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REVIEWS (SEE ALSO “COMMENTS” PAGE for more reviews)
COFFEE TIME .COM REVIEW
In writing to the author about Ti Marie, COFFEE TIME ROMANCE ’s reviewer said:
“I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book. The characters were quite mesmerizing. Elena in particular…You harness the ability to touch one’s emotions. I’m certain your readers will thankfully enjoy experiencing the motional highs and lows. Thank you for writing such a great love story. CLICK FOR REVIEW
“Ti Marie” is a truly great read that everyone will enjoy. Valerie Belgrave brings to light wartime, racism and slavery aspects, in this wonderfully creative and outstanding novel: Ghostwriters Literary Reviews
CLICK LOGO (above) FOR GHOSTWRITER'S FULL REVIEW
Paige Lovitt for READER VIEWS writes…
“Ti Marie” is a beautiful story. It is also very heart-wrenching. If you are looking for a light, fluffy novel to read, this is not the one for you. I have to admit, that this story drew tears to my eyes, several times. Belgrave brings "Ti Marie" alive so that the people are real. She develops their characters and draws them close to your heart. The main characters have to endure great hardships, yet this also adds to their depth of character. I am really glad that I had a chance to read a novel of this quality. The lore of the people of Trinidad and the devastation caused by slavery are both infused throughout the story. I highly, highly recommend this novel to fans of quality historical fiction. Belgrave will not let you down.
for FULL REVIEW
http://readerviews.com/ReviewBelgraveTiMarie.html
Jeremy Taylor, Guardian newspaper
I particularly liked three things about Ti Marie: The first is its imaginative range, the way Belgrave has brought vividly to life the people and the realities of Trinidad 200 years ago, a Trinidad going through a trauma far more profound than anything we know about now. The world she has conjured up is not only historically accurate, but real and a convincing and vivid in its details and it gives the reader a feel and grasp of those turbulent times which you could not get from a dozen conventional histories.
Secondly, it is a very accessible book, written for the general reader, not for the literary elite. It's odd that a resort to historical romance can be seen as a radical move; but what sort of literature are we going to have if it disdains a mass audience?
Thirdly, Ti Marie is a deeply humanist book. It would have been fatally easy to write a tract illustrating specific views about 18th century race, class and slavery; Belgrave has not done that. She does not flinch from any of these things - the ugliness and violence of slave society are inescapable.
Prof. Nancy Cirillo, English Dept. UIC Chicago says...
It was such a great pleasure to teach that novel, both in the joy it gives the reader and the joy that a teacher can experience seeing the responses of students I think reading Ti Marie did a great deal to help my students escape the provincialisms, which take so many forms. The novel really facilitated their ability to read history, to talk about slavery in widening contexts and to see the Caribbean outside the closed frames of their culture.
Dr. Stephanie Shonekan, Colombia College, Chicago
Ti Marie offers readers a remarkably fresh way of accessing the unique history of Trinidad and Tobago. Through the lens of a beautiful love story, issues of race, power and gender in 18th Century Trinidad are explored. As a professor of Humanities and Cultural Studies, I intend to use Ti Marie in a class I am designing on Literature and Music by women in the African Diaspora.
Dr. Ramabai Espinet, Seneca College, Toronto
We discussed Ti Marie in class this past week.(Feb '05) It was a great success. The comments were overwhelmingly that it brought the period (one of the most significant and defining in Caribbean history) alive, and really made them imagine what life was like then. Many commented on the visual aspects and a few suggested that it would make a wonderful film.
(SEE MORE REVIEWS ON "COMMENTS" PAGE)
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