Book Review: The Ladies of Missalonghi

I found this little book at the library book sale last month.  The title, the cover and the author all appealed to me.  Thorn Birds is one of my favorite books ever, so I knew any other by Colleen McCullough had to have promise.

I loved this book.  The end.  What?  You need more?  Well, okay, if you insist. 

For such a short story it had well developed characters and a plot that started out predictable (but in a good way) and ended up anything but predictable!  It starts out typically for McCullough, with such well written and detailed descriptions of people and places that you can just see things perfectly.  Colleen McCullough is a master at giving just enough detail…not too little as to leave you wanting, but not too much to make you skim over sections.  There is a real and palpable change in the lead characters in this story that will have you shouting “Bravo!”  And then your kids and dh will look up and see that it is only Mom reading a book again and go about their business.  Well, at least in my house. :) The ending is happy, but twisted (again, in a good way) and leaves you with lots of things to ponder.  This is the first book in a long time that I read and wanted to read again… immediately.  And it’s short enough to do just that!