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daisy87's review
3.0
Maureen is again on a mission to uncover the true story of a woman who was also of the bloodline of Mary Magdalene and Jezus Christ. Wikipedia can't tell me why Matilda of Tuscany's body was moved to the rest in the Vatican, but in this story she is not only the lover of Pope Gregory VII, but also his wife and the mother of his child. Maureen finds out Matilda was one of the expected ones as well, with the same red hair she herself has. She was educated in the ways of the Book of Love, the gospel written by Jezus Christ himself when she was a child.
Through a series of visions and excerpts of the Book of Love, we learn the story of Matilda and even of Sheba and Solomon.
I appreciate the storytelling that McGowan is really good at, but I didn't like this book as much as I liked the first one, which relates the story of Mary Magdalene and her life with Jezus Christ. I'm not a religious person and the views of the church are a bit too confining to me, which is maybe why I enjoyed this other version of the story told by McGowan so much. It describes Jezus Christ as an incredible leader and good man, who was married and had children with Mary Magdalene. I'm intrigued by this idea and the story was beautiful.
I'm a bit disappointed to say that I didn't get into the story of Matilda and her life as much as I did with Mary Magdalene, however much I wanted to. Though the woman does sound interesting and the fact alone that her body was moved to the Vatican is enough to spark my interest. Stories like this, about the Church covering up part of history, always make me wonder exactly what is hidden in the archives of the Vatican.
This wasn't light reading in any way you can imagine, it was a bit hard to get into at first and it doesn't really get much easier after that. But I'm glad I finished it, though I'm not sure about reading the final part in the trilogy. This could have been just a fictional biography, the parts with Maureen finding out about a lot of things didn't really add to the story in my opinion.
My rating: 3 stars
Through a series of visions and excerpts of the Book of Love, we learn the story of Matilda and even of Sheba and Solomon.
I appreciate the storytelling that McGowan is really good at, but I didn't like this book as much as I liked the first one, which relates the story of Mary Magdalene and her life with Jezus Christ. I'm not a religious person and the views of the church are a bit too confining to me, which is maybe why I enjoyed this other version of the story told by McGowan so much. It describes Jezus Christ as an incredible leader and good man, who was married and had children with Mary Magdalene. I'm intrigued by this idea and the story was beautiful.
I'm a bit disappointed to say that I didn't get into the story of Matilda and her life as much as I did with Mary Magdalene, however much I wanted to. Though the woman does sound interesting and the fact alone that her body was moved to the Vatican is enough to spark my interest. Stories like this, about the Church covering up part of history, always make me wonder exactly what is hidden in the archives of the Vatican.
This wasn't light reading in any way you can imagine, it was a bit hard to get into at first and it doesn't really get much easier after that. But I'm glad I finished it, though I'm not sure about reading the final part in the trilogy. This could have been just a fictional biography, the parts with Maureen finding out about a lot of things didn't really add to the story in my opinion.
My rating: 3 stars
the_sassy_bookworm's review against another edition
3.0
This is book #2 of the "Magdalene Line Trilogy", I finished book #1 last week (The Expected One) and really enjoyed it, this one I didn't quite love as much. The first book had a good pace to it and the balance between present day story and past was perfect. Book #2 was much slower paced and the present day story really took a backseat in this book, I would have preferred more character development on that front. That being said I did really enjoy the story of Matilda, so not as good as the first in the series, but good enough that I will definitely be picking up book #3 when it comes out!!
wendysimon's review
4.0
This book was almost as good as the first one in the series. I loved the historical parts although sometimes the book dragged a little bit until we got to the main characters. However, this book about finding the Book of Love, a gospel written in Jesus's own hand was very engaging and I like the characters more and more. Maureen is the perfect heroine, finally acknowledging her beloved in this book. Her visions become more real and the addition of Destino and his life through this book was an amazing way to end the book.
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