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3rd out of 68 books
—
43 voters
Of Moths and Butterflies
by
V.R. Christensen (Goodreads Author),
B. Lloyd
Archer Hamilton is a collector of rare and beautiful insects. Gina Shaw is a servant in his uncle’s house. Out of place in the position in which she has been discovered, she becomes a source of fascination…and curiosity. A girl with a blighted past and a fortune she deems a curse, Gina has lowered herself in order to find escape from her family and their scheming designs....more
Kindle Edition, 646 pages
Published
October 2011
by Captive Press Publishing
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Of Moth and Butterflies is a beautifully written piece of historical fiction that firmly integrates the social and economic realities of gender and class in the late Victorian period in England into a story of mystery, suspense, and romance.
Imogen Everard, the heroine, struggles over and over to achieve some sort of independence, yet is thwarted time and again, like the insects captured and displayed in the specimen boxes of Archer Hamilton. Hamilton, himself, turns out to be equally caught by a...more
Imogen Everard, the heroine, struggles over and over to achieve some sort of independence, yet is thwarted time and again, like the insects captured and displayed in the specimen boxes of Archer Hamilton. Hamilton, himself, turns out to be equally caught by a...more
I couldn't finish this book!! I read about 30% according to my kindle. I hated Imogen ( the heroine) and i didn't care what happened to her. She let everyone tell her what to do and took it without trying to fight it at all. She doesn't want the money her uncle left her , but she can't live as a servant so i guess she does need it!! She loves her cousin ( he wants to marry her , but courts another girl while she is gone for a few weeks , so i guess he doesn't want her that bad ). Archer ( i imag...more
Set in the late nineteenth century, this novel has a female protagonist trying to escape her past and monetary fortune, a very curious man, some over-friendly cousins, and a few greedy folk for good measure. An arranged marriage appears to ease our protagonist’s troubles, but instead new problems arise everywhere.
I particularly liked how dialog heavy Christensen was in this novel. Christensen’s dialog felt natural, restrained, characterized excellently, and smoothly flickers between intense and...more
I particularly liked how dialog heavy Christensen was in this novel. Christensen’s dialog felt natural, restrained, characterized excellently, and smoothly flickers between intense and...more
This is an amazing book. It was hard to put it down. Imogen and Archer suffer greatly at the hands of their uncles. The twists and turns this novel produces are very suspenseful and leave you yearning to discover what will happen next. It's appalling that Imogen's inheritance can be controlled by her husband. Her husband allows his uncle and her aunt to plot and use her inheritance for their needs. Archer's uncle and Imogen's aunt are very unscrupulous. The characters and settings are very reali...more
Apr 17, 2013
Jeanie Stiles
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-romance
What the heck happened here? This book was off to a good start with me, but 4 days later, I was at my wits end still reading this. Why? I'll tell you, the author wouldn't have had that big of a book here if she would have had the hero/heroine have a conversation that lasted more than 2 minutes.
I mean come on 300 pages could have easily been removed if the author had been creative enough and brave enough to just end it. This book was never going to be an opus or the great american novel. Realit...more
I mean come on 300 pages could have easily been removed if the author had been creative enough and brave enough to just end it. This book was never going to be an opus or the great american novel. Realit...more
My husband was talking to me, poor fella, and I couldn't hear a word he said, I was so riveted with this wonderful story. Ms Christensen explores the plight of middle class women in the late Victorian world before the Marriage Property Act became law and freed women from utter bondage to their husbands. But it's not only a story about a young woman struggling to extricate herself from a greedy family and a society that wants to buy and sell her like cattle because she has a fortune, it is also a...more
Being a mere male `Of Moths and Butterflies' is not my normal type of book, but from the first page I was captivated by the characters and their situations.
The story is set in 1881 / 82 and takes place in Kent & London. The author has recreated the time and the place, and the life style of the various levels of society. The main character is a young woman who is being manoeuvred in to marriage because of a shameful act that was not her fault. I found myself wishing this young woman would tak...more
The story is set in 1881 / 82 and takes place in Kent & London. The author has recreated the time and the place, and the life style of the various levels of society. The main character is a young woman who is being manoeuvred in to marriage because of a shameful act that was not her fault. I found myself wishing this young woman would tak...more
This was the first time I had read this book. It is set in the 1800s which is the genre of books I've been enjoying most this year.
In this book the main character, Elizabeth is faced with an embarrassing past and has inherited a fortune that she does not know if she wants. She cannot make any decisions about the money until she becomes of age or marries. But what kind of person would marry an heiress? Will she ever be happy?
She runs away from her problems thinking she will be hidden and unnotic...more
In this book the main character, Elizabeth is faced with an embarrassing past and has inherited a fortune that she does not know if she wants. She cannot make any decisions about the money until she becomes of age or marries. But what kind of person would marry an heiress? Will she ever be happy?
