A happy ending to this depressing trilogy
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The final book in the Wideacre trilogy and tells the story of Julia and Richard Lacey's daughter Meridon (Sarah Lacey). Her mother gave her up to travelling gypsies at birth to protect her from the Lacey madness.
After her gypsy sister is killed during a trapeez act by the father of her unborn baby, Meridon is consumed by grief and accidentally discovers Wideacre and her inheritance. She dashes everyones hopes as she wants to farm the land for a profit for herself.
On her deathbed she is tricked out of her inheritance, but somehow finds the strength to live and against all odds win back Wideacre and the man she loves. She is then able to give Wideacre to the poor.
A happy ending to a mostly depressing trilogy.
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Disappointing end to the trilogy
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This book marks a departure from the first two, and takes Meridon, an abandoned gypsy girl who is secretly the heiress of Wideacre. I found the characteristion and plotting significantly weaker than the other two books and never felt involved with what was happening. I seems to me that Gregory just got bored with the series and was writing to order. The relationship between the characters was never more than superficial and the convenient ending of the heir of Laceys giving the land to a commune and living herself in a common-man's cottage as his lover but not wife was just way too contrived.
I thought the other two books were flawed but interesting, but this one failed to either capture of hold my interest and brought the whole trilogy down with its too neat tying up of all the ends.
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book nostalgia
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When I think about this book, I feel book nostalgia. It's what you feel after reading the truly great historical fiction, when you've been seduced by the characters and by the intoxicating intrigue of historical fiction. The BUT is that you have to get through the two first books, which are to put plainly quite painfully depressing, so as to really understand what drives the women of Wideacre. Meridon is on a par with Phillippa Gregory's "The Queen's Fool".
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A Fantastic Third!
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I couldn't wait to get my hands on the third in this triology! And I was thrilled with the book. The storyline is just terrific!
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One of the best trilogy's i have read!
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I started with Wideacre and was gripped, even though I did not usually go for this type of historical fiction. I read that book twice, then realised that The Favoured Child and Meridon followed the story through. I loved the twists in the tales that you dont expect, and the characters are brought to life in your mind. Excellent, well worth reading.
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