The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

When we had to come up with our most anticipated read for 2013, it was not a hardship for me. As far back as July last year I knew that my most anticipated book for this year was going to be The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley.

I was so excited to get an advance copy, and loved reading the book too.

This week I have discussed the book with one of the bloggers who inspired me to start my blogging journey.

Rosario has the first part of the discussion and I have the final part at my blog.

If you need a really brief summary....we both loved it! Now to wait for the next Susanna Kearsley book to come out!

2013's Most Anticipated New Releases

Marg: The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley. I actually claimed this book as my most anticipated new release in 2013 back in July! I am just that excited at the prospect of reading it! And I was very excited when I got an early copy of it in the mail a couple of weeks ago. There was squeeeing and happy dancing involved. I am kind of glad you couldn't all see it!

Kelly: The Aviator's Wife by Melanie Benjamin. I wasn't sure what I was going to choose, but when I heard that Melanie Benjamin had a new book out in 2013 I decided it was a safe bet. I really enjoyed both of her previous books!

Julie: As I have to wait until the Autumn of 2013 before my most anticipated release is available, there is not even a cover I can show you. The book is the latest in the Outlander Series by Diana Gabaldon and is to be titled "Written In My Own Heart's Blood". 

So, as I have to wait almost a year I have a selected a second book, one that I know will be a great success, as indeed the rest of the books by this author are.

That book is Mrs Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini and is released in the UK in January 2013.

Ana: I have been very undecided about what to choose for this feature. There are several books that interest me but I ended up writing down Patricia Bracewell's Shadow on The Crown. It is set during a different period than what I usually read and I don't think I have ever payed much attention to Emma of Normandy so it might be both an interesting and informative read. Shadow on the Crown will be out on Feb 7, 2013.



Nanette: I'm with Ana in my anticipation of The Shadow on the Crown. I love books that are set in this era, and there are so few of them.

The others that have piqued my interest:

  

Fever by Mary Beth Keane, which is a novel about Typhoid Mary, the Irish immigrant who unknowingly started a typhoid epidemic in early 19th century New York City. I've been fascinated by Mary Mallon since fourth grade, when I read her story on one of the history cards that my teacher had in her classroom. As far as I know, this is the first novel about Mallon, and the author is highly acclaimed. Fever will be released in the U.S. on March 12.

The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig. I admit that I've fallen behind on Willig's Pink Carnation series, which is a shame, because it's a lot of fun. But this novel is a standalone, and it looks like a family saga--one of my favorite genres. I'll be looking for this one in April.

I know I've mentioned this before, but the book I'm most looking forward to in 2013 is Paullina Simons's Children of Liberty, which has been out in Australia since last fall, but isn't available in the U.S. until late February. I loved the Tatiana and Alexander series, and Children of Liberty gives the backstory of Alexander's ancestors.

Alex: This choice was quite difficult to make since several books already caught my attention, but Christine Trent's Lady of Ashes, a story about a Victorian undertaker, seems absolutely fascinating and unusual. Can't wait to read it !

The Summer Queen by Elizabeth Chadwick, a novel about Eleanor of Aquitaine, is also in my "most anticipated release" list for this year. Her books are always amazing !

What are your most anticipated new releases for this year?

Susanna Kearsley on Why I Love Robbie from The Shadow Horses

Today is the US rerelease of The Shadowy Horses, one of my favourite Susanna Kearsley novels (you can read Ana, Kelly and my thoughts on this book here). In honour of that, Susanna Kearsley is here to tell us a little bit about Robbie, one of the characters in that book. He also happens to be the main character in her next book, The Firebird, which is out next year and I am beyond thrilled to have an exclusive excerpt for us to see a grown up Robbie!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My love of archaeology was born the summer when the archaeologists first came to our small town to excavate the site that once had been an Iroquoian village. I was only a child, but the dig held me mesmerized. Watching the dig team at work, so meticulous; seeing the village take shape from the field as new posts were set into old postholes to reconstruct long-fallen palisades and a few longhouses—it was like watching the veil between present and past torn away, shining light on a time that was no longer hidden, but there to be seen. To be touched.

