I was really looking forward to this book as I am at the stage in my life where I am traveling more and wanted to see here I my want to go. The best part of this book are the photos. They were absolutely stunning and the layout was pretty good for a large format coffee table book (not so much for my pdf version). Unfortunately I have no idea what the criteria was for inclusion or what they really meant by pilgrimage. It would have been nice to break up the descriptive text to cover the legend, the physical structures (pictures) and why it is revered today (why are the pilgrims coming). Some of that was in the text, but it didn't seem consistent and was hard to find quickly when I was only looking for one part specifically. Regardless, it seems a little odd not to have Medjugorje among other potential sites. At times it just seemed like the author was including a site simply because it was popular with tourists. I guess that I was expecting something a little more spiritual?

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#GreatPilgrimageSitesofEurope #NetGalley ( )

Great Pilgrimage Sites of Europe by Derry Brabbs is a visually stunning volume but I am only able to comment on some of the text because my digital review copy still had lorem ipsum as placeholders for many of the entries and even many of the photo captions. I will update my review if/when I see a complete volume.

I did not penalize very much for being unable to read a large portion of the book because I am familiar with other books from this publisher and trust that what I couldn't read was on a par with what I was able to read.

The pictures offer a nice mix of wide views as well as some details in a closer view. In the entries I was able to read the discussion covered a bit of history, which means theology as well, and why the site either is still or has become a major pilgrimage site. There is the depth of detail you expect from a better coffee table book, meaning deeper than surface but not like in a history book. Which is ideal since the trade is usually for better and larger photographs.

Even not being able to read every entry I still recommend this book based on what I could read and all of the pictures (all of which were visible) combined with my experiences with the publisher's other books.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )