Dark Tides: A Novel (The Fairmile Series Book 2)
By: Philippa Gregory
Rating: 1 of 5
What a letdown. I read this book as a follow-on to the first in the series (The Tidelands.) While I had a few issues with the first book, I was intrigued enough to want to know the continuing story of Alinor and James.
That is not this book. The author jumps over 21 years and, from Alinor’s standpoint, summarizes the time in a couple of paragraphs.
Alinor is a shadow character in this book and has gone from loving and forgiving to rather bitter and, to say the least, unforgiving.
James has become incredibly stupid. He is duped from the get-go by a conniving young woman. For that matter, so is almost everyone else. That this young woman is transparently evil almost goes without saying. The book actually becomes mostly her story with everyone else as hangers-on.
The other part of the story is that of Alinor’s brother Ned who has moved to the America’s following the King’s reinstatement to the throne. His transformation is ludicrous. He was a narrow-minded and unforgiving Puritan. Suddenly, he loves everyone, forgives everyone and doesn’t have a problem with the native populations different religion and every different moral codes. This change is dumped on the reader without explanation.
The two parts of the story don’t work well together as they are tied simply by the fact that Ned sends Alinor rare herbs and goods for her to sell. Interestingly, he seems to have entire forgiven her for her shame when he couldn’t bear to be around her years before. Perhaps book 3 of the series will tie it together, but I’ll never know. I won’t waste any more hours of my life with this nonsense and I am thankful to have been able to borrow it from the local library instead of purchasing it.