2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

Tell us what you thought of the book! You can leave your review here. Even if you read the book outside of the group, please feel free to let us know what you thought of it.

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Well, I'm sad to say that's four days of my life I'm never getting back! Don't get me wrong, this was well written and true to it's time, but even for a 19th century novel, this was dull and dragged on for 500 pages longer than it needed to. Not for me I'm afraid...

I'm not sure who I disliked more, the parents or the aunt and cousin. I enjoyed the growth of both Margaret and Mr. Thornton. However, the ending was very unsatisfying. It abruptly ended. Even with the bad ending this book has become a favorite. I am excited to read more books by this author.

This book was not for me.

This is much more a novel about the conflict of ideas and ideology than a romance, although the relationship between Margaret and John very much epitomises the distance between different views of life. I was impressed by its ambitious range of topics which include faith and religion, class and gender, economics and justice in the context of worlds that exist so close to each other but appear so alien. I agree that it is wordy and overlong for today’s tastes but I enjoyed watching its two main protagonists work their way towards an understanding.

Well, I don’t know if I could have finished tha one if I didn’t start listening to the audiobook on double speed. Thank you Ernest Hemingway for making a more concise writing style popular!

Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this one. The book itself wasn't bad, a little dragged out for me, that for sure. And I was a bit unhappy with the ending. But it wasn't a bad, it definitely was written nicely and, as Valerie said above, the number of subjects it touched on was quite impressing.
It might not be for me, but I'm glad I read it

4 Stars

This one has been on my tbr for a very long time, and I'm glad to have read it finally. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. The writing was lovely, particularly the first half. The ending fell a bit flat for me, but otherwise this was a very enjoyable read.

Finally finished! I ended up giving this book 3/5 stars. I found the beginning and much of the middle part of the book to be extremely boring and too sickly sweet for my taste. I had to resort to forcing myself to read 5% of the book each day (thanks to my Kindle for tracking my progress!) until I reached 70% and then I got interested and wanted to read it.

Once the Union got involved, the action picked up and I started to enjoy the plot. I liked the ending, even though I could see it coming a mile off!

How a book can be so long and yet end so abruptly is beyond me. While I liked how the characters were portrayed and the progression of the characters, I wish more time had been spent on those changes. I’m glad I finally read it, but I’m not sure I would recommend it. 3 stars