The Flight of Gemma Hardy
mechelle123 says:
The Flight of Gemma Hardy was a delightful read that I had a hard time putting down.Having lost both her parents at a young age Gemma is taken in by her uncle and aunt. Upon the death of her uncle her aunt treats her as nothing more then an annoyance and finally sends her off to boarding school as a working girl. Determined to learn all she can Gemma works as hard as possible while using every free moment she has to study. While I did like the story I did have some problems in p...arts. The first half seemed like a faster pace reading and parts of the second part drug a bit. Even though it is a retelling of Jane Eyre I did not feel like I was ever re-reading Jane Eyre. The writing was elegant and well done, I never stumbled wondering what was going on or was confused about which character was which.
jerry says:
Most definitely a Jane Eyre copy. Which is a bold move by any author. I really enjoyed the author's spin on the time period and place, and the author has a fluid, poetic style while keeping grounded in her words. In that way it was fun to relive a beloved favorite classic. However, I felt that the new character elements and story twists only made the main character feel petty or shallow. While she harbors a graceful spirit and outlook, her actions leave her lacking in the redeeming qualities needed to justifiably compare her to the original heroine. In short, Gemma didn't live up to my very high expectations.
Willwturner says:
Overall really wanted to love this book but just liked it. Would give it a 3.5 if I could. This is a re-telling of Jane Eyre set in the 50s and 60s in Scotland. Loved the first half- liked the childhood section much better than Jane Eyre- was not boring and some light in other characters (not everyone was one-dimensionally evil to Gemma). The "Rochester" scenes seemed rushed to me and I didn't understand why Mr. Sinclair and Gemma fell in love- seemed just coincidental. Also the big "secret" was really a let down- why does it matter that Mr. Sinclair changed places with his cousin during the war? They are back to their rightful places now. Would have been better if the real Mr. Sinclair really was Seamus. Lame- why would Gemma run away from that? Why did Seamus break up the wedding? There was nothing illegal about it.Also did not like the ending that much- why would Gemma steal so much money (out of character)? Why was she not a long lost cousin to Hannah and Archie (the author set this up- they didn't know their great grandfather either)? I didn't like how Mr. Sinclair found her in the end. She is supposed to make her own decision to come back and he should have some humility or something.Overall again, really liked it, would have loved it if these details were different. Was fun to read and figure out the related section/character from Jane Eyre.
papadop97 says:
The best parts of this book are the Jane Eyre knock off parts (how can the author get away with this - it doesn't seem "inspired by" it just seems badly copied). I completely agree with the review below (except that I didn't ever consider giving this book 4 stars). Also the book is supposed to take place in the 1950's and 60's but the whole atmosphere feels like sometime in the 1800'sReview from an Amazon customer:JANE EYRE has been one of my all time favorite books since I first read it as a sixth grader. So I was excited to get a chance to read and review THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY which claims to be a reimagining of the classic novel set in post World War II Iceland and Scotland. The parallels between Jane and Gemma are very obvious in the first portion of the book which I felt to be the best. Both Jane and Gemma are smart, spunky, orphans taken in by a loving uncle then despised by his jealous widow. Both girls are mistreated by cousins of similar ages then sent to horrid boarding schools and abandoned by all known relatives. Jane and Gemma overcome horrible school experiences which for both involve the untimely death of their only school friend. However when Jane leaves school and meets Mr. Rochester that novel becomes really interesting to me. In GEMMA HARDY the novel is all downhill once our heroine turns eighteen.I think the main problem with GEMMA HARDY is I never really believed in the love affair between Gemma and Mr. Sinclair. And Mr. Sinclair's big secret that is revealed on their wedding day and causes Gemma to take flight? I had to read those passages over a couple of times since surely I was missing something as this revelation did not seem to be a dramatic romance breaker. And Gemma is just a little too comfortable lying, stealing and taking advantage of the nice people who help her for me not to want to give her a good shaking and resent her implied happily ever after ending. I was hoping Mr. Sinclair would forget this flighty teenager and find someone nearer his own age. I will say I learned a lot about Iceland and Scottish islands from reading GEMMA HARDY and I couldn't decide whether to give the book three or four stars. I decided to round down to three since the heart pounding gothic romance of JANE EYRE is quite lacking from this updated version.MoreLess
The Flight of Gemma Hardy was a delightful read that I had a hard time putting down.Having lost both her parents at a young age Gemma is taken in by her uncle and aunt. Upon the death of her uncle her aunt treats her as nothing more then an annoyance and finally sends her off to boarding school as a working girl. Determined to learn all she can Gemma works as hard as possible while using every free moment she has to study. While I did like the story I did have some problems in p...arts. The first half seemed like a faster pace reading and parts of the second part drug a bit. Even though it is a retelling of Jane Eyre I did not feel like I was ever re-reading Jane Eyre. The writing was elegant and well done, I never stumbled wondering what was going on or was confused about which character was which.