I felt something of that childlike fascination in my twenties, when I came across the book The Alexandria Project by Stephen Schwartz, the story of a research team that went to Egypt with the aim of trying to find Alexander the Great’s tomb and other ancient sites that had been “lost to history”, by making “rigorously controlled” scientific use of psychics and remote viewing (“seeing” things that are “inaccessible to normal senses due to distance, time, or shielding”). I was particularly struck by the account of how Canadian psychic (and I use the word apologetically, because he disliked being called that) George McMullen was able to provide Schwartz with amazingly accurate and verifiable information simply by walking over an area.

When I discovered that McMullen had also done pioneering work with Canadian archaeologist Dr. J. Norman Emerson on Iroquoian sites in my own province of Ontario, I was even more intrigued. Further research led me to other psychics like Stefan Ossowiecki, who earlier in the 20th century had been able to confirm archaeological data by psychometry—the ability to know things about an object by holding it—and remote viewing, until his tragic death at the hands of the Nazis in 1944.

This “intuitive archaeology”, as Dr. Emerson called it, was a whole different field than I’d ever encountered, and the more I read about it, the more I knew I wanted to write about it.

That’s how Robbie, the eight-year-old psychic who sets things in play in The Shadowy Horses, first came into being. The fact that he came into the book as a boy, not a man like the men who inspired his character, probably has at least something to do with my own childhood memories of watching that long-ago dig, and my sense of the past as a thing that was tangible.

Writing Robbie’s character, I loved how his abilities connected past and present. Here he is, at the very beginning of the dig, being questioned by the dig’s team leader, Peter Quinnell:

‘Robbie?’

Robbie, still poking about with his stick, looked round a second time. ‘Aye, Mr. Quinnell?’

‘Mr. Sutton-Clarke’s afraid we might be digging in the wrong place for our ditch.’

‘The ditch the soldiers dug?’

‘That’s right.’

Robbie screwed his eyes up while he gave the matter thought.

‘No, it’s here. It’s all filled up, like, but it’s here.’

‘Good lad.’ Quinnell turned back to Adrian like a proud father. ‘You see? There’s no need to worry. If you’d just be so kind as to verify my measurements…’

A few minutes later, as Wally Tyler’s spade attacked the toughened sod, my shoulders lifted in a little sigh.

Such a pity, I thought, that Quinnell would be disappointed. It didn’t seem fair.

‘The ditch is here,’ repeated Robbie, but he wasn’t talking to Quinnell. He’d come round to stand beside me and his blue eyes tilted up to meet my doubting ones, offering reassurance. ‘It’s OK, he’s going to find it.’

No one can really be psychic, I reminded myself firmly. But Robbie only smiled as though I’d told him something funny, and went bouncing off to throw his stick for Kip.

Apparently I wasn’t the only person who loved Robbie. A few years ago one of my readers wrote to ask me whether I’d ever considered giving Robbie his own book, and after giving it some thought I saw how Robbie would make the perfect hero for the story that was starting then to form in my imagination.

I’d never done that with a character—let him age from a boy in one book to a man in another—but Robbie came into the new book, The Firebird (which will be out next spring) with all of the characteristics that made me so fond of him when I first “met” him, and it was a pleasure to write him again.

And so here, exclusively for readers of Historical Tapestry, is a first look at Robbie McMorran some twenty years after the time of The Shadowy Horses, as seen through the eyes of my heroine, who herself has the ability to “see” the past, though not as well as Robbie.

By the time I got my own door open he was there to hold it for me. Of all the men I’d ever dated, he remained the only one who’d ever done that.

‘Well,’ he said, when I remarked on it, ‘you’ve led a sheltered life. As I recall, you said you’d only had two boyfriends afore me. Unless you’ve had a couple since...’

I turned to look at him, expecting that his blue eyes would be teasing, and instead found they were nonchalantly guarded, and a bit too unconcerned.

I said, ‘I haven’t.’

