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The five stars I've given this book reflects the high I'm still coming down from after having finished it. I think I might be in love with Susanna Kearsley. I read The Rose Garden earlier this year, and being a huge fan of time travel, devoured that shit like it was going out of style. Granted, it took me a little while to get into it because I found the pacing in the beginning to be kind of slow, but after getting over that bump in the road, there was no turning back.The Winter Sea was a whole
i have what can only be described as a love-hate relationship with this book. i found so much of it to feel incredibly stupid and yet i couldn't put it down. explain that one to me!'warning: here there be spoilers. 10 Things I Hate About You:1. the employment of a frame story - i'm pretty sure the conversation with her editor went something like this: sk: it's going to be two books in one! one story will be set in modern day and the other will be her "historical" novel!editor: oh, you mean, like...
4+ stars. Review first posted on Fantasy Literature:My recent read of Kearsley's Bellewether left me slightly dissatisfied, but I knew (and was assured by historical novel-loving friends) that she was capable of far more engaging storytelling, so I dove into her older duology of Jacobite-era novels, The Winter Sea and The Firebird. Both of these books ― in which Kearsley employs her favored dual-timeline approach with romance subplots, a paranormal element, and stellar historical research ― were...
Reader beware: This author does not compare to Mary Stewart, Daphne Dumaurier or Diana Gabaldon. I really wish I could have given this book a 2.5. It was better than okay, but not much. I really disliked the plot device of cutting back and forth from the 18th to the 21st century. When the 18th century story started to get interesting, the story would revert to the 21st century. The contemporary part of the story was dull and I didn’t care about the characters. The use of “genetic memory” as a pl...
I am not generally a reader of romances but this is a very well done historical romance that I really enjoyed. The novel is written in two parallel story lines (and romances!), with an author in the current day writing a historical novel about the Jacobite uprising in 1708, so that her main character's voice relates the events leading up to the uprising and the attempt to return James Stewart to Scotland from his exile in France so he could claim the Scottish crown. Carrie McClelland is the auth...
If you knew me at all in person, you’d know that I am a lover of history. Though I am always interested in history of any kind, my particular interests range from ancient Egypt, it’s ties to ancient Rome, and how that all eventually leads to England before it was England, across the sea to the Danes and the Northmen, and back again to England, Scotland and Ireland. What fascinates me most is how the influences of all these great people through history still dictate so very much of what we do tod...
I went along with it thinking it wasn't TOO terrible. But the ending was just bad. I can't understand/relate to a husband and wife who would just abandon their baby to another family like that. Sure, sure, it was "all the family she'd ever known", but she's TWO. She never should have been given to them in the FIRST place, but hells sakes, get your kid! Not to mention, I can't relate to this in the circumstances in MY day and age, back then there would be a HUGE difference her growing up in her f...
4.5 stars. This is a classic case of the right book finding the right time. I know I've picked this book up several times with the intent to read it and it just didn't look all that compelling. Nothing really grabbed me about it beyond the cover, I didn't really know much about that historical period, and I'm not really a person who reads romance novels regularly. I'd read a kind of heavy, dark book though and needed something light. A friend recommended something short that was perfect. I enjoy...
8/15/11 - Addendum to original review. I did not rate this book after reading it because I was so upset about the ending, but in retrospect I have to allow that it was one of the best books (and perhaps THE BEST) I have read this year. While I am VERY stingy about 5 star ratings and this is NOT the HEA I would have chosen, I confess that the author's meticulous research, beautiful prose, and riveting parallel storyline has won me over in the end. I've decided to give it the 5 stars after all.WHE...
Re-read 2/22/13Just as excellent the second time around.Now to dive into The Firebird :DOriginal ReviewFrom the onset of Susanna Kearsley's, The Winter Sea, fate clearly plays a large part in the destiny of writer Carrie McClelland, as well as the novel she is researching on the unsuccessful Jacobite uprising of 1708. A detour to Slains Castle on the rugged west coast of Scotland solidifies Carrie's desire to move her base of operations there. After meeting with her agent and good friend, Jane,
I have been hearing about this books for months in different groups I belong to, everyone who has read it saying they have absolutely loved it. Finally read it and loved it too. Such an interesting mix of history, genealogy, present and past, and romance, as I read I became totally immersed in both stories.Wonderful characters and I appreciated the fact that the author included a postscript detailing exactly which characters and what part of the story was actually historical fact.
This is such a beautiful book. I've never seen dual storylines intertwined with such facility and elegance. Usually, when the author take this approach, one will be more appealing than the other, but both stories were fascinating. The historical detail was meticulous; the writing is lyrical and evocative. The characters feel real. This book made me cry. I would recommend it for readers of Diana Gabaldon. Yes, it's that good.
Historical fiction is not usually my genre. I picked up this book because I thought it would also contain a paranormal element. Well, it does not - or very slightly so -, but I loved it nonetheless. Whoever compared it to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander in their reviews is seriously misleading readers, because this book has basically very little to do with it and it does not deal with time travel at all. The narrative technique was very good. The story is told by a writer, Carrie McClelland, who trav...
History has all but forgotten...In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.Lies.Or at least, it's severely misleading. The book does seem meticulously researched, and I have no doubt that the attempted coup d'etat actually happened, but it's not what this book is about.What this book actually is about: young women taking long walks on the cliffs and beaches of Scotland and...