The first part of this book was very engaging but then it just turned tedious suddenly; I only skimmed the last 150 pages and am quite sure that I missed nothing. This book was trying very hard to be historical fiction, I think it even had daydreams of being a biography, but was really just a romance novel set in the past. And badly set there. The author's need to cram in historical figures is just farcical; I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the whole Robbie Burns episode.
I'm kind of sorry I wasted my time finishing it. ( )

Sigh... I have now fallen for another member of Clan Fraser. This was a fabulous representation of Jane Maxwell's life, including a fictional depiction of her sad and sordid love life. It would have been nice to have an epilogue at the end telling how Jane lived out the rest of her life... but it was easy enough to look up online.

If you enjoyed the story of Jane Maxwell Gordon, I recommend you read The Dukes series by Virginia Henley, which is about Jane's daughters and her crazy antics to obtain marriages for them all.

And of course this is a must read for Outlander fans. ( )

Island of the Swans is based on the life of eighteenth-century Scottish duchess Jane Maxwell. As a young girl, Jane fell in love with fictional character, Thomas Fraser, and they promise to marry each other when they are old enough. The real Jane Maxwell married Alexander, the fourth Duke of Gordon, in 1767 after the soldier she loved was reported dead in America. Rumor is that while on her honeymoon she received a letter from the soldier, very much alive, asking her to marry him. Unfortunately she was now married to the Duke of Gordon, and spent her life torn between the man she had always loved and the man with whom she had a family.

Jane herself is a powerful woman and I really liked her. She was a figure to be reckoned with in politics and knew her own mind in many respects. She became a famous patroness of the arts and a political activist. The book is long but has a nice sweeping, epic feel to it. It seemed to me that some of the misunderstandings between the historical and fictional characters were too forced. I thought huge portions of the book were somewhat redundant and that, in general, there was a somewhat melodramatic feel to some parts of Jane's constant longing for Thomas.

I understand the author read Jane’s letters and tried to find the mysterious man that she references as her childhood love. She filled in the missing pieces and the fictional character of Thomas was very well formed. I also enjoyed the way the historical characters like King George III, William Pitt, and Robert Burns, the Scottish poet, added texture to the story.

( )

blahblahblahpolitcalbullshitblahblahmorepolitcalbullshitblahblahblah

Didn't hold my interest.

Historically, mildly interesting, but lackluster in literary qualities.

The largely romantic life story of the Duchess of Gordon, unhappily married to the Duke, a misogynist, while in love with Thomas Fraser, a Highland soldier. What keeps one reluctantly reading is that the book is peppered with historical figures who are fun to look up, and the reader keeps rooting for the Duchess to win her contest of wills and some kind of personal freedom.

Ware does not disappoint in creating a fiction based on fact in spite of hurriedly telling us a thin story of a woman who became a potent force in British politics and in private life. However, the Duchess of Gordon deserves better treatment from the author since she didn't get it from her husband.

I won’t be reading any more books by Ciji Ware. ( )