This was a good book, I don't think it lived up to the jacket. It is about 4 girls in a convent, all for different reasons. Bits and pieces let you know what happened to them, but basically it's a year in the convent story. Not bad, just a bit long ( )

I found this novel interesting because it read like a work of historical fiction, but had a lot in common with the typical YA fiction tropes -- a clique of girls who band together apart from the other students, fantasizing over boys (or in this case, soldiers in comas sent to convalesce), complaining about cafeteria food and dreaming of what life will be like once they turn eighteen. ( )

This was an interesting concept that just didn't quite come together for me. The chapters are titled as sacraments and seasons of the Holy Year, but they are interrupted by tales of saints and each of the Guineveres' arrival to the convent, and it's uneven in pacing. The stuff about the War was interesting, but the historical piece was of less importance to the author than the Catholicism. ( )

I won a copy of this book as a Goodreads giveaway.

The first paragraph of this book really sets the tone for the entire book. You can just feel that this book is not going to end up with everyone skipping off into the sunset.

The Guineveres is a book about 4 young girls, who really do not have much in common besides their names and their dreams of things becoming better once they are 18 and have control over their own lives. At first I had a little trouble keeping the Guineveres apart, however the author does a really great job at fleshing them out both physically & personality wise.

I loved how this book is told from 1 point of view throughout and is being told from a future perspective, with small tidbits & hints of how each girls life eventually does turn out. The girls are being raised in a convent after being abandoned by their parents, so I enjoyed the little chapters about different saints that the girls may have related to at one point or another. Initially, I wanted more back story, I wanted to know why these girls parents abandoned them, and I loved how the author incorporated each girls back story slowly in the book. It really made me want to keep reading, it was almost like peeling back the layers of each girl.

Overall, this book is about 4 young girls clinging to each other in the absence of anything else and how they grow up and start to grow apart. But even in growing apart, the are intertwined by common experiences that forever bind them to each other. ( )

Four girls named Guinevere are sent to the convent school and become best friends.

Vere is the narrator, the original Guinevere.
Ginny is petite, Win bigger and stronger, Gwen is the beauty.

Having gone to Catholic school, I appreciated a lot of the story. Their traditions reminded me of old school days. The girls in the book were even among the very first female altar servers and I was as well. I could understand a lot of the girls' school experiences.

The story as alternates some chapters about saints which I found interesting. It also told the girls' stories of how they wound up at the convent school which was completely depressing in every scenario.

I liked how the nuns tried their best to protect the girls from the outside world. I really felt like even when they were over the top about sin, it was because they cared so much.

Here's where they lost me. Gwen. I've been thinking about this a lot since finishing the book today. Gwen's entire storyline was unpleasant. Her before story was awful, she was very pushy towards the other Guinevere's who were trying their best to behave and the way her storyline ended. I haven't got words to explain how her story ended without spoilers. I can just say I didn't like it. If Gwen and her storyline had no existed I would have liked this book way more. As it was, I found myself enjoying the story less for her character.

Sorry, it was well written and highly praised I'm sure, but I just can't get past any part of Gwen's storyline.
( )