The Serpent's Tooth

Daughters of Eden Trilogy #3

by Michelle Paver

Since she was 12 years old, Belle has lived with a secret—a secret which cuts her off from her family, and isolates her wherever she goes. Against the unfolding horror of the Great War, her search for peace takes her from the brittle gaiety of English country house society to the remote Scottish mansions where her grandmother's tragedy was played out, and to the battlefields of Flanders. As the scarred and shattered men return from the trenches, and an influenza epidemic scythes across the country, Belle must finally discover a way to break free of her secret or lose everything.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, War, Romance, Historical, Historical Romance

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Michelle Paver was born in central Africa, but came to England as a child. After gaining a degree in biochemistry from Oxford University, she became a partner in a city law firm, but eventually gave that up to write full-time.

The hugely successful Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series arose from Michelle's lifelong passion for animals, anthropology and the distant past—as well as an encounter with a large bear in a remote valley in southern California. To research the books, Michelle has traveled to Finland, Greenland, Sweden, Norway, Arctic Canada and the Carpathian Mountains. She has slept on reindeer skins, swum with wild orca (killer whales), and got nose-to-nose with polar bears—and, of course, wolves.

Reviews

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok read.
I liked the budding romance of belle and Adam
, though there were problems keeping them apart.
Belle was a strong female character , however her past haunted her .

[Redfox5 · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember loving the book 'Fever Hill' but it's been so long since I read it, I can't remember why. I had to go back and check what the last book was about. This is a family saga so this one is told through the eyes of another character, which means it can be read as a stand alone.

You can't help but like the feisty, independent Belle but when she is raped by an older man her whole life changes. He convinces her that it's her fault because she is 'female'. And to get away, she begs her parents to send her to boarding school in England.

We also get the point of view of Adam, who is currently serving in the war. Little do they know that their lives will soon entwine.

This was a really good book, I couldn't put it down. It has romance, tragedy, war and family saga. I really need to read the first one in the series!

[Calum Mackenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, solid read. Not what I’d usually read and frustratingly didn’t realise it was the 3rd book in a trilogy but the story had me hooked (but not wowed) and I wish I’d read the trilogy in sequence.

Trigger warning - paedophiles, child abuse, death, graphic descriptions of war injuries

This was paver ‘S first non YA novel I’ve read and I’ll read more . I just wasn’t blown away.

[Colleen Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was my least favorite out of the three books but it was still a very great read. Isabelle character is a bit overbearing and she rolling sometimes but I guess after what she went through she should be entitled.

[Freya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een mooi verhaal.

[Estelle]

Read in French Une Femme de caractère

[Josie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't like this as much as the first two books in the trilogy. Michelle Paver does historical romance very well, but the plot was... Well. It wasn't the sexual abuse I minded so much as the fact that it was only A Plot Device, which made it seem seedy and cheap. More details under the cut, because it's spoilery.

So, 13-year-old Belle goes to her Great-Aunt May after 60-something-year-old Cornelius Traherne rapes her. Great-Aunt May says, "I believe you, but I won't back you up. If you tell anyone, they'll call you a whore and a liar. Your mother and grandmother were slutty liars too. Must run in the family." Which... okay, I can kind of believe Great-Aunt May saying that? She was a cold-hearted bitch in the previous two books. But then, THEN she says that she'll use this information to "bring Cornelius Traherne down" at a time that suits her. What. What is that even supposed to mean?? In the context of the book, of course, it means that Belle has plenty of time to fall in love and angst about how she can never reveal her secret, etc etc, before Great-Aunt May decides, on a whim, that NOW is the time to bring Cornelius Traherne down! And so she sends him a duelling pistol (again, wtf was she THINKING?) and he sets off to kill Belle (yeah, you really didn't think that one through, Great-Aunt May), only to be killed himself in a hurricane. After all the drama of Adam (love interest) and Ben (cool uncle) trying to find Belle in time, the pistol is never fired and Cornelius is brought down by a tree. And that's it.

In conclusion: I really dislike it when characters only do things to progress the plot, with no real motive behind their actions.

[Lis Pagh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dansk tekst : Belle

[Phil Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was only when I had finished this one that I learned that it was the third book in a trilogy. It really doesn't matter as it stands alone perfectly well. The plot, characters and narrative are all thoroughly enjoyable and I found myself rushing to the end to find out if the guy got the girl and if the baddie got his just desserts.
I don't usually go in for "romances" but the beauty of my local charity shop is that I try all sorts of different genres at reasonable cost and if half way into a book I find it's not for me, it doesn't matter. The great thing is that more often than not I am discovering that books I wouldn't normally part with £10 or more for, are surprising me for a fraction of that price and that my previously somewhat blinkered literary horizons are being challenged and widened. This is one such book. A romance I can heartily recommend for anyone who wants a "good read".

[Xenia Pavlidou · Rating 5 out of 5]

💕 Adam Palairet & Belle Lawe 💕


Book 1: The Shadow Catcher
Book 2: Fever Hill
Book 3: The Serpent's Tooth

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started reasonably well, but then rapidly became clear that it was (for want of a better word) overwritten i.e. having to tell you every little detail of people's thoughts/emotions and repeating them ad nauseam just to make sure that you hadn't forgotten. Ironically one of the characters says of another 'Everything, however blindingly obvious, had to be noted and described........it was becoming wearing.' Just about sums it up. Some contrived plotting too where (again ironically) no explanation given for some character's behaviour.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this rather than read it and found it a really good production.

When I picked it up I didn't realise that it was the last in a trilogy but I will definitely look out for the first two.

It is dark in places but not unnecessarily so and everyone does live happily ever after in the end!

[CLM · Rating 3 out of 5]

I loved the first two books in this series but found this one very dark and depressing. Unfortunately, the author now seems to be successful writing juvenile fantasy for boys so may not return to historical fiction.

[Rebecca · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok - I confess - I cant actually remember much about this book or its plot so that suggests to me that for a start my memory is worse than even i thought and secondly it clearly wasn't very memorable and thirdly - I must write reviews as soon as I finish the book!

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this but didn't love it. It didn't seem to matter that it's the third of a trilogy; it stands well on its own.

[Angie Swain · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, this is book three of a trilogy so a lot of the background was missing. I found the "secret" a bit puerile and thought that there were sidelines to the story more worthy of pursueing.