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Megan
It is 1919 and poverty in the mining village where 16-year-old Megan Williams lives, forces her to leave her loving family to work as a kitchen maid in Bristol. Her sly cousin Lizzie, already a parlour maid at Redcliffe House, is determined to make things difficult for Megan. It was never going to be easy, for both upstairs and downstairs it is a maelstrom of feuds. Megan finds herself a pawn in the battle for power between the two sons. Megan finds friends as well as enemies and in the darkest of times she has to call upon courage and determination in order to help her distraught family. But has she lost her own chance of happiness in the process?
224 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2008
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 17, 2023
TW//
Megan is a historical family saga that follows Megan and a few of her relatives. Megan leaves her home to take a job as a maid in England, but things take a turn for the worse and her life is completely changed.
This book has the bones to make up a really strong story, but the story feels like it needs massive revisions before it can live up to its potential. I went back-and-forth between whether this was a two star or three star read, but honestly I only really enjoyed the third act conflict and the rest of the story was rather bland so two stars is a fitting rating for Megan.
My biggest issue with this book is the treatment of sexual assault. This book doesn’t have clear trigger warnings anywhere on it, but it starts depicting sexual assault in lots of detail early on. It made me sick to my stomach, but I kept reading in hopes that Megan would get justice. I shouldn’t have held my breath waiting for that because it didn’t arrive in a satisfying way. However, possibly more troubling than the justice issue is that all spicy scenes are lightly hinted at without going into much detail except the sexual assault scenes. The sexual assault scenes were fairly graphic while the consentual spicy scenes were fade to black without much detail. I don’t even fully know how to word why this is wrong, but something about it was deeply troubling and it felt odd to me. If you’re going to make any adult scene detailed, why choose to only do the sexual assault scenes instead of the consentual scenes?
I also struggled with the characters. Most of the characters were either bland or disgusting. There wasn’t any that I really cared for. Megan, Sidney, Rose, and all the other good characters had boring personalities. The villains, on the other hand, were so vile that I felt sick to my stomach from some of their choices. Lizzie was the absolute worst in my opinion and I struggled with how many scenes focused on her.
I found that this book had a tendency to skip over the happy scenes that I really wanted to read about. Most happy scenes would just say “so and so got married on this day” instead of going into detail about them. This resulted in the majority of the book focusing solely on the negatives. This was my first time reading a family saga so maybe this is common in family saga books, but honestly why mention happy moments at all if you’re going to skim over them?
There was at least some interesting and not too triggering drama as the third act conflict, so that was a little bit of a saving grace for me, but it was too late for the story to be fully saved by the time the drama was introduced. I think this book easily could’ve been revised to be more interesting, but it just didn’t live up to what it’s described as.
Megan is a historical family saga that follows Megan and a few of her relatives. Megan leaves her home to take a job as a maid in England, but things take a turn for the worse and her life is completely changed.
This book has the bones to make up a really strong story, but the story feels like it needs massive revisions before it can live up to its potential. I went back-and-forth between whether this was a two star or three star read, but honestly I only really enjoyed the third act conflict and the rest of the story was rather bland so two stars is a fitting rating for Megan.
My biggest issue with this book is the treatment of sexual assault. This book doesn’t have clear trigger warnings anywhere on it, but it starts depicting sexual assault in lots of detail early on. It made me sick to my stomach, but I kept reading in hopes that Megan would get justice. I shouldn’t have held my breath waiting for that because it didn’t arrive in a satisfying way. However, possibly more troubling than the justice issue is that all spicy scenes are lightly hinted at without going into much detail except the sexual assault scenes. The sexual assault scenes were fairly graphic while the consentual spicy scenes were fade to black without much detail. I don’t even fully know how to word why this is wrong, but something about it was deeply troubling and it felt odd to me. If you’re going to make any adult scene detailed, why choose to only do the sexual assault scenes instead of the consentual scenes?
