Member Reviews

Enjoyable read, nothing new but enjoyable revisiting Beatles history and the women behind the scenes. Entertaining, but not life changing.

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I'm always interested in anything to do with The Beatles and this one peaked interest because it was about the ladies. It is written a bit like a gossip mag, but really isn't that why I'm here? I didn't really learn anything new but I got o spend some time with the girls (especially Mo, she's my favorite). I will recommend this for any Beatles fan, but especially those that want to know about the ladies that inspired some of their best songs.

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I really enjoyed reading this book. As a long time Beatles fan I have never really read much about their spouses. Lots of good info.

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Errors galore in this copy. I've read Marc Shapiro before, and I think this will be the last time. I didn't really read anything new that I haven't read in an interview or other memoir. There is even speculative information/opinion based statements that shouldn't be in this type of work.

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I thought this book was a quick easy read about the women behind the Fab 5 .
I think it was interested to have a book about the women who lived and loved the men and was also sometimes hated by the fans . There really wasn’t any new information in this book that true fans didn’t know or wasn’t already in any documentary.

I just reviewed Beatle Wives by Marc Shapiro. #BeatleWives #NetGalley

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Having been a Beatles connoisseur for some years now, I knew that I couldn't skip out on this book. Often the wives of famous men are pushed into the background and only brought forward during key moments, such as a controversy. However, this book takes a look at their lives before, during, and sometimes after their days with a Beatle.

While there were many stories I already knew about these women, there was new material in here that I hadn't read about before. The only distraction I found really hard to take in reading this was the constant quoting of sources. While sources are important, this is the kind of book that would do much better with footnotes, as opposed to reciting the source three time in a single paragraph (this was especially distracting when the source was a website rather than a print publication). However, I would still recommend this to any Beatle fan wanting to go deeper.

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This was a book I really wanted to try out because my husband is the self proclaimed biggest Beatles fan. I enjoyed this for kind of an out of the box read for me. If you're a Beatles fan, I think you can find some fun with this one. It too me awhile to finally get to this book, but once I did, I got through it quick

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Thanks to #netgalley, Riverdale Books and Marc Shapiro for sending this ebook for review.
Through extensive research and archives, Marc Shapiro has definitely given us a look into the lives and loves of the Beatles. To see beyond the famous names of the Beatles, and turning the attention of their wives. Included are nine chapters, each one devoted toone of the wives of one of the Beatles. Cynthia Lennon, Maureen Starkey, Patti Boyd Harrison/Clapton, Linda Eastman McCartney, Barbara Bach, Yoko Ono,Olivia Harrison, Heather Mills McCartney andNancy Shevell McCartney share their lives and time as a Beatles wife, the info mostly culled from previous inteviews and articles that have been published, but never before culled to give us a story of all of them in one book. Patti Boyd is still my favorite Beatles wife, and the only survivng first generation Beatles wife.
This was a fun, and personable read, a nice look into the ways these women romanced, and also, possibly, influence thier husbands legacy.
Recommended

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A good quick read. Somehow I missed the heyday of Beatlemania - but was always aware of them and their lives as told in pop culture. It was nice to read about the women behind the men. It renewed some information, corrected some misconceptions and was very entertaining.

Thank you for this ARC.

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My thanks to Marc Shapiro, River Avondale books and Netgalley.

I am a Beatles fan, thanks to the constancy in my life of their music from my parents. Hard days night being my mum and dads ‘growing up album’.

The book reads likes 9 bios. That worked for me given the subject matter. It made it a lighter and easier read. I didn’t read it in order, I skipped to my ‘favourite wives!!’ The bonus in the book is that it is not just Beatles wives, but also some facts about the Beatles lives during that time.

Thoroughly enjoyed the book.

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There wasn’t any new information in this that I hadn’t read or seen before. As a huge fan of the Beatles, I was shocked that I didn’t like this as much as I hoped. And the editing needs some work.