And then, because I couldn’t hold his gaze, I looked away. There had been moments when I’d wondered whether Rob was seeing anyone, because it seemed a bit too unbelievable that after these two years he’d still be unattached, but when he’d come to Ypres with me I’d known without a doubt he wasn’t seeing anybody at the moment. He was far too much a gentleman to spend this kind of time with me alone, if he already had a girlfriend. He’d have counted it as being disrespectful to the both of us.

He swung my door closed and walked round to lean against the bonnet, and although the sun was too high now to catch him in the eyes, he took the dark sunglasses from his pocket, put them on, and settled back to look more keenly at…well, at whatever he was looking at.

I couldn’t tell, from watching him, if he was seeing things as they were now or as they had been, but I had the sense that he was standing with one foot in each reality, a bridge between the present and the past.

I let a moment pass in silence before prompting him with, ‘Well?’

‘Well, it’s a fair-sized town, Calais. We’re in the old part of it, now, the part that stood within the town walls, with the moat all round it, back in Anna’s day. But even so, there were a lot of streets and houses then, and it was busy all the time with people, so there’s not much point in wandering round,’ he said, ‘to look for her. Like looking for a needle in a haystack.’

I had no doubt, having seen him work, that he could have found one of those, if he had set his mind to it. But clearly he had settled on a plan.

I prompted, ‘So?’

‘So, Calais was a guarded town. With walls. If Anna had been coming from the Channel side, by boat, with Father Graeme, they’d have had to use the harbour to the north. But when they left the convent, back in Ypres,’ he told me, ‘they were on the road. And if they travelled overland, as we did, they’d have come straight through that gate.’

I came around to lean beside him on the car, and looked. ‘Where is it?’

‘You tell me.’

‘Rob, I can’t—’

‘You’re away off to Russia the morn,’ he reminded me. ‘When were you planning to practise?’ He had me there. Fully aware of it, he said, ‘I ken that you do things by touch. I’m not thinking you’ll see it the same way that I do, but you should be able at least to sense where the gate was, like you did with the convent.’

I gave it my best shot.

It took a few minutes. It wasn’t a small mental tug at my sleeve this time, as it had been in Ypres; more like a settling sensation of certainty, knowing without knowing why. ‘There.’ I pointed. ‘I think it was there. Am I right?’

For an answer, he draped an arm over my shoulders. ‘Let’s see.’

Thank you for letting me share this. I hope you’ll love Robbie as well, when you meet him.

Susanna Kearsley on Jamaica Inn

I’ve never read Rebecca.

I can quote the first sentence, I know the whole plot, and I might just have peeked at the ending, but I’ve never read the whole book, nor have I watched the film. I’m not really sure why. Something left for my bucket list, anyway.

I’ve read nearly everything else, both short stories and novels, that Daphne du Maurier wrote, and I have a great love and respect for her voice. I think I might have read The Scapegoat first. My mother had all the Du Maurier novels set out in a row on her bookshelves, and that title called to me. But the first book of Du Maurier’s I fell in love with, one blustery weekend in winter when I was just barely a teenager, was her Jamaica Inn.

To this day, it remains my favourite of all her books, and for me it’s the high bar that only one other—The House on the Strand—can come close to.

It helped, I think, that when I read it first I had already been to Cornwall, had already crossed the Tamar, and been captivated by the subtle magic of that place. The Cornwall I had seen, though, had been the more gentle south, “the green hills and the sloping valleys, the white cluster of cottages at the water’s edge” that the heroine, Mary Yellan, was coming from when first I met her in her coach upon the rugged moorland.

Like Mary, I had never seen the wilder side of Cornwall, or its darker places, and I was immediately lost in them and swept away, as she was. Those were the days of my life when, with no responsibilities, I had the freedom on a weekend to spend all day reading if I wanted to—to stay in bed and snuggle in my blankets and just lose myself. And lose myself I did.

