A Kingdom For The Brave by Tamara McKinley

A Kingdom For The Brave Reviews

• 
  Dzintra aka Ingrid

  A wonderful compelling historical fiction read telling how cruelly the Aboriginals were treated and slaughtered by white man. This would make a very telling mini series.....
• 
  Mintti

  The saga of early Australia is continuing and still interesting. McKinley really knows her history and writes it well. It is sad how the aboriginals were treated and destroyed, but it's real, and it happened. I think it's good that someone tells the story of how it went on and why. One more book of this series is to read - me thinks. Pelottomien maa was this in Finnish.
• 
  Robyn Gibson

  Based on Australian history this excellent story of Eloise who is married to an absolute creep of a man. Tamara is so good with her descriptions. Each page I read that included Eloise's husband Edward made me hate this man even more and wished him the worst fate.
  Brave little Alice comes by ship (of course) from England with her sheep and beloved horse to meet up with the love of her life who was a convict in Australia. Alice meets her husband's friend who has set up farming together, but she doesn't realise until she meets Nell that there are four people involved in their venture. Alice clashes with Nell the moment she meets her.
  English troops are bent on eradicating the Australian Aboriginees and Mandaway, a very young aborigine boy and his grandmother are the only ones of the family group that survive this horrific massacre.
  The Irish convicts too, have their part in this story. Irish children sent to Sydney in chains and put to work when they arrive.
  Loved this book.
• 
  Eole

  Après avoir dévoré La terre du bout du monde, impossible de ne pas plonger dans sa suite.
  
  On retrouve avec joie Billy, et Nell, Jack et Alice dans ce deuxième volume. La ferme des Gratteurs de Lune a bien grandi et le quatuor enchaîne les prises de bec entre Nell et Alice. On découvre avec plaisir la vie des pionniers : la mise en place de la ferme, la vie au contact des Aborigènes, la nature australienne ô combien difficile ! J’ai adoré suivre ces personnages même s’ils m’ont brisé le coeur à un moment… L’autrice a frappé fort au niveau des émotions et il sera difficile de me briser un peu plus le coeur.
  
  En parallèle, on en apprend plus sur l’effroyable fils de Jonathan, Edward. Poussé avec un pur désir de satisfaction personnel, de vantardise et de cruauté, il a épousé Eloïse afin de pouvoir la posséder et l’exhiber en société. La voir souffrir à ses côtés est une torture et tout au long du roman, on a mal de le voir la battre et la violenter. J’ai serré les dents et espéré tout du long pour que George vienne la sauver…
  
  Comme dans le tome précédent, Tamara McKinley a le don pour jouer avec nos nerfs, mettre les personnages dans des situations horribles pour réussir (ou non) à les sauver et que le bien triomphe. Je suis restée sur ma fin concernant les secrets sur les liens toujours plus obscurs entre les familles Penhalligan, Collinson et Cadawallader, malgré une annonce finale étrange et pleine de promesses. J’ai hâte de lire le dernier tome car je suis sûre qu’il sera plein de révélations : où est la boussole ? Que sont devenus les descendants de Jonathan et Susan ? Comment va évoluer la vie des pionniers et celles des Aborigènes ? Tant de questions sans réponses qu’il me reste à découvrir dans L’Or du bout du monde…
• 
  Amie

  Look, this is a lovely saga, just don't get all riled up by inaccuracies in the historical timeline (acknowledged by the author). Enjoy the emotion and the characters, and you'll finish the trilogy satisfied.
• 
  Tsukiko Haruka

  Nemám ráda historickou fikci, protože jsem po ní ještě víc nazlobená na lidi, než normálně. Každopádně to nebylo špatně napsané, jedna příběhová linka mi tam připadala nudná, ale ta se tam objevovala po málu. Největší problém mám s předvídatelností příběhu. (3.5*)
• 
  Helen

  Finished but I couldn't wait for that cad edward cadwaller to get his just desserts. A thoroughly despicable character but so unlike his father. A great book.
• 
  Okidoki

  Tyvärr går berättelsen på tomgång.
• 
  Marion Astridge

  A very good book about early pioneers in Australia .So many different stories.
• 
  Juliette

  A really good series!
• 
  Fi

  Now this is what I call A Proper Saga; the first book in the trilogy was great, but this one is even better: I can't believe how much action, how many twists & turns were packed into it!
• 
  Susan

  I enjoyed this book. It is set in Australia in the 1800s when convicts were still being transported and Sydney was still a rough and ready, a town just starting out.
  
  This I discovered was the second book of a series but I didn't find that mattered as the flashbacks filled in any gaps.
  
  The characters are a mixture of freed convicts, freemen and aboriginal people. The story is told through the different character's experiences but not in the first person.
  
  Alice travels from Cornwall to join her love of her life an ex con falsely accused who is now a partner ina farm. His partners are another couple of ex cons married to each other. They are all the good hard working ones in the story but that doesn't mean that all goes happily for them as you might have thought.
  
  Eloise is married to a scoundrel in the army who treats her really badly. The army officer raped a girl and he was then sent out into the bush for a while. He favourite past time is cleansing the land of aboriginal people which he does both manically and thoroughly.
  