I also struggled with the characters. Most of the characters were either bland or disgusting. There wasn’t any that I really cared for. Megan, Sidney, Rose, and all the other good characters had boring personalities. The villains, on the other hand, were so vile that I felt sick to my stomach from some of their choices. Lizzie was the absolute worst in my opinion and I struggled with how many scenes focused on her.
I found that this book had a tendency to skip over the happy scenes that I really wanted to read about. Most happy scenes would just say “so and so got married on this day” instead of going into detail about them. This resulted in the majority of the book focusing solely on the negatives. This was my first time reading a family saga so maybe this is common in family saga books, but honestly why mention happy moments at all if you’re going to skim over them?
There was at least some interesting and not too triggering drama as the third act conflict, so that was a little bit of a saving grace for me, but it was too late for the story to be fully saved by the time the drama was introduced. I think this book easily could’ve been revised to be more interesting, but it just didn’t live up to what it’s described as.
August 22, 2022
"Utterly gripping" is a stretch, and a "family saga" usually spans more than one generation, but this was a pleasant read. Fairly predictable the way a Hallmark movie is predictable. Megan goes into service in England (from Wales) and while she is gone, her father dies, resulting in her mother and sibs being evicted from the mine company housing. She finds herself the object of the manor's master unwanted attentions but she likes the cook's son. Her brother is accused of murdering her mother's new husband. It's all pretty typical of this style of story but all is tied up nicely in the end.
October 19, 2022
Really enjoyed this book Megan had some really hard times loosing her beloved father her mother marrying again to keep the family from being homeless her brother going to jail and so much more but don’t want to give everything away but she came out on top
September 11, 2022
Great read
I really enjoyed this book! Megan had so many struggles in her life and heartache but she survived.and came through it all. Would recommend this book
I really enjoyed this book! Megan had so many struggles in her life and heartache but she survived.and came through it all. Would recommend this book
January 19, 2023
a very realistic story
I really enjoyed reading this story. It seemed to improve the more I read and the last pages gave a very satisfactory ending!
I really enjoyed reading this story. It seemed to improve the more I read and the last pages gave a very satisfactory ending!
October 19, 2023
Drama all the way!!
One of the recurring themes we have to grapple with is those in service and 'the served' as we ride the roller coaster of loss, marriage, imprisonment, drunkeness, Welsh culture and customs, blackmail and even more!! This is along with a number of main players, but you never feel lost, as their characters are so well rolled out, that they feel familiar. Great for a holiday read or a wet week! Fine, if you need to leave it to eat, but on one's return, it enfolds you again like a warm fire!!
One of the recurring themes we have to grapple with is those in service and 'the served' as we ride the roller coaster of loss, marriage, imprisonment, drunkeness, Welsh culture and customs, blackmail and even more!! This is along with a number of main players, but you never feel lost, as their characters are so well rolled out, that they feel familiar. Great for a holiday read or a wet week! Fine, if you need to leave it to eat, but on one's return, it enfolds you again like a warm fire!!
June 16, 2024
Heart warming and romantic. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this story about Megan whose life was full
This story was gripping. Poor Megan was betrayed and so badly treated but after everything she went through managed to find true love.There was nothing I disliked about this book and can't wait to read the next book by Carole LLewellyn.
This story was gripping. Poor Megan was betrayed and so badly treated but after everything she went through managed to find true love.There was nothing I disliked about this book and can't wait to read the next book by Carole LLewellyn.
July 19, 2024
Super!
Really loved this book and all Megan goes through with good men and with bad. The losses she endures while dealing with problems of her own with no one to turn to. The story keeps you interested all the way from start to finish
Really loved this book and all Megan goes through with good men and with bad. The losses she endures while dealing with problems of her own with no one to turn to. The story keeps you interested all the way from start to finish
August 1, 2023
I seldom have difficulty getting past the first chapters of a book, but this is one of those. I found the characters I met shallow and unbelievable.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews