The Passions of Emma

This is a hard review to write. As I was reading "The Passions of Emma", several thoughts came to mind. First of all, the writing was absolutely GORGEOUS. The tone of the book was a melancholy one, but very smart and thoughtful. I loved Emma. I felt like I related to her so much that I just was riveted. However, as much as I was drawn to this book, oddly enough, I cant say that I adored it. I felt like the whole situation was just so uncomfortable and it bothered me that no matter how much Shay loved Emma, that they were only together because of their loss of Bria. Emma will always be second best in my mind because of the circumstances that brought them together and I really hate that. I also felt like Emma loved Shay more. How could he say that there would never be another for him and that he loved her with all of his heart when his Bria had just had that honor only a short time earlier? So, this leaves me confused...but, I cant rate the book any lower than 5 stars, because it truly deserves the high rating. All in all this was a beautiful, almost haunting book. I am glad that I read it,and have a feeling that I will be coming back to it again in the future.

I read everything from Thomas Hardy to Thoreau to the current crop of writers whose work will become classics, but I also enjoy a good historical romance novel for pure escape and relaxation. I don't want to "insult" romance writers, but this book is far too well written and too well researched to sit on the shelves with the stereotypical romance genre. There aren't any throbbing manroots, pulsing woman centers, or wet/slick unfolding petals. Thank God. The mention of sexuality occurs twice, I think, is not explicit and really unnecessary. The book is extremely well researched. It is a contemporary Edith Wharton/Jane Austen, poking subtle "fun" at the mores of the wealthy Victorians and their rigid rules for living. The point of this book is so much more than heterosexual love. It's about unconditional love, a mature awareness of the meaningless world a wealthy young woman lives in and her efforts to make her life count for something. This is serious reading. I cried my way through a box of tissue and be prepared to be shocked by the way the poor were treated during our Industrial Revolution as well as by the way people were treated in mental institutions (even the wealthy). I worked in 2 old "state hospitals" in the '70s and saw the "treatment rooms" where the atrocities Emma experiences were given. Ms. Williamson deserves a sort of recognition "romance writers" are rarely given. This book is sadly overlooked by people who think they are "too good" to read a romance novel. This belongs on the shelves where the "snobs" will go. It's better than any Anne Tyler or Anita Shreve book I've ever read. I'm going to buy some more of her work and pray this isn't an anomaly. I'm trying to write a novel and I'd give all my teeth to string words together as she did. The memory of the way her words moved me will linger for a long time.

This book will go down as one of my favorates! It hurt to turn the last page and end the story. The chemestry between Emma and Shay was powerful. I am a first time reader of Penelope Williamson and after reading this beautiful story, I plan to read all of her books.

Desire burns deep in the heart of beautiful, wealthy Emmaline Tremayne, prized rose of the illustrious Tremaynes of Bristol, Rhode Island. Though cossetted among the gilded sophistication of an early 1890's society, Emma secretly yearns to flaunt duty and stilted propriety, to scratch beneath her own surface and discover a true sense of place in the world. Betrothed to Geoffrey Alcott, the staid, eldest son of Bristol's most prestigious family, Emma is the Tremayne family's last hope to secure a proper marriage and produce the next generation of Tremayne blood to sit among the Great Folk of Bristol. Yet when Emma finds herself inexplicably drawn into the life of a poor Irish immigrant family, her hidden nature is suddenly set free. In Bria McKenna, Emma discovers her first and truest friend. Humbled by the Irish woman's earthy exuberance for life and an unconditional love of family, theirs must be a painful bond, as Bria struggles against the consumption slowly stealing away her existance. A promise to look after Bria's children upon her death only serves to tempt Emma's forbidden attraction to Shay McKenna, Bria's husband. Yet though his sea green eyes and roughened voice may haunt that deepest part of her, it's the abiding love he demonstrates for his wife and children, his pain, like Emma's, of watching Bria die--that heighten her awakening passion. As her wedding day to Alcott looms nearer, Emma wonders if she's brave enough to cast away the security of fortune and society to live the life her friend Bria left behind. If Shay's love is deep enough to allow her to make such a sacrifice. Torn between her two lives, Emma must choose... PASSIONS OF EMMA is Penelope Williamson at her best. Rich in emotion and texture, her story delivers a heartrending tale of how the human spirit is strengthened and set free through the power of love.