Questo volume mi è arrivato come copia omaggio assieme ad un saggio acquistato per l'università. Quando l'ho preso tra le mani ho storto un po' il naso, pensando che mai e poi mai l'avrei letto: non sono un'amante dei romanzi "rosa".
Per fortuna non mi sono fermata all'apparenza e ho deciso di cominciarne la lettura ugualmente: in poco tempo sono rimasta catturata da questo romanzo.
Dopo le prime 30 pagine un po' lente, il ritmo della narrazione diventa più incalzante e avvince totalmente il lettore, tenendolo incollato alle pagine.
La forza principale di questo romanzo, tuttavia, non risiede nella storia in sé e per sé, poiché pochi (ma geniali) sono i colpi di scena: è infatti la costruzione dei personaggi il pregio più evidente di questa opera letteraria. La caratterizzazione dei quattro protagonisti è superba, in particolare quella dei personaggi femminili: complessi, dalle mille sfaccettature e mai scontati, in poco tempo arrivano al cuore e colpiscono per la loro umanità.
È stata una splendida lettura arrivata in chiusura di un anno difficile, e che mi sento di consigliare a tutti, anche ai più diffidenti verso questo genere di letteratura.
Un ultimo appunto: ciò che rende, secondo me, molto godibile la storia è anche il lavoro superbo fatto anni fa dalla traduttrice Roberta Rambelli attraverso l'uso di un italiano molto elegante e scorrevole, che accarezza e accompagna gentilmente il lettore lungo tutto lo svolgersi degli eventi.

This book had been piquing my interest at the local library for some time as it is an early Barbara Taylor Bradford that I had not read. I picked it up this past week and it proved timely as it has been just the perfect thing for seeing me through a vicious head-cold. It is easy reading and involved enough to keep my interest, but it is not one of Bradford's best. I would place it somewhere between her Emma Harte novels and the newer series.

A great love story. Heartmwarming, in all things we are still vulnerable to love!

Read this years ago...

Voice of the Heart is such a page turner , it is honestly a BIG book over 800 pages, but so well worth it , l could not put it down.
The storyline is so captivating, intriguing, with characters that were really brought to life .

Katherine Tempest , her stunning beauty, brilliant talent and almost magical allure, very irresistible and has her world of her feet .
Her rise from unknown actress to Hollywood legend is one marked by dazzling performances and a carefully concealed, yet undeniable ruthless, determined to succeed.
Katherine irrevocably changes the lives of her closest friends, the two men who love her , the woman who trust her implicitly.
She never looks back until she needs one thing they alone can give her forgiveness.

Katherine is a difficult character to like, but keep reading on, you learn to understand why she is the way she is , and it will surprise you as the chapters keep going .

Francesca was a little frustrating, but her mistakes were made because she was so young and native.

Victor so lovely but his life is such a mess.

Nick influenced by Hollywood, but such a loyal beautiful friend .

I definitely give this book a 5 STAR rating , so wonderful and it will be treasured.
Barbara Taylor Bradford is one of favourite authors, so many favourites from her , and still so many to read .
Thanks so much for this beautiful stunning book

I personally think this book would be better if it was 300 pages shorter. It was slow going in many places. I skipped those parts which were boring.

I found this book to be a very satisfying read. The characters were well developed, interesting and believable.

I found it interesting that there were a lot of references to relationships between siblings, particularly brother-sister siblings. Each main character had issues, conflicts or close relationships with their opposite sex sibling.

Katherine was a very complex character and probably my favourite. Her actions caused a lot of unintentional heartbreak. Secrets, lies, friendship, betrayal and ultimately forgiveness are all explored throughout the plot of this novel.

The actions of one person can change the course of several lives, however, any one of those characters could have made a different decision and avoided years of heartbreak, sadness and the wondering of what could have been.

OMG! If I said this book was good, then I'd be lying. This book was so boring, I sometimes felt like throwing it against the wall. The lives of all those people had nothing in them but a bit too far stretched drama. 2.5 stars to this book.
P.S I like the cover.

Hollywood-grade Beauty Gets Away With Much

Her characters are stupendously good-looking but I don't think there is a need for this except perhaps it's her penchant to plan something massively twisted to the character that she needs to blind you first to how good-lookin they are, for primers. Anastasia is a goddesse, Katharine's beauty the stuff that "inspired poets for centuries", and Francesca "enormously pretty" "hard to ignore , "tall and willowy" meanwhile Audra's eyes were so vivid blue people did a double-take on her. Anastasia mulled at how they did nothing but just have sex, Francesca became "looser and more mature" after being immersed in bedtime indulgences with a Hollywood star. Audra the poor girl was less inclined, even wary of talking about the God's gift to couples. This leads you to be amused Bradford would adopt the stereotype of bratty rich girl only wants sex and more sex because she's too clueless to do anything else, less inclined to be responsible with her bodilu appetites.


Frankie Is Just Too Starstruck With Kath...(Then something twisted happens.)

One important thing I've learned: Just because the book is thick does not mean it is of high quality. Her characters are always stupendously good-looking which is unnecessary except it serves only the writer's whim which is shock value, like make a character do something so highly unlikely and so twistedly unbecoming. Of all the Bradford characters I read Francesca is the biggest mass of contradiction. It is unthinkable that you love someone but grossly fail to tell them that something scandalous being said about them. And all the while Bradford is pushing her to be seen as a great researcher, a writer of books with coherence and just the inquiring baby scholar Nicky loves. She cannot even properly confront the man she claims to love. All she has to say is "Why did you sleep with her Victor?". It just does not work for me.

I surmise her intention was to make Kath the object of the most profound and solid trust but pleaaaase! The disjointedness cannot be covered by oversentimentalizing the friendship of a starstruck oversexed poet. and a goddesse.

I am perplexed though, that she could not formulate a more justifiable point of conflict but instead tendency in a persona to be just be really shallow as a cause of separation or almost falling out of their commitments. In Voice of the Heart, the break-up was from Francesca's gross neglect and in The Women In His Life it was just plain foolish crippling obsession as if she did not grow out of a honeymoon. Yikes.

The characterization is too padded and it may bore people who are accustomed to fast-paced, plot-driven concoctions.
But the characterization peppered with unfamiliar words (I grabbed a dictionary!) may blind you and tantalize, thereby overlooking flaws in its treatment and content. .

I was high school when I first read this and I am now 43, the VicChes sex scene still the longest most detailed enchilada with cheesy ending.

Auf...perché non c'era niente altro.
#noradiozone #nowifizone

Great book. Missed five stars due to numerous spelling and grammatical errors.

Very emotional book, i had difficulty in the beginning as the translation was not done properly, but it was really nice reading about the girl friendship and how they manage their secrets