She runs away from her problems thinking she will be hidden and unnotic...more
If I could, I'd give this a 2.5 star rating. If you're a sucker for light historical fiction, you could do worse than this one.
Despite the criticisms I'm about to put forth, I really did enjoy this novel. Some aspects were very well-done. The pacing of the first half of the book is elegant and, up to a point, the development interesting. After the half-way point, however, the pace not only drags, but the plot takes a decided turn for the melodramatic. The story could very easily have been wrappe...more
Despite the criticisms I'm about to put forth, I really did enjoy this novel. Some aspects were very well-done. The pacing of the first half of the book is elegant and, up to a point, the development interesting. After the half-way point, however, the pace not only drags, but the plot takes a decided turn for the melodramatic. The story could very easily have been wrappe...more
In Of Moths and Butterflies, V.R. Christensen has successfully placed her readers amid the lives and loves of two families in the late 19th century. The world she has created, her style, could stand against any of the ‘classics’.
The heroine, Imogen Everard sets out to prove she doesn’t need her despised uncle’s inheritance and finds work as a servant in the home of Sir Edmund Barry who proves to be too like her uncle for comfort. She meets and falls for Archer Hamilton, Edmund’s nephew, but ever...more
The heroine, Imogen Everard sets out to prove she doesn’t need her despised uncle’s inheritance and finds work as a servant in the home of Sir Edmund Barry who proves to be too like her uncle for comfort. She meets and falls for Archer Hamilton, Edmund’s nephew, but ever...more
Although it took me a bit to get into the story, once I was into it, I enjoyed this book. Even though I could pretty well predict the outcome, there were so many twists and turns that getting there was very interesting and made the read worthwhile. I would have liked to give the main character, Imogen, a good shake every now and then, but to me that is a credit to the author. This novel is historical fiction, taking place in England. The main character, Imogen, finds redemption in the end from t...more
I received this book free in a Goodreads giveaway, which I was very excited about; it was set in one of the time periods I love, and it was free, yay! And I get to discover a new author.
There were good points and bad points, I'll start with the good; It was very different having an upper class woman become a servant to escape a past; in a lot of classic novels you don't find this, it had a Catherine Cookson air about it which I liked, made it very accessible for the reader. I loved Archer Hamilt...more
There were good points and bad points, I'll start with the good; It was very different having an upper class woman become a servant to escape a past; in a lot of classic novels you don't find this, it had a Catherine Cookson air about it which I liked, made it very accessible for the reader. I loved Archer Hamilt...more
This carefully, beautifully crafted novel takes the reader on a journey toward love, acceptance, enlightenment, insight, and trust. It really is written in the style of a Victorian novel (It brings to mind several authors) and it takes place in Victorian times. The book is filled with riveting characters, and each one is lovingly fleshed-out, so that the reader grows intimately attached to all (except Sir Edmund and Wyndham, the dark side of the mirror, so to speak), and learns to understand wha...more
This is a very well written book, but I agree with many of the reviewers who think it was too long. I kept thinking, here's the right place for it to end, but then another unnecessary conflict would arise.
Still it had a very interesting setting and the characters were well-drawn. It says much that I kept reading until the very end, which while predictable was totally satisfactory. However, I would have given it a 5-star rating, if it had just stopped several chapters earlier.
Still it had a very interesting setting and the characters were well-drawn. It says much that I kept reading until the very end, which while predictable was totally satisfactory. However, I would have given it a 5-star rating, if it had just stopped several chapters earlier.
Praise the Lord and Hallelujah, I finally managed to finish reading it.
This book was a Kindle freebie last summer. One of the character collects insects and review was quite intriguing, so I thought I might as well try. This month I got the change to read it as a buddy read. Finally.
What a pity is to read a book with over 600 pages and then give it only one star. Vocabulary was wide. But language was too formal, no emotion. This book is filled with tragic ... But I just didn't care. The main ch...more
This book was a Kindle freebie last summer. One of the character collects insects and review was quite intriguing, so I thought I might as well try. This month I got the change to read it as a buddy read. Finally.
What a pity is to read a book with over 600 pages and then give it only one star. Vocabulary was wide. But language was too formal, no emotion. This book is filled with tragic ... But I just didn't care. The main ch...more
This was free on Amazon on my Kindle, and was recommended to me by a friend (who is the cousin of the author). I was invested enough in the plot to stay up until 2:00 am last night reading it, which says a lot. However, it was REALLY long and somewhat plodding towards the beginning. I wasn't as impressed with the characterization, though, however interesting the plot was. They didn't come alive to me as they do in my favorite books.
