Book Review: Meridon by Philippa Gregory

The Wideacre Trilogy has three very unique heroines and Meridon, or Sarah Lacey, is no less formidable than her predecessors.

Raised as a Gypsy bareback rider, Meridon grows up ignorant of her Lacey blood, only sensing that she doesn’t belong in the rough life she leads with half-remembered dreams plaguing her. She remembers a copper haired girl and a place called Wide, but beyond that, she is a girl with only half a past.

Her skills with horses lands her and her sister, born on the same day to two very different mothers, in a circus act. But Meridon’s fears of heights and flying like an acrobat put her sister in the spotlight. When Meridon’s greatest fear is realized, her life changes forever. She washes up at Wideacre, realizing the past she should have had. But money is not all it appears to be, and Meridon learns, like her foremothers, that Wideacre and the Squires of Wideacre are not always of an accord.

Meridon concludes the Wideacre saga, a satisfying conclusion to the struggles of three generations of Lacey women.

Book Review: The Favored Child by Philippa Gregory

Picking up where Wideare left off, The Favored Child loses no momentum as is as amazing as the first installment of Philippa Gregory’s Lacey saga.

Julia Lacey, joint heir to the Wideacre estate, tells the story of her family, her aunt Beatrice who ruined Wideacre, and her and her cousin’s, Richard, attempts to revitalize the estate again. But things go horribly wrong with the tragic death of a horse and a hawk, which see what the adults should have seen all along.

Love, cruelty, unexpected family legacies, and the unique magic of Wideacre permeate the pages as the specter of the Lacey’s incest emerges from an idyllic past. Don’t miss this second installment, or the third and final book (review coming soon!), Meridon, which concludes the Wideacre series.