I slogged thru half of the book and was going to give it up; came here to read reviews and they all said it got good around page 500. Well, it picked up some but i was relieved to finish it. I mostly wanted to know if they were reunited w the uncle. Anyway, the big twist is exactly what you would expect and Im throwing this one back to the thrift store. Bu- bye!

It was too white. Could not finish. Could not get through "the whole enchilada."

I’m sure there are many people who would love this book, and in fact there are a few I will recommend it to, but unfortunately I am not one of those people. I know that writing was a bit more “relaxed” back in the eighties when this was written, but I still found it tiresomely overwritten. What could have been said in a few sentences went on for pages, repeating the same idea in different words over and over. This 700+ page novel could well have been covered much more enjoyably in less than half the pages. In addition, although I liked most of the characters in the first section of the book, my fondness for them did not grow. Much of the story was predictable. I almost stopped fifty pages in, but my life-long habit of finishing everything I start and curiosity kept me going. I was glad when it was over. As I say, this writer is good for many readers, but I won’t be reading any more of her books.

I like it very much

A very interesting saga dealing with both English aristocracy and Hollywood. The characters were developed well in the beginning, with almost too much detail, while the end of the book seems almost rushed. And there was almost a void where the story jumped 20 years, and that portion of the book was lacking.

Ugh. Only finished it because I was too lazy to go to library.

This book was quite the read, some 900 pages but the variety and flow of the story kept you reading. Every main character was either in the movie business or held a title of lady/princess or some sort. It is a loved lost story that can irritate you, break your heart, and ultimately make you cheer on the good guy. Well worth the time.

If you enjoy her other works you will enjoy this. Historical romance set in the 1940-50s, USA.

Why doesn’t BTB write books like this anymore? I honestly thought I’d read Voice of The Heart before, but if I have it must have been back in the day when it was first published, because no huge clanging bells started ringing.

I’ve always loved BTB’s books, although for me none will ever shunt ‘A Woman of Substance’ from the No. 1 spot. In the past few years her books though seem to have lost their way. The ‘Cavendon Hall’ series should have been a huge hit for me, but they never reached that WoW reaction, even though the timeline and subject was right up my street.

VoTH, I absolutely loved. It has all that rich description the author is so brilliant at. As usual there are a heck of a lot of characters to keep track of, the research must have been phenomenal, there are so many subjects covered. The story is a bit like a roller coaster and the plot wasn’t obvious. The ending in one part isn’t what you expect.

From the very beginning I took a strong dislike to Katharine Tempest. She was just too good to be true. I still disliked her at the end. My favourite character was Francesca Cunningham, although unfortunately as she is not the main character does not get as much coverage as Tempest.

To follow your heart

Good story but appalling editing

The spelling throughout this book is dreadful. It looks as though it has been scanned but never checked. In some cases, it made understanding very difficult and rather spoiled what would otherwise have been a good book.

Normally I enjoy BTB's novels, especially her early work. This book I'd never read, or if I had, I'd read it years ago and forgotten it. I picked it up several months ago at the Salvation Army because it sounded good.

The other day I was in the mood for a good saga, so I chose this one to read. I thought "yay, a good meaty book to get into after a string of disappointing reads."

This was also a disappointing read. Right away both female MC's were flaming Mary Sues. Katherine was gorgeous and kind and smart and funny and thoughtful and blah de blah perfect. She was an up and coming movie star with a sad past. Francesca was also gorgeous and kind and smart and funny and thoughtful and blah de blah perfect. She was an up and coming writer of historical biographies, so she was also bookish smart. Everyone loved both women. All the men wanted to have sex with them, the women were all envious of their perfection. Bleah.

The men fared no better. They were total Gary Stus. Kim and Victor and Nicky. All Stus. The kids in the novel were kiddy-sues. Katherine's daughter was pretty and smart and totally not a spoiled rotten brat. Yech.

And then there's the overblown and purple prosey descriptions of said characters. Many times it is mentioned that the women had long necks and their heads spun delicately on those necks. Their eyes were turquoise or blue or green or whatever the bumfuck color BTB decided to use as a description. Their hair was the same way. Descriptions about the color and texture and how the hair flowed down their slender necks was written ad nauseam. Same with their breasts, their legs, their torsos, their shoulders, their butts, their arms. Description after description of their beauty, not to mention a shit ton of name dropping their clothing. We get it, they're not slobby uggos who wander around in blown-out flannel jammy pants with kitties on the butt. They wouldn't be caught dead in a Walmart t-shirt with a dog on the front. Flip-flops would probably make them hiss and make the sign of Chanel. No thrift shopping for these characters, nosirree!

Whatever flaws the characters had was overwhelmed by the constant description of them. I think Katherine had some sort of mental issues, I don't know because I got so tired of the Sue aspects that I stopped reading. I did read the ending and it's the usual cliched ending of every crapfic ever written.

BTB also must've worn her thesaurus out on this one. She blew the book up with ten cent words where a five cent one would work just as well.

So, unless you lurve you some raging Mary Sues and are fine with reading a gazillion pages devoted to describing said Sues, I don't otherwise recommend this one.