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This book read like 9 short distinct biographies. Although, I sometimes wondered if the numerous quotes were factual, I did learn a few things about the Beatle wives. I was looking for a short book and it felt like reading a rock n’ roll magazine so it met my needs.

Thank you to Netgalley and the producers for granting me an e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

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**I purchased this book after not receiving a NetGalley request response for weeks. The request was approved over a month after I purchased and read the book. The below review is my review for the book I paid for on May 17th, 2022**

I requested this book from NetGalley, but I never received a response, so I went ahead and purchased it on Amazon. I paid $10.62 for the Kindle version, and it is RIDDLED with punctuation and grammatical errors. If this were an ARC, I wouldn't comment on such errors because I would assume they would be taken care of before publishing, but that is not the case. I paid ACTUAL MONEY for a book that reads like it was written by an 8th grader, and that pisses me off.

Crappy editing aside, the book itself is just ok. There's nothing new here about the nine wives of the Beatles. The majority of this book is made up of quotes taken from various websites, magazines, and television interviews. The author simply compiled quotes and interviews in the order they happened for each wife, then padded the rest of their chapters with their background and some speculative information.

If you don't know anything at all about the Beatles or their wives, then this may be interesting for you. I'm certainly no Beatle expert, but even I found this to be lacking any substance, and I really am disgusted that this has been published with so many errors. Words missing in a sentence...the wrong word used in a sentence...missing commas, periods, and quotation marks. It's bad. If this book DID have an editor, they should be fired because they're terrible at their job.

My recommendation? If you really want to read this, do NOT purchase it. Request it from the library or borrow it from a friend, because this is not worth your money.

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Do not waste your time or money on this copy-and-paste job. It's nothing more than information taken from other people's articles and blog posts. I'd be ashamed to say I'd "written" this.

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Thank you to Riverdale Avenue books and to NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

I am a big Beatles fan, so when I saw this book I knew I should request it.

This book was just ok at best. There really wasn't any new information in the book, or information that hasn't been told previously. It was nice to have it all compiled in one book though I guess. I would recommend this book, if you were just starting to like the Beatles and wanted additional information about their personal lives. I guess it was nice to have all the information compiled in this book though.

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As Marc Shapiro notes, there are plentiful books about the 4 members of the Beatles and their lives (including a couple authored by Shapiro himself), but very few talk about the women that married these four men. In this short but well put together book, Shapiro focuses on each wife in chronological order and devotes each section to who the woman was as a person as well as how they cope/coped with the insane lives lead by the band. Shapiro lets us into the lives of these women, often using their own words culled from autobiographies, articles and interviews and gives them a voice to explain their love of these men, the difficulties of their relationships and how they handled being thrust into the spotlight. I really enjoyed this book and is a great supplement to all of the other books written about the Beatles, both for fans of the group and those casually interested in the group. Thanks to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue Books for the free ebook.

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I was really excited to read a story about the wives of the Beatles group! However, there wasn’t any new information that I had already read about from news articles and blogs. Thus, I recommend this for fans of the Beatles, but a disappointing book about the women behind the famous men.

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I was looking forward to reading this book but after reading it I'm feeling a bit let down. I was hoping for new or interesting information about all of the wives. That didn't happen. Instead it was a rehashing of the relationships that honestly you can look up online. Some of these relationships were sad, at times nasty and again sad. Overall, I ended up feeling sorry for some of the wives, they deserved better treatment, love and commitment.
I received this ARC from the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

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I enjoyed most of the chapters, however I found I already knew a lot of these stories already. I found the writing easy to follow and enjoyed the concise writing style. However, I expected newer, fresher perspectives and sources. Overall, an easy and interesting read.

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As a lifelong Beatles fan I was looking forward to reading this book. Unfortunately, it was extremely disappointing. Completely culled from previously released material, this was mildly entertaining, minimally informative, and very gossipy. The author seemed more interested in the women’s love lives and when they lost their virginity than any substantive look at their lives overall. Better suited to. a People Magazine or Hello article than a serious book. Not recommended

Thanks to NetGalley and Riverdale Avenue Books for an advanced reader copy.

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