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Nov 08, 2008

Christa rated it:

I am a real sucker for books that are about books, making The Tenth Gift my kind of story. However, within the first few pages of this book, I was predisposed to dislike it because the main character, Julia Lovat, has been involved in an affair with her best friend's husband for seven years. This caused me to start the book feeling decidedly unsympathetic toward Julia. In spite of this, I quickly became captivated by the storyline, which switches back and forth from modern day Julia to the lif More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Apr 08, 2011

Hannah rated it:

I feel somewhat guilty for according only 2 stars for a book like The Tenth Gift. Certainly I've read countless books like it in the past, and rated them higher.

Generally, I adore this type of fiction, where the author creates two women from different time periods and weaves an interconnecting tale of their lives and fates (often with subtle supernatural overtones). Writers like Susanna Kearsley and Kate Morton do it well, with their respective books The Winter Sea and The Forgotte More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 25, 2008

Amy rated it:

This book was very exciting! The plot bounces between 1625 and modern day as the main character unravels the mystery surrounding an old book and wrangles her love life at the same time.
One thing supremely irritated me and ruined the book for me. This is not a spoiler just a pet peeve. So the main character goes to the library to do some research...does she ask a crusty old librarian with who has a lifelong appreciation of local lore??? NO---she goes on the internet and gets all sorts of in More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Mar 10, 2008

Keris rated it:

If the sub-title of Crossed Bones - 'the all-true adventures and most unlikely romance of a pirate’s slave girl - puts you off a little, don’t worry; there’s not a ripped bodice or heaving bosom anywhere. Well, apart from on the cover, but we'll gloss over that...

It’s the story of a seventeenth-century Cornish girl, Cat, who is a talented needlewoman dreaming dreams of a more exotic future than the one that seems likely – marriage to her cousin, drudgery, babies – when a pirate ship ra More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 24, 2009

Nicole rated it:

The Tenth Gift is a wonderful and absorbing story about two complex women: Catherine Anne Tregenna (Cat) in 17th Century Cornwall, and Julia Lovat in 21st Century London. Like Cat, Julia has a talent for embroidery and at the dissolution of her long adulterous relationship with her friend’s husband Michael, she is given a book of embroidery patterns. Michael had meant to give her another similar book but mistakenly gives her the more valuable and unique palimpsest, as written overtop of the embr More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 07, 2009

Stephanie rated it:

I loved this book. It featured one of my favorite literary ploys: moving backward and forward in time to tell the story. (Reminded me greatly of The People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks in that sense) In the beginning I didn't have a lot of sympathy for the main character due to her moral flaws, but the author really draws you in and makes you care for her despite those flaws. Johnson makes you think about your own flaws and how sympathetically you want to be viewed despite them.

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 24, 2008

Crystal rated it:

Remove the main character, Julia Lovat, and her silly tawdry love affair with her best friend's husband, and perhaps The Tenth Gift could have had a more liberating story. But as it stands, the only time the book was free to soar was through the touching journal entries of one young British, Catherine Treganna, Julia's long deceased ancestor (circa 1625), that chronicle her kidnapping by Barbary pirates and the subsequent life that follows in a Islamic world (Morrocco), far from her British root More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Sep 24, 2008

Nancy rated it:

The thing I liked most about this book is that it's historical fiction, and the story is based on an actual event in 1625. I had no idea that people from Cornwall and Devon were abducted by pirates, and sold as slaves in North Africa. From Wikipedia: "According to Robert Davis, from the 16th to 19th century, pirates captured 1 million to 1.25 million Europeans as slaves. These slaves were captured mainly from seaside villages in Italy, Spain and Portugal, and from farther places like France More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Sep 12, 2008

Mary Beth rated it:

I love historical fiction. This book is about two women-one in present day and the other in the 1600's who is kidnapped by Barbery pirates and taken to a harem in the Middle East. She is a student of embroidery who becomes extremely talented at this art. The modern day character happens upon an old book of embroidery patterns and decides to trace the book's history. She herself has a needlework shop. I found myself rushing through her story to get back to "Cat's"-the women who was More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 24, 2009

kathleen rated it:

I seem to be on a pirates kick, because without prior intent,the last three books I've read all have something to do with pirates vs. corsairs.... The Tenth Gift is fiction based on the historical fact of raids by Barbary pirates on the coast of England around Cornwall. I chose this book at the library because it seemed to be about a woman who receives an antique embroidery book as a gift, and only discovered the pirate aspects later -- and I'm grateful because I probably wouldn't have picked i More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 02, 2011

Melissa rated it:

The ending was a little weak, but overall I thouroughly enjoyed this book. Johnson did a great job weaving the story back and forth between present day Julia and 1625 Catherine. Near the end of the novel, she adds in Catherine's cousin/fiance's adventure as he leaves Cornwall to try and rescue her. Add in a handsome, but kind pirate and there's a story that will keep you enthralled.

"In an expensive London restaurant Julia Lovat receives a gift that will change her life. It ap More...

