Happy Release Day!
Congrats Barbara
on the release of
A Man of Honor!
A Man of Honor by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Series: Emma Harte Saga (#0.5)
Historical Fiction, 464 pages
Published November 16, 2021 by St. Martin's Press
The prequel to Barbara Taylor Bradford's New York Times bestselling and dazzling saga A Woman of Substance.
Opening five years before the start of A Woman of Substance, A Man of Honor begins with 13-year-old Blackie O’Neill facing an uncertain future in rural County Kerry. Orphaned and alone, he has just buried his sister, Bronagh, and must leave his home to set sail for England, in search of a better life with his mother’s brother in Leeds. There, he learns his trade as a navvy, amid the grand buildings and engineering triumphs of one of England’s most prosperous cities, and starts to dream of greater things... And then, high on the Yorkshire moors, in the mists of a winter morning he meets a kitchen maid called Emma Harte.
In A Man of Honor, the true Blackie O'Neill is revealed. For the first time, readers discover his story: his tumultuous life, the obstacles facing him, the desire he has to throw off the impotence of poverty and move up in the world. Like his friend Emma, he is ambitious, driven, disciplined, and determined to make it to the top. And like Emma Harte, he is an unforgettable character for the millions who loved the book.
My thoughts about A Man of Honor ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)
First lines—"It was very windy on the top of the cliffs. He hadn't expected that, to be sure. And it was a strong wind that buffeted him forward."
I read A Woman of Substance when it came out in 1979 and absolutely loved it! It has always been one of my favorite books. And I've read every sequel that has been published since then., becoming totally entrenched in the Emma Harte world. So I was super excited to read Blackie's backstory. I even got my hands on a copy of A Woman of Substance so I can do a re-read.
While I loved the Blackie character and loved learning more about him before he met Emma, I was somewhat disappointed in A Man of Honor. I felt that the author was very repetitive about some things within the story and included storylines and characters that weren't really necessary to the overall theme of getting Blackie's backstory. It's almost like she needed to add more words to make a page number goal. This would have been so much more enjoyable without all the extra stuff.
That being said, I enjoyed this little dip back into Blackie's and Emma's world and it reinforced my desire to go back and read A Woman of Substance again. I would love for another group of readers to discover that wonderful story.
I received A Man of Honor from NetGalley. and this is my honest opinion of the book.
About the author
Barbara Taylor Bradford is the author of 30 bestselling novels, including The Cavendon Women, Cavendon Hall, and The Ravenscar Dynasty. She was born in Leeds, England, and from an early age, she was a voracious reader: at age 12, she had already read all of Dickens and the Brontë sisters. By the age of twenty, she was an editor and columnist on Fleet Street. She published her first novel, A Woman of Substance, in 1979, and it has become an enduring bestseller.
Barbara Taylor Bradford’s books are published in over 90 countries in 40 languages, with sales figures in excess of 88 million. Ten of her novels have been adapted into television mini-series starring actors including Sir Anthony Hopkins, Liam Neeson, Deborah Kerr and Elizabeth Hurley. She has been inducted into the Writers Hall of Fame of America, and in June of 2007, Barbara was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to Literature.
She lives in New York City with her husband, television producer Robert Bradford, to whom all her novels are dedicated. ~ Goodreads
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