Rosie’s Book Review Team #RBRT Alistair reviews The Widow Makers by Jean Mead

Today’s book review comes from Alistair

He chose to read and review The Widow Makers by Jean Mead

The Widow Makers Jean Mead

 

This should have been a great. It chronicles the living and working conditions of many families in mid 19^th Century Britain. The squalid and dangerous conditions are described and compared with the luxury of their masters, the mine and quarry owners.

Joe Standish does his best to improve life for his family and to some extent he succeeds, but it is not enough for his elder son. Tommy wants to get to the top and nothing will stop him.

The contrast between father and son is unremitting black and white; some shade might have made it more interesting. Most of the people in this novel are either very good or very bad.

My biggest gripe is that the e-book I bought from Amazon is badly in need of a proofreader. There are missing words, wrong words (their/there) and a random use of punctuation. One character enters Joe’s house with a voice described as tenor, but when he departs he has become a baritone!

I would have given The Widow Makers 4 stars as it is a good story but the lack of proofreading reduces it to 3.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Rosie’s Book Review Team #RBRT Jill reviews The Widow Makers by Jean Mead

Today’s book review comes from Jill,

She chose to read and review The Widow Makers by Jean Mead.

The Widow Maker by Jean Mead

I downloaded this book because I like the sound of the story of the family moving from England To Wales, and discovering how they settled in a new country. I usually enjoy books that cover a period of time and that you can learn about the history of the era. I found the beginning of the book a bit harder to understand, when reading the slang used while they were in Lancashire. The story is based around the Standish family and their hard life in the Lancashire pits and the sad circumstances which lead to them making the brave decision to uproot and move to North Wales, and Joe the dad changing careers. You can image being in the surrounding countryside, as you read the book, and what a hard life they lead then. I felt so sorry for the mother, following the tragic event that happened to their daughter.

Half way through the book, the storyline changes and the son takes over as the main character from the father, and he is the opposite of him. I thought that the son, was a horrible piece of work, and how he treated his parents, was awful. It must have been very awkward, for his father to go to work after he was offered the opportunities that he had.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Extra news:

The Widow Makers  has now been in the Amazon Bestsellers for more than 2 months. The Welsh Books Council reviews and Historical Novel Society reviews for the trilogy are on the authors’s website www.jeanmead.com