywelyn deserves her reputation as an excellent historical researcher; the amount that went into this book is nothing short of astounding. How she could use so much source material from so many differing sources to come up with this novel amazes me. I truly, truly appreciate the essential "real" part of the story - where things don't tie together, where strands are left hanging, where characters you'd think would see each other again simply don't. Because that is real life and this is supposed to be true to history.

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