The Heir

Barbara Taylor Bradford

Edition	Hardcover
List Price	$25.95
	$15.57 (Save 40%)

Published by	St. Martin's Press
Release date	2007-10-30
ISBN	0312354622
Availability	Usually ships in 24 hours

At the age of thirty-three, Edward Deravenel, having survived harrowing years of betrayal, threats from ruthless enemies, countless lovers, and a war that ravaged his country, is finally king of his company. It?s 1918, an influenza pandemic is sweeping the country, and Edward has a family and a business to protect. He must thread his way between his loyal brother, Richard, and his treacherous middle brother, George, an alcoholic bent on self-destruction . . . but not before he tries to ruin Edward and his good name. Meanwhile, the wrath of his ever-jealous wife, Elizabeth, is reaching a boiling point as suspicions about Edward?s relationships with other women arise.

Politics of inheritance are intense, and different family factions vie for honor over the years. An heir is needed to keep the Deravenel name alive, but tragedy and death remain obstacles at every turn. The choices include a loyal caretaker, a jealous rumormonger, a charming young woman, a sickly boy, and the scion of the family Edward ousted from power years before.

Barbara Taylor Bradford triumphs once again with a novel about passion, treachery, marriage, and family, and the compromises we?re forced to make for power and love.

Customer Reviews - courtesy of Amazon.com ( Marked4Sale.com is not responsible for review content )

Poorly Plotted

I think that Barbara Taylor Bradford forgot to plan out this story before sat down to write. I normally love her books but this was a big dissapointment. Characters keep dying, some murdered, but there is no resolution and it seems like the remaining characters don't really care to find out what happened. I kept expecting the bad guy to appear and get his just rewards, but it never happened. The story skips huge chunks of time. The characters could be interesting but are never really utilized in any manner. Reread one of the Emma Harte books and save yourself the misery of this one!

What a waste of print material

Let me start by saying I normally love this author, however, omg what a waste of time. First off there are so many unsolved murders in this book that it should run red! 2nd before you even start to care about a character they are dead, no follow up, no attempt to solve the mystery, no one mourns for more than a few sentences. The first part of the book was o.k., the 2nd half forget. It jumped from decade to decade, you never got a chance to get into the plot line because there is not one. People come into the picture, get killed, someone new comes in, your in a new decade and are left thinking, why did you even start to read this.

Good read: The Heir

After I understood Bab's play on the modern day Plantagenet and Tudor historical dynasty, which happened in the middle of the first book (even though she gave a hint - slow on the uptake), I loved the second book, the Heir, when Henry VIII (Harry) comes into the storyline. Can't wait to read Being Elizabeth, the sequel.

Practically Verbatim Retelling of Historical Events

***Warning, this review may contain spoilers***
Let me first start out by saying that the Ravenscar books are the first BTB books that I have read - from the other reviews I get a sense that these are not her best. I really only bought the Ravenscar series because I live in a foreign country and this series was one of the few that I could get in English; however I wish I had saved my money. Here's the thing: as a previous reviewer stated, these books (set from 1904-1974 or so in England) are based on the events in the 15th and 16th centuries in British royal history - From Edward IV all the way up to Henry VIII; however this is not "loosely" based or even what I would call a "clever twist" - this is basically stealing the plotlines, changing "kingdom" to "company," altering names (slightly), and fast forwarding a few hundred years (which allows for contemporary political commentary like "I think that Winston Churchill/Margaret Thatcher is really going places"). The Heir tries to tackle the reigns of several kings and deal with one of the more complicated periods in British history, which is why I think there is so much time jumping and dying. Plus I'm sorry, but did anyone else emit an audible groan when "Henry Turner" tried to divorce Catherine (of Spanish blood) to marry "Anne Bowles"??? But really the whole novel was like this, as was the previous book in the series, although at least the Ravenscar Dynasty only spanned 10 years. My advice? Unless you want to try to Play Who's Who in British History (e.g. Neville Watkins = Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick) read Allison Weir or Phillippa Gregory or even William Shakespeare to get a better rendition of these particular historical events.

Bummer

I'm a big fan of Ms Bradford, but this book failed to deliver. She got off to a great start, but then began jumping decades - which is OK, but her transition was poor - killing off key characters between pages, and introducing new ones - and handling both type events as if we knew who they were and what had happened. And most disappointing to me was that the book just stopped more than ended. Very frustrating, and a waste of a weekend read. Maybe she had a contract to deliver and just ran out of time.. who knows. But I can't recommend. The two stars I give is generous.