  The aboriginal lad we follow escapes from one of these routs as a child and it is through his story we hear a bit about the aboriginal ways and history.
  
  A whaling captain and sailor who is the son a free settlers in Sydney is another character whose story we follow. This takes us whaling and back to Sydney and he is also part of the love story too.
  
  A very smart man from South Africa arrives on the same ship as Alice and he is an efficient gambler who causes Eloise's husband Cadawaller to lose rather too often.
  
  There is also a group of Irish who suffer as convicts and who yearn to get back to Ireland and fight against the British. The descriptions of the punishments left little to the imagination.
  
  These stories all inter twine to tell a story that gripped me and at the same time told the story of Australia's early settlement when the first fleet arrived.
  
  I have enjoyed three of this author's books set in Australia and every one has been good and very different.This is not an author who write to a formula. The books are set in Australia but at different historical periods and different places in Australia.
  
  I did find myself drawn into the different character's stories and I liked the fact that none of them were perfect. they were real people with anger and faults and who made mistakes, felt revengeful and so on.
  
  I would happily read more of Tamara McKinley's books as all three of those I have read I have enjoyed.
• 
  Annelies - In Another Era

  De familie Collinson is ondertussen verhuist naar het binnenland van Australië. Maar voor zoon George wenkt het avontuur van de walvisjacht. Ook Edward Cadwaller slaat een mooie vis aan de haak: de Duitse Eloise. Ondertussen voert hij in opdracht van het leger clearances uit. Mandawuy is zo de laatste van zijn aboriginalstam en hij moet kiezen of hij zich aansluit bij de blanken of tegen hen vecht. Op de boerderij van Billy en Nell arriveert Jack's vrouw Alice. Alleen blijken de twee dames elkaars tegenpolen te zijn.
  
  Ik wou snel verder met deel 2 en het heeft me niet teleurgesteld. Er zijn fijne nieuwe personages, vooral met Alice klikte het. En ook de oude verhalen blijven doorlopen.
  
  Ik vond wel echt dat er soms wat extra perspectieven werden toegevoegd die weinig meerwaarde hadden. Voornamelijk dat van de Ierse rebellen. En ik had verwacht dat er meer vanuit de aboriginals zou geschreven worden. Uiteindelijk werd het voornamelijk een Eloise - Edward - George verhaal.
  
  Er gebeurt ontzettend veel in elk hoofdstukje en hoewel je niet van clichés gespaard blijft, zijn er toch wat verassende wendingen. McKinley is niet verlegen om een hoofdpersonage dramatisch aan zijn/haar einde te laten komen.
  
  Ik ben wel zeer benieuwd waar het derde en laatste deel me zal brengen. Want alweer lonkt een nieuwe generatie.
• 
  No

  Les pionniers en Australie vers 1790, dommage que le style soit si fade…
  
  Vers 1790, en Australie, terre de bagnards et d’indigènes. Les colons anglais veulent s’imposer contre les indigènes.
  
  L’Histoire est très intéressante, j’ai découvert par ce livre l’Australie du 1790 : les bagnards pouvant être de simples enfants et déplaçant des pierres pour créer une route. Les indigènes sont massacrés par les colons, cela rappelle les Indiens d’Amérique… C’est bouleversant !
  
  Le style est ce qui m’a le plus dérangé, un style fade neutre sans grand message, sans trop de structures. Le récit est marqué par d’incessants bouleversements : accouchements, morts, massacres… Les personnages auraient pu être intéressants s’ils avaient eu de la profondeur. Le couple qui se retrouve m’a le plus marqué, la femme le rejoint. Dommage que l’auteur va trop vite…
  
  Le livre m’a tombé des mains que j’ai lu la moitié en diagonale, ce qui n’est pas dans mes habitudes. Attention, c’est un tome 2 mais on peut le lire indépendamment, ça ne m’a pas gêné.
• 
  Yang Shu-yuan

  Lowitja fuhr aus dem Schlaf auf und zog instinktiv ihren kleinen Enkel näher zu sich. Irgendetwas war in ihre Träume eingedrungen, und als sie die Augen aufschlug, vernahm sie den klagenden Schrei eines Brachvogels. Es war der Ruf der Totengeister ═ der quälende Ton gepeinigter Seelen, eine Warnung vor Gefahr.Lowitjas Ahnungen trügen nicht: Weiße Siedler und Abenteurer bedrohen die Welt der australischen Ureinwohner, und für alle beginnt ein harter Kampf um das Glück ═ und das Überleben.
  Klappentext
  
• 
  Davida

  Awesome story, fact interwoven with fiction on the early settlement of Australia.
• 
  Tanya Boulter

  Too many characters, too hard to follow
• 
  Octabis

  Such a nice sequel, can't wait to read the last book of the trilogy.
  Great story, and such a nice way to write it.
• 
  Adri

  Very grim at times, but beautiful passages. Clearly the author knows the history and writes about it very well.
• 
  Saskia

  Nice book. Beautiful story about Australia!
• 
  Nico

  I listened to this audiobook in German on youtube. It may have been abridged, but it was a decent story overall.
• 
  Paula

  The follow up to "Lands Beyond the Sea" which continues with the next generation of early settlers. The hopes, dreams, hardships, triumphs, failures and loves which entwines the two main families. Another great read full of history!