All The Sweet Tomorrows

Cover

Title All The Sweet Tomorrows

Author Bertrice Small

ISBN 0-345-33473-6

Publisher Ballantine Publishing Group

Category Romance

Shira's Rating

<== Buy from Amazon.com's U.S.-based store. (Prices quoted in U.S. dollars, shipped from U.S. warehouse.)

<==Buy from Amazon.co.uk's U.K.-based store. (Prices quoted in British pounds, shipped from U.K. warehouse.)

What It's About

This is a romance novel which relates part two of the adventures of a woman named Skye O'Malley during the era of Queen Elizabeth of England in the 1500's. Skye herself is Irish. This book, which is a sequel to Skye O'Malley, takes the reader from England to a small duchy on the Riviera to Algeria to Morocco to Paris and back to England.

The author has clearly done extensive research on the historical era in which she has set her book. She seamlessly incorporates real-life historical figures such as Queen Elizabeth and real historical events such as the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre in Paris into her story line. The heroine of the book, Skye O'Malley, is portrayed as a very strong, independent, intelligent, but passionate individual.

The reason I've included a review of this book on my web site is that part of it is set in Algeria and Morocco. I don't want to give away too much of the plot by telling you what goes on there, but suffice it to say Skye is called back to the Orient to attempt rescuing someone dear to her from slavery.

As I noted above, this book is a sequel to another called Skye O'Malley. Although the story in All The Sweet Tomorrows is theoretically structured to stand on its own, I would urge you to read the first book before you start this one. This one depends heavily on characters who first appeared in Skye O'Malley, and bases their motives in this book on events that occurred in the first one. Yes, it does offer brief explanations of what went before, but if you don't read Skye O'Malley first you'll probably feel as if you walked into a movie when it was 3/4 of the way finished.

Like many romance novels, this book definitely contains some sex scenes. However, its scenes are more frequent and more explicit than those I've seen in many other romance novels. Although they didn't bother me, readers who prefer books to be less, um, passionate probably wouldn't appreciate this one. Skye is one lusty woman, and the author treats us to many detailed reports of what goes on in her bed.

Its Good Points

I like the fact that the lead character is strong, likeable, and intelligent. I always enjoy a book more when its primary character appeals to me, and I found Skye very appealing.

Bertrice Small clearly did extensive research when preparing this book. Although I certainly would not encourage anyone to think of a romance novel as being a legitimate source of historical or cultural information, I nonetheless was impressed at the overall use of historical detail in this book. I'm not an expert on either Elizabethan England or 16th-century Algeria and Morocco, but Skye O'Malley's world was consistent with what I do know of those times and places.

Some romance novels have plots so simple that by page 10 or so you know exactly what is going to happen throughout the rest of the book. In contrast, Skye O'Malley's plot was certainly not simple. It introduced a variety of characters, and took them through many twists and turns.

On The Negative Side....

You'd think that after attending the funerals of three husbands and one child, amassing incredible wealth, finally marrying one's true love, and having four thriving children (all of which occurred in the first book, Skye O'Malley), the poor woman would be entitled to live happily ever after. But not so. Bertrice Small sometimes puts her heroines through excessive amounts of hell. There are times when reading one of her books makes me want to shout, "Enough already! Please, let this character have some happiness and peace of mind for a change!" This entire book triggered that reaction in me. Skye went through enough pain and suffering in the first book to last a lifetime, and in All The Sweet Tomorrows she gets treated to further abuse by the queen of England, another bizarre marriage, a trip from hell through northern Africa, and rape while a massacre is going on outside her window, before finding her happy ending. Whew!

Although romance novels are certainly escapist reading, I'm happiest when the plots are plausible. In this one, I found certain aspects of the plot too contrived. For example, it seemed to me that it shouldn't have been necessary for Skye to place herself in jeopardy in northern Africa--that the agents who helped her with her attempted rescue probably could have pulled it off without her personal involvement anyway.

In Conclusion

If you're the kind of person who enjoys historical romance novels, particularly ones with a hefty dose of passionate sex scenes, then you'll probably like this book very much. However, if you've never appreciated romance novels, or if you are squeamish about books with lots of explicit sex, this is not the right book for you.

Skye's stay in Algeria and Morocco provided a painful view of the Orient. Although it was not the bulk of the story, it was a substantial enough part of the plot to be grating, even to those of us who enjoy discovering books that are set at least partly in the Middle East or North Africa. I kept waiting for that portion of the book to be over.

Still, despite its shortcomings, I found this to be good "airplane reading" -- in other words, something entertaining that could absorb my attention fully enough to make a long airplane ride pass more quickly. I found the first book in the series, Skye O'Malley, to be much more satisfying than this one, but I still found that this one held my attention enough to be worth reading.

Here is the order in which I would recommend reading Bertrice Small's books, with links to the reviews I have written of them:

The Kadin. Although this is not part of the Skye O'Malley series, it introduces characters and context that are referred to in A Love For All Time.
Skye O'Malley. This is the first book in the series about Skye and her extended family. I highly recommend reading this before reading A Love For All Time. Otherwise, when you read A Love For All Time, you'll feel like you need a scorecard to keep track of the many characters that Small parades in front of you.
All The Sweet Tomorrows. This is the book reviewed on this page.
A Love For All Time. This one tells the story of how Skye O'Malley's brother Conn found love and what he did to keep it.
Love Wild And Fair. This is not one of the books in the Skye O'Malley series, but it is the sequel to The Kadin and part of the plot takes place in Turkey. You could read This Heart Of Mine without first reading Love Wild And Fair, but I would recommend reading Love Wild And Fair before reading Lost Love Found, which is listed below.
This Heart Of Mine. I don't plan to review this one for my site, because the heroine's adventures take her to India, which falls outside my geographical scope. But if you've enjoyed the other books about Skye's family so far, you'll want to read this one, which is number four in the series.
Lost Love Found. Bertrice Small takes you back to Turkey in this one, the fifth book in her story about Skye O'Malley and her family. Don't tackle this one unless you've read everything above. I made that mistake, and felt entirely confused at all the flashbacks explaining what had gone before.
Wild Jasmine. This is the sixth book in the story of Skye O'Malley's world, and it's the natural sequel to This Heart Of Mine. I don't plan to review this one for my site, because the heroine's time in the Orient takes place in India, which falls outside my geographical scope. But if you're hooked on the Skye O'Malley series, you'll probably want to read this one, too.