Every emotion I ever felt was brought forth in this book.

So beautifully written. The emotional tugs made me so aware of my own struggles. The characters, landscapes, cultures, speech...all so brilliantly conveyed that I would dwell on what I had read far beyond the time I set the book down. Looking forward to the next book already downloaded.

This was an epic story! It was a good story but at times it seemed too long. It has good characters and I wanted to know what happened to them. I enjoyed the book

I recently started re-reading the books by Kathleen Woodiwiss after discussing them with a 100 year old friend whose mind is sharp enough to remember the character of all of her books. Brought to mind this series which I read when it first came out in the 80s. I think I reread them about 10 years later. Would love to read them again. They made such an impression on me. Wonderful story line, well written and one that almost 40 years later made me want to find it again. I highly recommend this series to anyone whose heartstrings are pulled by pure love and romance.

A "chick" read. I enjoyed it because it includes history of early Thoroughbred racing in the US. However, some of her equine terms (e.g., use of "by" and "out of" in describing sires and dams) and the misspelling of "conformation" (she spelled it "confirmation"), make me doubt the authenticity of her historical facts.

Someone recommended this book to me--I had it on my personal to read list, although now I wonder if I didn't have the title slightly wrong. At first I really wanted to like this book, but then I found it full of cliches, with a main character who the author made a heroine in spite of immoral acts (the author seemed to think there was nothing wrong with fornication, adultery and accessory to murder as long as her heroine was a "good person"), and several R-rated (or worse) scenes.

This is a terrific epic tale about Alexandria Thaine. It’s one of those sweeping, huge, historical fiction/romance stories that covers generations and several families. And it’s just wonderful!

The book starts in England when Alex is just a child. Because of problems within her own family (wow, what a terrible mom she had!), she gets involved with a family involved in smuggling during the Napoleonic wars. After some time, she returns to her family, begins a family of her own, and then, when tragedy strikes, leaves with her family to go America.

Once in America, she and her family build an entirely new life, showcasing her strength and determination… but she also meets (again) the boy she once loved…

This is a fantastic story, full of detail (to include a lot about thoroughbred horses) and with excellent character development. I love how resilient Alex is, and also love her frequent “I just don’t care how it’s supposed to be done” attitude – an attitude even more admirable given the timeframe of the story.

I enjoyed this book immensely and will probably read it again!

Really got caught up in this one the love Alex and rane have leaves you not wanting the book to end So glad there’s more on to the next one

Alexandria Carrington, rejected by her mother, goes to live with her distant cousins the Falconers in the West Country. But her fate lies not there but beyond the sea, in Maryland with horse racing.

This is the saga of Alex, a clever and independent woman striving to make the best life possible for herself and her family. I enjoyed following along her journey, and the author does a good job of wringing her readers' hearts. However I did find the romance a little underwhelming - I liked both heroes but did not particularly root for either.

At the instigation of her beloved grandmother, thirteen year old Alexandria (Alex) Thaine, the youngest and unloved child of Margaret and Caton Thaine, is sent to Clovelly, Devon, to live with distant relatives, the Falconers, a family of freetraders. The Falconers welcome Alex into their lives and provide the love and understanding that is sadly lacking in her own home. An instant bond forms between Alex and Rane, her cousin, and the two become inseparable. Away from the spite and meanness of her mother and older sister, Alex grows into a confident and happy young woman.

When Alex receives news that her sister has died, she returns to her home in Gravesend to help look after her sister's twins and await the return of St. John Carrington, her sister's husband, from the Napoleonic Wars.

At that time, Rane doesn't declare his true feelings for Alex as he believes she is too young. However, when she turns sixteen, he makes the trip to Gravesend to propose, but is too late. Alex loves the twins as if they were her own children and has chosen St. John, although church law prohibits them to legally marry.

With St. John ostracised by his own family since he married Alex's sister and Alex's family, except her grandmother and her brother Boston, disapproving of their relationship, the added heartache of the loss of a child precipitates their move to Maryland, a place Alex learned of when her path crossed with that of an escaped American prisoner of war. It is the ideal place for St. John's dream of breeding race horses and Alex's hope for a better future away from the strictures of family and English society. Although she cannot totally forget Rane, she consigns the life they may have had together to the past and focuses on carving out a future for herself, St. John and their children.

I loved this book and all those wonderful characters that populated its pages, even the not so nice ones. My heart went out to Alex from the first moment she entered the story - a free spirit who only wishes her mother to love her. Deep down Alex knows that she never will. As for the two men Alex loves, the much older St. John didn't endear himself to me as Rane did. I felt that Alex had made a mistake by staying with St. John. However, the initial rocky start to their "marriage" draws them closer and my opinion of St. John did change, although I never stopped hoping that Alex and Rane would find their way back to each other somehow.

Apart from the romance, this novel is filled with lots of political and social history, which ranges from England in the grip of the Napoleonic Wars to America where resentment of the English is still rife following the War of 1812, slavery, presidential elections, the coming of the railroad and the lead up to the American Civil War. The breeding of thoroughbreds and the horse racing circuit, which form a major part of Alex and St. John's life in Maryland, add a unique and interesting backdrop to an already enthralling tale.

If not for the release of this ebook, I would have been unaware of this author and the trilogy that was so popular back in the 1980s. A Wild Hope is a wonderful story of love, resilience, sacrifice and heartache. It truly is an epic.

This has always been one of my favorites. I read it many years ago and then even reread once. I'm an avid reader and it's rare that I get attached enough to keep a book. I found this book recently and wanted to see if it stood the test of time. So I re-read and was not disappointed. The characters will stay with me forever and I'm not sure what other books I can really say that about.

So much happens in the course of this book and while there is tragedy and injustice, this book proves that life goes on.

DNF, pg 140 + another 20 pgs scattered throughout.

I knew I was in trouble when the attention-absent father monologued about naming all his kids after far-off cities: Rome,** Florence, Boston, & Alexandria. (Guess which one is the heroine.

Tire history!

Loved the story but really enjoyed truth being told that slavery was not the only reason for the civil war.