Apparently, this was Tracy Chevalier's first novel, quite different from most of her other ones. I have read two other novels by this author, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "The Lady and the Unicorn", and have enjoyed both very much. This author has a style that appeals to me, simple and straightfoward but with a beauty of its own in the way she captures the characters that compose her stories.

Although I liked "The Virgin Blue", reading it in two days, I ended up fairly confused as to what had happened and why in some particular occasions. I couldn't understand the character's motivations, perhaps because I did not fully compreend the historical background in which part of it took place and what beliefs the people held. I was lost, at times, not understanding why some people reacted or acted the way they did and though some things are explained, many other questions were left unanswered in my mind. In fact, the ending was somewhat abrupt, at least where the past is concerned, as well as some of the relationships portrayed, which I thought moved too fast.