"The Cavendon Women" is the second in the Cavendon series by Barbara Taylor Bradford. The saga continues with the story of the Ingham and Swann families from 1926-the financial crash of 1929. I read the first novel in the series and enjoyed it so much, that I couldn't wait to read this novel. It certainly did not disappoint. What can be frustrating about novels that continue from one book to the next, is missing out on information, or forgetting key details. I loved how Ms. Bradford reminded readers what happened in the previous novel. So, if you haven't read the previous novel, or read them out of order, you will not find yourself lost. Ms. Bradford did a wonderful job in developing the characters and in keeping the plot moving along. I look forward to reading the next book in this series, "The Cavendon Luck". ( )

Fabulous, fabulous and onto the next!! ( )

I received this book as an Advanced Reading Copy through the Goodreads Giveaways. I finished this book only because I wanted to give it a fair review. I feel somewhat ambivalent about giving a bad review to something I received free, but I must be honest. I found the writing style to be very poor almost as written by an elementary school student. The conversations between characters are extremely simplistic. There is no real sense that we are dealing with the 1920s since many of the phrases are so current. I can't imagine a wealthy English man or woman using the phrase "no problem" or shouting "whoopee". There are many characters, but most of them are the same--beautiful, handsome, wonderful, kind, loving. There is no real character development, no depth to any of the characters. Beyond this the plot is very boring. All major and minor problems are swiftly dealt with no matter if it's financial disaster, pregnancy out of wedlock, thievery, or murder. Everything is on the surface without any depth. I was hoping for a good family saga, but this certainly was not it. ( )

And then I read the sequel, The Cavendon Women, and I found it to be more enjoyable than the first book (it's a series and I have no idea how many are going to be in it as this book just came out). I think that this was because rather than dwelling on one dramatic event as she did with Cavendon Hall, Bradford touched more on each member of the family (of which there are many). The characters were somewhat more fleshed out and (GASP!!) their flaws were brought to light. I was starting to believe these two families were pod people to be honest. Everyone is gorgeous, talented, and morally upright. I prefer my characters to be multi-dimensional. I would like to applaud Bradford for imbuing the women with extraordinary strength and independence especially for the time period in which it was set (the roaring 20's). It's hard to give a definitive review for either of these books. I didn't hate them but I certainly didn't love them. I doubt I'll ever reread them and I'm uncertain if I'll even retain the memory of the characters beyond the writing of this review. :-/

Also, I'm really just not a fan of romance novels and the way these had been presented I thought for sure they were historical fiction. It was more like tiny snippets from history were glimpsed through a peephole of a multi-layered romance. And why do there need to be so many gratuitous sex scenes?? ( )

I think I gave this book a fair shake at 31% completed before dropping it like a hot potato. It, unfortunately, has all the problems of book one and even slides down another notch by killing one of the nicer points of that same book. So here ya go on why I dropped this one…

The one bright point in this whole debacle of a book is the author still takes her time in the descriptions and beauty of 1920s rural England. The estate of Cavendon is beautifully described, and the fashions of the era are also lovingly brought to life. I could see everything in my mind’s eye, no problem.

Sadly, everything else in this book that I was exposed to sucks. The characterizations…. Oy vey! Just like in book one, everybody is two-dimensional (at best!) and stereotyped. There were no “Daphne” and “Hugo” equivalents in this book to save this side. Everyone was either super beautiful, courageous, loyal, and true to the family OR you were evil, ugly, and an egg-sucking traitor.

Even just having a dissenting opinion was enough to label you a traitor to the family and enough to get the cold shoulder from everyone. The individuals with this dissenting opinion was villainized and ostracized as soon as those opinions were voiced. Talk about “family loyalty”… I mean if you can’t have a different opinion and still feel loved with family members, than who can you with??

Then there’s the story itself. We’re right back to the inane melodramas of the first two thirds of book one, only without the powerful events like Daphne’s “devastating” event. The biggest plot points by the time I quit was petty theft and marrying outside your class. Maybe in another work, these might have been enough to carry the story, but not with this work or author.

I’m sorry to say that these two works were my introduction to the author. Sad to say, they don’t shine a good light on her as a writer. Maybe she was just in slump when these works oozed out of her pen, but don’t start with them if you haven’t read the author before. Horribly flat characterizations, inane plot points, and just bad writing bog this work down, like book one. Pass on this one.

Note: Book received for free from publisher in exchange for an honest review. (Again, very honest, was I!!) ( )