This novel is the story of Celia Sands, a young actress given the lead role in a play written by Italian poet and playright Galeazzo D'Ascanio some seventy years previously. The play - Il Prezzo - was inspired by D'Ascanio's muse and lover, an English actress also named Celia Sands. (The actresses are not related). The first Celia disappeared on the night before the play was due to have its first performance and D'Ascanio's grandson has decided to recreate the play in the outdoor theatre built i...

This is a bit different from Kearsley's other books, but I still enjoyed it once it got going. I could tell it's one of her earlier works. The past timeline doesn't mesh with the modern one very much. It's not well developed at all, but is presented just through occasional flashbacks. These answer questions for the reader rather than driving towards something that needs to be discovered in the present. The mystery and all the drama are in the modern time, so this reads more like a contemporary r...

This is my sixth novel by Susannah Kearsley, who writes gentle romantic suspense novels that move back and forth between contemporary and historical times. As you all know, I love a good parallel narrative, particularly if it also has a bit of love and danger thrown into the mix. Add a touch of magic, as Susannah Kearsley often does, and I’m a happy camper.Season of Storms is not her strongest novel. It hasn't challenged The Rose Garden or A Desperate Fortune or Mariana for top-ranking in my aff...

Season of Storms is my third Susanna Kearsley novel, and it was another good one.During early 1900s Italy, playwright Galeazzo D'Ascanio, living at his villa Il Piascere writes a play for his love, actress Celia Sands. Only to have her disappear the night before the play's premiere.In the modern day, another actress named Celia Sands (no relation to the first) is offered the part in the play written for Celia the first, a play that has yet to see the light of day. The play will be staged by D'As...

4.5 stars...Excellent book and start of my 2015 reading!This book is a re-issue of one written earlier in her career, 2001 I think. It follows a different path than most of her books, and it doesn't have a time travel element per se. Written in a modern gothic style, it is worded eloquently and wonderfully. I sound like a fangirl, and that I am! I see that many didn't enjoy it as much as I did, and I hate that. It's a great book. The mysteries in the storyline aren't that hard to figure out, but...

Celia Sands is an actress who is invited to take part in a production of a play that's been labeled cursed; written by Galeazzo D'Ascanio in the early 1900s for his mistress, also named Celia Sands, the play has never been successfully produced since the earlier Celia's mysterious disappearance just before its premiere. Now, D'Ascanio's grandson wants to put on the play at Galeazzo's villa in northern Italy, but when Celia arrives there, strange things begin to happen. Though I liked the charact...

I LOVE Susanna Kearsley. LOVE her. This, I did not love. I can echo most of the other low-star reviews: slow start/awkward pacing; forcing a novel into 5 acts; uneven use of paranormal elements, etc. However, I will focus on my main beefs: characters and romance. Warning: Minor spoilers may be ahead.Biggest problem: Celia. I realize this one of Kearsley's older works, but Celia could have walked straight out of a 1978 Janet Dailey Harlequin. She's in her very early 20s, beautiful and talented bu...

Buddy read with JeannetteA lot of mystery and a bit of suspense made this a very good story. It was very different from other books I've read by Susanna Kearsley in that the story set in the past was almost nonexistent. At first I missed the historical part but then the characters and all the mysteries grew on me. I was able to figure out all of the mysteries because the clues are there but that didn't matter because Kearsley's writing always makes the journey so enjoyable. I wasn't sure I would...

The premise was interesting enough to keep me reading, but ultimately this book fell flat. I learned about 50 pages in that I could skim or skip the lengthy descriptions of setting and not miss anything important. The characters were one dimensional. Each character was introduced with his or her character flaw and/or quirk and then maintained that personality throughout the book. No changes, no surprises. The villain is the villain, the kind fatherly figure is the kind fatherly figure, the myste...

Rating: 4.5 starsWow. Susanna Kearsley books just keep getting better and better.This book was a real page turner for me, and I loved that the element of suspense was at the forefront. There are less of the historical details in the alternative storyline in this one, in fact there is less of the alternative story line period than there usually is, but it really suits this story and it's really well done. If you want a gentle, well written romance with Gothic overtones, and a "mystery" with a nic...

I didn't think I'd ever meet a Kearsley book that I didn't much like, but sadly, "Season of Storms" was it. Don't get me wrong, it was well written like all Kearsley books, and highly evocative of Mary Stewart with lovely place descriptions. The characters were ok, and the ending had a twist that I wasn't expecting, which was nice.But I wasn't very interested in the plot involving a young stage actress reprising the main lead in a play written for another young stage actress (with the exact same...

There’s so much about reading Susanna Kearsley that reminds me of reading Mary Stewart’s work. Something about the sense of place (this is so firmly Italy, and the house and its grounds are so easy to imagine), the female heroine, the romance… Except it’s better, because it steers away from some of the colonial and sexist attitudes that were still pretty firmly entrenched in Mary Stewart’s work, despite her independent and reasonably proactive heroines.And this book especially won me over, becau...

When you're skimming before page 50, you know a DNF isn't far away. I so want to like Kearsley, but apart from Every Secret Thing it just ain't happening :-(