I loved this book. I loved the action and the mystery, and the strong and vivid setting, with the violence like a current underneath the calmer surface, rather like the moors themselves. I loved that Mary was a strong heroine who made choices for herself. And I fell hopelessly for Jem. He was a different kind of hero than I’d met in all my Mary Stewart books. Jem Merlyn was an unrepentant thief, and far from perfect, and he had an edge, and yet beneath it he was more dependable and solid than he seemed. My first “bad boy” hero, and one who, again, set the bar rather high.

And the writing is just so incredibly good in this book. There are phrases that sing, and whole passages that I can nearly recite. I can still close my eyes and see so many scenes. This is one of my favourites—just look what she does with a few economical sentences; how she can paint a whole scene with the simplest words:

“They plunged into the thick of the fair, with all the warmth and the suggestion of packed humanity about them. Jem bought Mary a crimson shawl and gold rings for her ears. They sucked oranges beneath a striped tent and had their fortunes told by a wrinkled gypsy woman. ‘Beware of a dark stranger,’ she said to Mary, and they looked at one another and laughed again.

‘There’s blood in your hand, young man,’ she told him. ‘You’ll kill a man one day’; and ‘What did I tell you in the jingle this morning?’ said Jem. ‘I’m innocent as yet. Do you believe it now?’ But she shook her head at him; she would not say. Little raindrops splashed onto their faces and they did not care. The wind rose in gusts and billowed the fluttering tents, scattering paper and ribbons and silks; and a great striped booth shuddered an instant and crumpled, while apples and oranges rolled in the gutter. Flares streamed in the wind; the rain fell; and people ran hither and thither for shelter, laughing and calling to one another, the rain streaming from them.

Jem dragged Mary under cover of a doorway, his arms around her shoulders, and he turned her face against him and held her with his hands and kissed her. ‘Beware of the dark stranger,’ he said, and he laughed and kissed her again. The night clouds had come up with the rain, and it was black in an instant. The wind blew out the flares, the lanterns glowed dim and yellow, and all the bright colour of the fair was gone.”

That’s just beautiful writing.

I’m wary with Daphne du Maurier’s endings. They’re not always happy, and being a hopeless romantic at heart I do love happy endings, or ones that at least I can twist to make happy. Jamaica Inn has a good, twistable ending, and even now, when I re-read it, I close the book with the same satisfied sigh that I sighed thirty years ago, when I first read it on what might, in fact, have been “a cold grey day in late November”, as in the beginning sentence of the book. 

I’m not in a position to compare it to Rebecca, but I still suspect my heart belongs more on the moors with Jem and Mary, than at Manderley.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Susanna Kearsley is a favourite here at Historical Tapestry. Among her books are the excellent The Winter Sea, The Rose Garden, Mariana, The Shadowy Horses and several other books. You can find out more about Susanna and her books at the following links:

Website
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Marg's Best books of 2011

Here are my best books of this year.

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley - I made a comment somewhere recently saying that I thought I was genetically predisposed to liking Susanna Kearsley's books, and this book was no exception! I loved it from beginning to end and literally gasped out loud at the twist in the tale. Whilst The Winter Sea is still my favourite maybe because it was my first read by her, this one comes close in terms of favourites. (My review)

Lady of the English by Elizabeth Chadwick - Elizabeth Chadwick is one of my favourite authors, so it isn't a surprise to see her appear on a best of list, but I do think that she is getting better and better! This book is about the war between Empress Matilda and her cousin Stephen, but it is also about so much more. No one brings medieval times to life like Elizabeth Chadwick. One of the not so great things about 2012 is that there isn't going to be a new Chadwick book. We have to wait until 2013 for the first book in her Eleanor of Aquitaine trilogy.

I have posted on my blog about the other books that I loved this year, and even have a giveaway running for one of them!


