What do readers think of Tides of War by Stella Tillyard? Write your own review.

I had a difficult time staying with this book, it just didn't grab me or keep me like other historical novels.I do believe the author did a great job researching the time period for accuracy, but it became choppy and disconnected because the settings changed so often. I would have preferred a little more of the story around the women featured and less about the actual battle scenes. Maybe it just wasn't a subject I was necessarily interested in and the book will appeal more to others.

After a very engaging opening, the book drags a bit. For some it may still be great, but for me it was just okay.

I thought this book was very slow moving and often confusing. So many characters to keep track of when going back and forth between home and the war setting.
Not one of the better books I've read this year.

Tides Of War is well written for those who are familiar with British nineteenth century war history, and with British idiom. Not knowing background was a handicap as I read this book, as the author plunged into the tale, moving rapidly from one venue to another, one person to another without making connections. A good novel for me is one I don't have to struggle to read, and this was tough.

Tides of War has all the elements that create deeply moving and compelling historical fiction. Its wartime London crackles with new possibilities, especially opportunities for women who are released from the constraints of conventional family life. Balancing London’s briskness is the sultry seductiveness of Seville whose ladies provide distractions from the brutality of the battlefront for the soldiers and the reader.

With a historian’s fine attention to detail, Tillyard paints word pictures that become fully realized for the reader—and with words that are fresh and innovative. She develops a vast cast of players that allow us to see a broad cross section of society, both in England and Spain; events are depicted in meticulous detail, ensuring that we grasp the full scope of the novel’s history.

However, the central fictional figures around which the places, events and historical figures should swirl and be spun into a meaningful complete jigsaw puzzle are strangely unaffecting—neither likeable nor so despicable that the reader is curious to see what mayhem they might provoke.

I have read compelling non-fiction that read like fiction. Unfortunately, Tides of War is a novel that reads more like non-fiction. While the narrative was informative, it was not compelling.

I volunteered to read Tides of War because I like historical fiction and I hoped to learn more about this period of history. If I had just gotten this book out of the library or had decided to buy it, I would not have finished it. Out of respect to the author, I read the book to the bitter end. I kept wishing the writer would find her story teller voice and that the book would get better. Sadly, it never did. This is a complex story with lots of characters; however, none of them are fully developed. Rather than a novel, this is a collection of small vignettes of several different stories. Just when a scene began to have some drama and characterization, the author dropped the curtain and moved the action. Neither of the main characters, Harriet or her new husband Captain James Raven is especially likable. Their infidelities do not inspire passion or even much interest. As a reader, I felt disappointed that there wasn’t more about the Irish involvement in the conflict. There were bits and pieces of battle field scenes, medical history and development of gas lighting in London which seemed unrelated to the plot.

While I enjoyed the historical aspects of this book, there were too many storylines to follow, too many characters to keep up with. The main characters needed a bit more "fleshing out." I found myself wanting to read more about the historical characters, however fictionalized they were in these scenes.

I began reading this book with anticipation. I typically enjoy historical fiction, especially a period like the Peninsular War in which I am unfamiliar. After the first few chapters I found I was increasingly losing interest in the plot. I found it difficult to "bond" with any of the characters. The story itself contained interesting historical narratives, but the number of characters made it difficult to follow and somewhat confusing.