2008-05-28 Quit Crusading! - Two and a half stars only

Have you ever felt that you're swimming against the tide? Well, I'm afraid that the praise received by this book definitely has left me with that feeling, and I think that Garwood may well be a taste that I simply haven't acquired. For this reason, I have decided to put forward an alternative viewpoint.

The main turn-off for me is the heroine turns into a social crusader - which could be acceptable except that the book is supposedly set in the Middle Ages. She tackles head-on the attitudes of the clanswomen, the Church, clan elders, and clan politics as well as shining a light on maternity practices (at a time when such things were most secretive, and definitely not discussed with men). Garwood does give the odd nod to medieval history, with passing references to King John; however the attitudes expressed by her characters definitely are not 13th Century - for instance, when the hero tells Judith to work to change the customs she doesn't agree with - too PC for the times by far. Equally jarring is the emphasis placed on washing and bathing - this at a time when both were generally considered unhealthy!

The other difficulty for me is Garwood's language. The Vocabulary used is modern, with her favourite words repeated time and time again. Hardly a page goes by without the words "quit" or "visitation" and I just could not get over this. Also, there is little use of traditional Scottish dialect - so she uses "children" instead of "bairns", "creek" instead of "burn", and so on. Unfortunately this meant that neither the setting nor the timing of the novel were believable, which spoilt it totally for me.

The central romance is fairly well drawn out, but became bogged down in the social crusading, and therefore became side-tracked.

I bought this because it has been highly praised everywhere - and found that there is nothing here which lifted it above the mediocre. Sorry Garwood fans, but I really couldn't get into it.