I loved this book. It reminded me very much of a Thomas Hardy novel except with a more positive ending. It was extremely heartwrenching, yet very satisfying. I loved the symbolism of the moths and butterflies and the foreshadowing in the novel. It was very well written and well done. It is a study in selflessness, sacrifice, and redemption as well as the extreme opposites in these virtues. Loved it!
This novel has an interesting perspective, of following a fallen woman who belongs to the middle-upper classes. It has a good pace, and an easy reading style that I easily got into. The main character had a hesitance based on her past experiences that was believable, but it seemed to go on a bit too long, making the novel feel longer than it really needed to be. I will look forward to reading more from this author. I would also recommend checking out the novel for the fantastic artwork between c...more
There was something very Bronte-like about this book as well as Charles Dickens, so this did seem to be a bit of a combination of Oliver Twist & Jane Eyre with a little bit of Jane Austen thrown in for good humor; however, I really did enjoy this. Did I love it? No -- it was a little too predictable but it was very well written and the characters were well done.
Wish I could give it 3.5 stars. I really enjoyed the story and characters. I just get so frustrated with the people in stories from this time period. Seems like life would have been a lot easier if people would have just been honest about their feelings. I felt like the story was dragged out with all of the lack of communication and honesty between characters.
Meh. This book was really long. By the end I wanted to knock the 2 main characters' heads together. If I had to read one more conversation about trust and courage and failure I was going to choke. On the other hand, I would have loved to read more about Roger and Claire. They cracked me up and provided some much needed comic relief from the boring whining of Imogen and Archer.
This book moved a little slowly, and there was a lot of the, why don't they just talk to each other frustration. The time period the book takes place explains some of it. But overall the story was good. Some of the drama was worthy of Masterpiece Theater.
I would probably read another book by this author.
I would probably read another book by this author.
I was not able to read this one too quickly but I loved every time I got back into it and all of the secrets and deception that was unveiling the deeper I read into the story. The hero and heroine endure so much to find love. What a tale that is to be discovered here! A particular aspect I truly loved was the dialogue between characters. Intelligent, sharp and true to the age. If BBC doesn't make a production of this I will be shocked.
Free on Amazon. I see there are mixed reviews for this book. It's one that you need to try to see if it's your taste. I was not interested in the slow pace or characters. The vagueness at the beginning annoyed me. Too bad because I really enjoy a good historical. This one was not one that spoke to me though.
I enjoyed the book. The pace was a bit slow and I found it frustrating that it took so long to divulge the secrets. However, the characters, situations, circumstances, even the language- they were all appropriate for the time period. A really great read!
I loved the characters in the book, as frustrating as they were. It was beautifully written and, for me, didn't seem as long as some people have mentioned. I really didn't want it to end not knowing what comes of Claire and Roger!
This was a very good read. Although it was a lengthy read, it was definitely a page turner with very involved characters, ones you either loved or hated. Rarely was there an in between. I enjoyed seeing the development of the relationship between Imogen and Archer and the transformation of them both in them as individuals and as a married couple.
OMG!! I finally finished this book!! Truly one of the longest 650 pages I have ever read and yet I kept reading it!!
The author could have accomplished her story in 1/2 the pages. The story itself was good, but so incredibly long winded. I was constantly checking to see how much progress I had made to being finished.
Imogen and Archer drove me nuts with their insecurity, whining, and inability to speak up, and yet I was happy to see them together.
I would have loved to have seen more of Claire and...more
The author could have accomplished her story in 1/2 the pages. The story itself was good, but so incredibly long winded. I was constantly checking to see how much progress I had made to being finished.
Imogen and Archer drove me nuts with their insecurity, whining, and inability to speak up, and yet I was happy to see them together.
I would have loved to have seen more of Claire and...more
I really enjoyed this and now that I'm done I keep wanting to open it back up forgetting that the story is over. I think that mainly I'm just a sucker for this genre though other than Austen & Bronte I haven't read much.
I had to constantly remind myself of the time period. I kept thinking how weak Archer is and how utterly (naive) stupid "Gina" was. Actually they were very appropriate for the time period.
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q&A with V.R....: Marriage, sex and the distribution of money in the Victorian era. | 16 | 15 | Feb 23, 2012 01:07pm | |
| Q&A with V.R....: The rise of the historical fiction novel and costume drama | 3 | 8 | Feb 17, 2012 07:19am | |
| Q&A with V.R....: Theme and moralism in Of Moths and Butterflies | 1 | 4 | Feb 16, 2012 08:08am | |
| Q&A with V.R....: Abuse and male dominance in Of Moths and Butterflies | 1 | 3 | Feb 16, 2012 07:42am |
Jan 11, 2012 06:05pm