The Red Necklace

I came across the Audiobook version of this one day, and since Tom Hiddleston reads it, I decided to give it a listen. I was hooked within the first few pages.Normally this is not a story that would have attracted my attention since it says "A Story of the French Revolution" on the front, but I was pleasantly surprised. Sally Gardner has woven a wonderful tale, with interesting Characters. I don't remember being bored through any part of the story.Yann is an admirable hero, determined to help the innocent people being killed during the Revolution, and holding the belief that just because someone is rich doesn't mean they are better than someone else. I appreciated Sido's Character as well. She isn't a tough-girl heroine, but she is brave and determined. Kaliovski is the kind of villain you want to get in line to strangle, bad-to-the-bone, and up to his elbows in blood. Menacing and interesting. The Romance in the story was sweet and not overdone, which was a nice touch.There were several plot twists I didn't see coming, the ending is loosely tied up, and you are left with an important piece of knowledge that makes you eager to find out more about Yann and Sido.Tom Hiddleston reads this book wonderfully, giving each Character (and there are many of them) a different voice, so if you get the Audiobook you won't be disappointed.The only thing that disappointed me was the presence of Gypsy magic. Palm reading, good luck charms, talk of "spirits" and the ghost of Yann's mother even appears in one scene. While the magic isn't talked about in great detail frequently, it is important to the story, as Yann is a Gypsy and he and Tetu can work magic. For that reason, I gave it 4 stars instead of 5.I have ordered the paperback of "Red Necklace" and it's sequel "The Silver Blade" and can't wait to find out the end of Yann and Sido's story. Just hoping there is not too much more strange magic involved in the next part.

FOR HIDDLESTONERS: Please take note, the audiobook that Tom did is not available for purchase in the US version of the Amazon store! If you must have it, you can switch to the UK store and I think that you can buy it from there, although shipping will be a little bit more. HOWEVER, the Tom version of the audiobook is available on youtube and if you look around on tumblr a bit I'm sure you could find a download link. This is a great book so please stop down voting it just because the audiobook version is not the one you want!FOR EVERYONE ELSE: This is a great story! I will admit, I got into it because Tom Hiddleston did the audiobook, but I loved it on its own and ended up buying the book in print. I was also very happy with the sequel. This is just a really great story for anybody who's into historical fiction, or just fiction in general.

Besides beinwg an avid fan of historical fiction for young adults, I am also a writer and a teacher who occasionally gets to work with students on their writing (mostly I teach speech). As I was reading The Red Necklace, I kept noticing that Gardner was violating some of the principles of "good" writing. For example, there are lengthy passages when she is "telling" rather than "showing" to fill us in on backstory for characters or events. She tends to "head-hop," meaning she will shift point of view from one character to another, including sometimes having the story told from the point of view of a character who's not a major player in the story. Some of the characters are stereotypes rather than fully-developed characters.But for all that....I still found myself enjoying the story. While the marquis is one of those stereotyped characters, I thought he was still an effective way to portray the cluelessness of the nobility that the Revolution was against. Gardner did well with capturing a sense of what the times must have been like; I could literally almost feel the frustration of the crowds. I also liked the characters of Yann and Sido. They were sympathetic and appealing. Although I'm not a big fan of paranormal stories, those elements in this story were deliciously creepy.I guess this book is proof that as long as the important things like character, setting, and plot are well-crafted, readers will forgive some other indiscretions in the writing!

This lush and imaginative book covering the beginning of the French Revolution is a wonderful blend of mystery and suspense. A tale of magic. deceit and bravery. As our hero Yann battles in A dangerous game of cat and mouse with the villainous Count Kalliovski. As in the first rule magic . Nothing as ever as it seems to be.

I enjoyed this book! I don't know that I will read the sequel, as I kind of enjoy imagining for myself how things work out. I thought the pacing was good, and the different viewpoint of the Revolution was interesting. I did not like any of the nobility characters, but that was to be expected because they were all clueless self-absorbed people. We don't get a full explanation on the backstory of how the marquis came to have all this power. The magic elements were interesting and fantastical, but were quite a driving source for the storyline, so if you try to avoid magic, you may not like this book.

Disclaimer: I decided to read this book primarily because Tom Hiddleston reads the audiobook and I love Tom Hiddleston. There's also a very famous line in here that his fangirls just love and I wanted to read it in context.So back to the actual book. I give 3.5 stars which rounds up to 4 stars. It was a good book but there were some things I didn't like about it. One thing I didn't like was how the perspective kept shifting from character to character. One paragraph would be one character's perspective, the next paragraph would be someone else's. It was a bit awkward. Another thing I didn't like was that Sido was a bit useless. She didn't do much in the book besides be a damsel in distress. Also, the ending wasn't satisfying.

I was looking for another book here in Amazon and I saw this novel recommended based on my search and I decided to give it a try, although it was catalogued as children fiction. I just thought it might be interesting, a nice little book to read, but it was actually a positive surprise, it is well-written, fast, interesting, the characters are alive in the pages full of adventures and historical references that, instead of becoming an annoying History lesson, are actualling intriguing, I found myself enjoying the book more and more. So I bought the second part, The Silver Blade as soon as I finished this one.Sido and Yann are characters you get to love, you want to know what happens next for them.It might look like a children's book at the beginning but the Revolution changes that, the magic is intertwined in all the pages but the way the author depicts the revolution is realistic, there are good guys, ultimate evil and a lot of grey as well in the plot, with people fighting for survival in the time when the Terror started in France. The chapters of the prison are incredible. The whole novel is a precious gem in these time where there are so many copycat novels that add nothing new to the reader's experience.

I stumbled across this book after watching the avengers and realising Tom Hiddleston talents for characters and voices. I listened to a small snippet of the audiobook and I ell in love. The book is cleverly simple. Count Kalliovsky is evil. Yann is a fantastic character full of heart and soul it captures the innocence of young love and flourishing adult hood. The magic is the key that ties it all together. It is in turns passionate, funny, sad and hearrt wrenchingly lovely.A fantastic book to be enjoyed.

The Red Necklace/Silver Blade omnibus was a fantastic read, Sally Gardener is a brilliant author. The product arrived for me in good shape and although quite a thick book was fairly easy to hold whilst reading.Sally Gardener picks a fantastic setting- The French Revolution- to write her novels in. Historically it may not be 100% accurate but that doesn't matter in this case, the plot is unhindered. The characters are interesting and diverse and the story has many twists and turns within it. I would 100% recommend this book to anyone.

The Red Necklace is a darker subject than I, Coriander, and not the same kind of dreamy read, but in my opinion few of today's children's authors write as well as Sally Gardner. There is a gallery of unforgettable characters and you really care what happens to the two main characters, Sido and Jan. As in I, Coriander, a historical tale is woven in with fantasy elements which makes this book a most unusual read. I really recommend it to the over 12s - and adults!

I was very disappointed to be sent this excellent book in an ugly brash new-style cover, not the delicate old looking design shown in the picture by Amazon. Why do these publishers do this to us? However the book itself is very good, perhaps not as good as I Coriander (if you liked that you'll like this) but still excellent. I suggest that you buy the sequel at the same time as this book to save having to wait. High quality writing and no cliches.