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Aug 18, 2011

Linda rated it:

Better known as fantasy writer Jude Fisher, Jane Johnson tries her hand at historical fiction with The Tenth Gift. The two protagonists are embroiderers, separated by four centuries, but there's no time travel in this tale. Julia Lovat's married lover, Michael, has dumped her, hoping to ease the pain with a parting gift, a 17th century needlework book. In addition to patterns, "The Needlewoman's Glorie" contains a sort of diary, written by Catherine (Cat) Tregenna in 1625. The Tenth Gi More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Janneke rated it:

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Sep 03, 2009

Cindi rated it:

I liked this book. It was entertaining and a quick read. The book follows two women’s stories, one set in London in the present day and one set in Cornwall in 1625. I liked the idea of the two parallel stories, but I found Julia and the present day story more of an interruption and would have preferred to have just read a historical fiction novel about Catharine. Julia’s character bugged me with her childish reactions and un-steamy waste of a love affair with Michael. Also, there is hardly any b More...

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Jul 20, 2009

Betty rated it:

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Jan 22, 2012

Lorraine rated it:

Pirates of the Mediterranean...
pg 123: Compare these talkative pirates to the slave traders in, say The Book of Negroes. The pirates here are hardly realistic, talking up their cargo like they're at Sunday tea. How come none of the women captives have been raped yet? Also not very realistic.
pg 131: "Annie Badcock" -- another really thinly veiled connection between Julia and Cat; first the repeated references to "Robert Bolitho" and then the unnoticed name "B More...

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Jul 23, 2008

Debbie rated it:

I picked this one up because the cover was intruiging, then I read that it involved an antique needlework/embroidery book and I had to give it a shot. What a pleasant surprise. The story involves a modern woman who receives the book as a gift, and finds that inside is a hand-written diarly of a woman kidnapped by Morrocan pirates in 1625.

This is a first novel by this author. It is very well-written and I couldn't wait to see what would happen next

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 09, 2010

Beadyjan rated it:

I loved this book. Even better than I expected so couldn't give it less than 5 stars.

It has also been published under the title "The Tenth gift" so you may have read it as that.

Its basically a dual time romance (one of my favourite genres) but is so much more than a romance and in actual fact theres very little soppiness and no bodice ripping at all.

Julia Lovatt is in her 30s and begins the book by getting dumped by her lover, who also happened to be More...

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Sep 19, 2009

April rated it:

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Sep 14, 2011

Melanie rated it:

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Dec 28, 2008

Rima rated it:

The premise (a woman finds a historical account of an ancestor who was taken by slaves and decides to look into it) is quite good, but the book never really took off for me. There were three main problems: (1) none of the characters were particularly likable. They were either one-dimensional, or they had few (if any) redeeming qualities, or were just too unbelievable in their decisions or actions; (2) the writing was quite stilted and boring - it was often too much to the point and lacked flo More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 02, 2009

Deborah rated it:

i listened to this book as an unabridged audio book. it's a great way to pass the time on my long commute. The book switches between the 17th and 21st centuries and takes place both in England and Morocco. It's a lovely story that keeps your attention from start to finish. It did leave me with a few unanswered question. Possibly a good book club selection.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

MP rated it:

A book about a book ...a story in a story...pirates, castles, intrigue, love, hate, forbidden passions..what's not to love???

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Dec 03, 2010

Ron rated it:

Nicely done, though maybe more like a 3.7. I credit her with a decent historical fiction, even though I've had to rate it as a fantasy, too, because of its supernatural elements.

She may have tried too hard. Too much explaining. Parts read like a flora and fauna catalog. Other parts like history lectures. A stranger asks the protagonist what's she's reading and she answers with thirteen lines of background. How contrived. Do all modern thirty-somethings act/think like teens? She hammers More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 10, 2008

Shellie L rated it:

I almost quit reading the book after getting 1/3 of the way through it because I wasn't that interested in picking the book back up after putting it down. I thought the characters were all pretty unlikable, the storyline seemed forced, and the conclusion predictable.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2009

Jake rated it:

Although this one has been retitled The Tenth Gift, I am stubbornly sticking to the title on my copy, Crossed Bones, which I think is WAY better. Yes, this is a pirate story. It's partly about Julia, a present-day Englishwoman who owns a crafty-type shop and has been having an affair with her best friend's husband for the last 7 years. On the night he breaks up with her and goes back to his wife, he gives her a parting gift of a book of embroidery slips from the 17th century. The margins are More...

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Jul 14, 2010

Doina rated it:

I picked up this book because of its reviews which is not something I do very often. I'm a sucker for reading books about books. I love anything that is based on real facts. I've studied Middle Eastern history in college, so the history part of the story caught my attention, and I'm glad I picked it up. I really enjoyed reading it, and learning more about the Barbary corsairs. I was a bit apprehensive about the description of romance and love stories, but it was definitely not a bodice ripp More...

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Sep 06, 2009

Rebecca rated it:

Listened to the audio book on CD on a road trip. It was an abridged version, which i usually won't listen to, but it seemed like a harmless bit of fluff of a story, so I went with it.

The book was enjoyable, and the two narrators were quite good. It was a good story, but although it is based on real historical premises, some of the things that happen do seem a bit far-fetched.

It's very hard for me to judge writing quality for books on CD for some reason, but it seemed reasona More...

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Jun 09, 2011

Wendy rated it:

I like books that weave storylines together, and that illuminate different cultures and time periods. This book does that. However, much as I can't stand sterotypical books where good characters deserve only good (or at least a sad ending), and bad characters a bad ending, I was a little dismayed by how everyone reacts to the revelations in this novel, and what this entails for them. I wanted to like Julia, but come on, what kind of person has a 7 year affair with her best friend's husband? I More...

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Mar 18, 2008

Laura rated it:

A GREAT historical fiction/present day journey, I got a pre-release copy and stayed up late into the night immersed in the story.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)