Antoinette May

Prior to reading “The Determined Heart” I knew only the absolute basics about Mary Shelley: She was the daughter of Mary Wollstonecraft; the wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Bysshe); and the author of “Frankenstein” (the idea coming to her after being challenged by Lord Byron, “on a dark and stormy night,” to write a ghost story.) I must thank author Antoinette May for enlightening me about the true talent, and significant tragedies, that encompassed Shelley’s life.

May’s book covers Shelley’s life from childhood through her death, with the primary focus on her years her years living with Bysshe. Their lifestyle would set tongues wagging and raise eyebrows even by today’s looser mores. They were Scandalous (with a capital “S”!) during their own lives (we did not cover this during high school English class!) and were often the outcasts. In part due to their lifestyle, and in part due to circumstance and living in a time before the advent of modern medicine, Mary’s life was marked by sadness, tragedy, and loneliness. In fact, despite the genesis of “Frankenstein” in response to a challenge for a “ghost story”, Mary would always maintain that the book was really about loneliness and rejection.

May does a good job making these complex personalities come alive for the reader. My criticism is that she includes entirely too much detail. The book was too long, and my interest started to wane as the book went on. A shorter, tighter, book would have made for a better read.

3 stars.

Thank to you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.… (mehr)

It's remarkable to think how young Mary Shelley was when she wrote Frankenstein. Then again, she met Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was fourteen, run away with him when she was sixteen and bore him four children of which only one survived to grow up. What a fantastic and tragic life she lived.

Mary Wollstonecraft died in childbirth so Mary and her older sister Fanny grew up with their father William Godwin who later married Mary Jane Clairmont who already had a daughter called Claire Clairmont. She had a troubled relationship with her stepmother and stepsister. She burns all the bridges when she runs away with Bysshe. Bysshe is already married with a child and a baby on its way. But they are in love and that's all that matters. The problem is that Clair is running away with them and that is the start of a love triangle since Bysshe is all for free love and even encourage Mary to sleep with another man. Still, they stay together and their love story will live on after they both are gone.

I read Passion by Jude Morgan a couple of years ago. Passion takes up the women who loved Shelley, Byron, and Keats. This book focuses on the love story between Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelly, but Lord Byron is also a big part of the story since he had an affair with Claire Clairmont and he was a friend to both Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelly. It's an often tragic book to read because despite the deep love between Mary and Bysshe couldn't he be truly faithful even though she was the woman he loved the most. Mary had to face a life with a man who truly believed that marriage wasn't necessary and they would probably never have married if he didn't want to gain custody of his children with Harriet, the wife he left behind. Also, Mary had to put up with Claire all through her marriage. But the hardest part of this book to read was the death of all the children. One after another died and it's really tragic to think that of all the children Mary gave birth to, only the youngest Percy survived.

I think this book was well written and interest to read. I already have some previous knowledge about the lives and fates of Bysshe and Lord Byron, but I didn't know that much about Mary Shelley and it was intriguing to learn more about her growing up and her life with Bysshe and after his death. Antoinette May has written a really good book and I felt enriched when I finished the book. Not only did I learn more about the characters in this book I learned more about the time they lived in and I really keen on reading more about Mary Wollstonecraft, a woman I have heard about, but not know so much about.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! … (mehr)

It's remarkable to think how young Mary Shelley was when she wrote Frankenstein. Then again, she met Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was fourteen, run away with him when she was sixteen and bore him four children of which only one survived to grow up. What a fantastic and tragic life she lived.

Mary Wollstonecraft died in childbirth so Mary and her older sister Fanny grew up with their father William Godwin who later married Mary Jane Clairmont who already had a daughter called Claire Clairmont. She had a troubled relationship with her stepmother and stepsister. She burns all the bridges when she runs away with Bysshe. Bysshe is already married with a child and a baby on its way. But they are in love and that's all that matters. The problem is that Clair is running away with them and that is the start of a love triangle since Bysshe is all for free love and even encourage Mary to sleep with another man. Still, they stay together and their love story will live on after they both are gone.

I read Passion by Jude Morgan a couple of years ago. Passion takes up the women who loved Shelley, Byron, and Keats. This book focuses on the love story between Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelly, but Lord Byron is also a big part of the story since he had an affair with Claire Clairmont and he was a friend to both Mary Shelley and Percy Bysshe Shelly. It's an often tragic book to read because despite the deep love between Mary and Bysshe couldn't he be truly faithful even though she was the woman he loved the most. Mary had to face a life with a man who truly believed that marriage wasn't necessary and they would probably never have married if he didn't want to gain custody of his children with Harriet, the wife he left behind. Also, Mary had to put up with Claire all through her marriage. But the hardest part of this book to read was the death of all the children. One after another died and it's really tragic to think that of all the children Mary gave birth to, only the youngest Percy survived.

I think this book was well written and interest to read. I already have some previous knowledge about the lives and fates of Bysshe and Lord Byron, but I didn't know that much about Mary Shelley and it was intriguing to learn more about her growing up and her life with Bysshe and after his death. Antoinette May has written a really good book and I felt enriched when I finished the book. Not only did I learn more about the characters in this book I learned more about the time they lived in and I really keen on reading more about Mary Wollstonecraft, a woman I have heard about, but not know so much about.

Thanks to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! … (mehr)

I'm kind of surprised by all the vitriol for this book. I think it's silly to be totally enraged that a piece of historical fiction with a totally invented character isn't 100% accurate.

Anyway, I feel like parts of this book were great and parts were really weak. The main character, Claudia, has prophetic visions that she can't control. Once she gets to be about 14, the visions barely get mentioned. They do come up, but not nearly as often, to the point where I wondered for a while if the author had just forgotten about that aspect.

It was also kind of silly that Claudia fell desperately in love with Pilate, to the point of using a spell on him, and then she I guess falls out of love with him even though it's clear he's actually quite fond of her (staying married to her even though he could've divorced her like 4 different times), and then she has an affair with some other guy. I mean, it's silly that her character did that, but it's interesting writing. The really silly thing is the guy she has an affair with is totally boring. She keeps talking about being so totally in love with him, and that she has NOTHING without him, but he has almost no personality and they have no real interactions besides him thanking her and then they have sex and a bath. It just got more and more annoying to read her pining after this guy who's said and done nothing particularly interesting, and then her wasting away because she has nothing without him, forgetting her child, her wealth, her position, and her husband who loves and respects her.

My main complaint is the number of typos in this book, though! That's certainly not the author's fault. The editors and publishers are supposed to catch the typos and correct them. But there's just an absurd amount of typos. One or two in a professionally published book, fine. But there's at least 10! Things like verb tenses being wrong, incorrect pluralizations, and spelling character names wrong - there's a character named Holtan whose name is spelled Holton at least once. It's quite annoying.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but the main character got on my nerves the longer the book went on. If you're a huge history buff who gets annoyed by things being wrong, steer clear of this book - a few pieces of historical timeline are off a bit, and things like them giving the "thumbs up" to save a gladiator when historians are pretty sure thumbs down meant to save them. It didn't bother me at all, but from the other reviews, clearly some people are just utterly enraged by that kind of thing.

… (mehr)