jerry says:
Most definitely a Jane Eyre copy. Which is a bold move by any author. I really enjoyed the author's spin on the time period and place, and the author has a fluid, poetic style while keeping grounded in her words. In that way it was fun to relive a beloved favorite classic. However, I felt that the new character elements and story twists only made the main character feel petty or shallow. While she harbors a graceful spirit and outlook, her actions leave her lacking in the redeeming qualities needed to justifiably compare her to the original heroine. In short, Gemma didn't live up to my very high expectations.
Willwturner says:
Overall really wanted to love this book but just liked it. Would give it a 3.5 if I could. This is a re-telling of Jane Eyre set in the 50s and 60s in Scotland. Loved the first half- liked the childhood section much better than Jane Eyre- was not boring and some light in other characters (not everyone was one-dimensionally evil to Gemma). The "Rochester" scenes seemed rushed to me and I didn't understand why Mr. Sinclair and Gemma fell in love- seemed just coincidental. Also the big "secret" was really a let down- why does it matter that Mr. Sinclair changed places with his cousin during the war? They are back to their rightful places now. Would have been better if the real Mr. Sinclair really was Seamus. Lame- why would Gemma run away from that? Why did Seamus break up the wedding? There was nothing illegal about it.Also did not like the ending that much- why would Gemma steal so much money (out of character)? Why was she not a long lost cousin to Hannah and Archie (the author set this up- they didn't know their great grandfather either)? I didn't like how Mr. Sinclair found her in the end. She is supposed to make her own decision to come back and he should have some humility or something.Overall again, really liked it, would have loved it if these details were different. Was fun to read and figure out the related section/character from Jane Eyre.
papadop97 says:
The best parts of this book are the Jane Eyre knock off parts (how can the author get away with this - it doesn't seem "inspired by" it just seems badly copied). I completely agree with the review below (except that I didn't ever consider giving this book 4 stars). Also the book is supposed to take place in the 1950's and 60's but the whole atmosphere feels like sometime in the 1800'sReview from an Amazon customer:JANE EYRE has been one of my all time favorite books since I first read it as a sixth grader. So I was excited to get a chance to read and review THE FLIGHT OF GEMMA HARDY which claims to be a reimagining of the classic novel set in post World War II Iceland and Scotland. The parallels between Jane and Gemma are very obvious in the first portion of the book which I felt to be the best. Both Jane and Gemma are smart, spunky, orphans taken in by a loving uncle then despised by his jealous widow. Both girls are mistreated by cousins of similar ages then sent to horrid boarding schools and abandoned by all known relatives. Jane and Gemma overcome horrible school experiences which for both involve the untimely death of their only school friend. However when Jane leaves school and meets Mr. Rochester that novel becomes really interesting to me. In GEMMA HARDY the novel is all downhill once our heroine turns eighteen.I think the main problem with GEMMA HARDY is I never really believed in the love affair between Gemma and Mr. Sinclair. And Mr. Sinclair's big secret that is revealed on their wedding day and causes Gemma to take flight? I had to read those passages over a couple of times since surely I was missing something as this revelation did not seem to be a dramatic romance breaker. And Gemma is just a little too comfortable lying, stealing and taking advantage of the nice people who help her for me not to want to give her a good shaking and resent her implied happily ever after ending. I was hoping Mr. Sinclair would forget this flighty teenager and find someone nearer his own age. I will say I learned a lot about Iceland and Scottish islands from reading GEMMA HARDY and I couldn't decide whether to give the book three or four stars. I decided to round down to three since the heart pounding gothic romance of JANE EYRE is quite lacking from this updated version.MoreLess
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Guest 6 years ago
It was like two stories and too long.
ceemarquis 6 years ago
I was so happy that the story wrapped up the way it did- Gemma's character was lovely & so troubled at the same time. This book was very well written and hard to put down. I agree, the second half slowed down quite a bit, but the ending was well worth it.
Guest 7 years ago
It was a good story but it did drag along in some places.Write Review:
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