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

For those of us who know practically nothing about the Peninsular War, this could have been a most interesting book. The characters (some) were interesting, although there were far too many and I kept losing interest in most of them. The author does do a good job with setting the historical stage, but overall I thought the novel was unfocused and had a lot of unnecessary detail, at least in the first half of the book. I wanted to really like it, but it didn't hold my interest and it took me longer than usual to get through it.

I really wanted to like this book. It deals with a period of history about which I know little, and Its mix of real and fictional characters seemed intriguing. However, the book suffers from an overabundance of characters (all of whom seem to be primary) and the absence of a compelling theme. The result is a novel that, while it has its moments, is generally way too easy to put down. I felt like it was never going to end - and not in a good way.

I did the enjoy the historical portion of this novel having little knowledge on the Peninsular War and the war scenes are very powerful. Her depiction of the cruel Wellington was enlightening and I applaud the author for portraying the lives of the women left behind while all the men are off fighting. That said I found it at times difficult to keep track of all the characters and all the different story lines, I think there were at least seven, and in the conversations between the characters seemed forced and oftentimes stilted and awkward. I did like that she included a cast of characters in the back of the book.

I was really looking forward to this book. Historical fiction is, by far, my favorite genre. Unfortunately, as hard as I tried, I was unable to finish the book. It failed to grab my interest early on and I put it down to read another book. Frankly I read three other books while trying to finish this one. I don't think I have ever done that before. I will try it again in the future but this time I found it slow and was unable to keep up with the many characters.

I did my best but gave up on this book half way through. I kept trying because historical fiction is my favorite genre. I found the four main characters, two couples, difficult to keep straight and did not really care what happened to any of them. Somehow the character development misses the mark and leaves the reader feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. The history was accurate and mildly interesting but not enough so that I was willing to give this novel more time.

I read many historical fiction books and usually love them. Tides of War is not one of them. I kept losing interest. Maybe it was too long. It started out good but didn't stay that way.