Other notable historical fiction books I read this year included;

Wallaby Track by Aaron Fletcher
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
Russian Winter by Daphne Kalotay
Emily by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles
Angelique in Love by Sergeanne Golon
Imperial Highness by Evelyn Anthony
The Personal History of Rachel DuPree by Ann Weisgarber
Camp Nine by Vivienne Schiffer
Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
Wildflower Hill by Kimberley Freeman

The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

When Eva’s filmstar sister Katrina dies, she leaves California and returns to Trelowarth, Cornwall , where they spent their childhood summers, to scatter Katrina’s ashes and in doing so return her to the place where she belongs. But Eva must also confront the ghosts from her own past, as well as those from a time long before her own. For the house where she so often stayed as a child is home not only to her old friends the Halletts, but also to the people who had lived there in the eighteenth century. When Eva finally accepts that she is able to slip between centuries and see and talk to the inhabitants from hundreds of years ago, she soon finds herself falling for Daniel Butler, a man who lived – and died – long before she herself was born. Eva begins to question her place in the present, and in laying her sister to rest, comes to realise that she too must decide where she really belongs, choosing between the life she knows and the past she feels so drawn towards

Today, Kelly and Marg bring you a discussion of The Rose Garden by a favourite author here at Historical Tapestry - Susanna Kearsley. Kelly's thoughts are in black and Marg's in purple.

So we should probably put out a general alert before we start this discussion.

Be prepared for gushing!

I know! I have read most of Kearsley’s books at this point, but she is going to have a very hard time topping this book and The Winter Sea. They were both excellent! She has other good books, of course, but nothing even begins to compare to her later works. She is definitely at the top of her game and hopefully we have lots more wonderful books to look forward to in the not so distant future...

I have been debating with myself about which I liked more, this book or The Winter Sea, and I really cannot make up my mind. The Winter Sea was the first book I ever read by her, so I think it maintains a special place simply for that, but it was also wonderful. When I started this book I admit I was a bit skeptical that The Winter Sea could have any real competition for favourite, but then I got wrapped up in the story and discovered that a tie was possible. What do you think?

I am torn too. The Winter Sea will probably always be my favourite because it was my first Susanna Kearsley and I just loved that book, but this one and The Shadowy Horses are definitely right up there for me. I agree about Kearsley being at the top of her game. I was going to make a comment on my blog saying that this was the best book she had written since The Winter Sea, but that statement kind of loses its potency, when you realise that this is the only book she has written since The Winter Sea!

I know! It’s hard to say anything since she only has written the one book since she gained a more international audience. I wish I had been reading her all along, but I am excited that I finally discovered her when she was going through this change in circumstances. It will be interesting to see what happens now that her books are getting better known. I always have a weak spot for Canadian authors and a desire for them to do well.

What was your favourite scene in the book?

I don’t know which to choose.

I think the most obvious is a scene we can’t talk about because it would spoil the book, but it comes right near the end and it literally made me gasp out loud when I read it!

Other than that I loved that the setting was Cornwall, but that Kearsley still managed to bring us something about the Jacobite rebellion that I didn’t know before. I also really enjoyed all the characters, in both times, but I must confess to a bit of a soft spot for Fergal.

And yours?

Same as yours! When I read it, I had to put the book down and send you an email. I literally said ‘Oh, my god’ aloud when I read it. It was a perfect scene and I was excited for you to read it.

I enjoyed the setting, too. I want to go there! When I read this book, it was raining constantly here, so it sounded like paradise! Kearsley always writes such wonderful settings. Everyone of them I want to visit after reading her books. I also enjoy her main characters. I always feel like I can easily be friends with them and they are experiencing such fascinating things. It never feels like a stretch. It is very believable. I think every time I reread her books it will be like visiting with friends.

I already wanted to visit many of the places that Kearsley uses as settings - Scotland and Cornwall seem to have such resonance with these kind of stories. I am not sure why. I could totally see her writing a book with an Irish setting as well, because of that kind of mythical setting that is prevalent in her books.

What did you think of the title of the book and the cover?

I am not sure on the title or the cover. I think they are kind of generic. Not sure I could come up with better though! I am however glad that the title is remaining the same in all markets, unlike with The Winter Sea/Sophia’s Secret.

Well, the title, every time I see it, makes me start singing... Even when I opened this review to add more to it I couldn’t help thinking ‘I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden’. Until tonight when I looked it up, I had no idea who even sang that song... So, no idea why it is in my head, but it is since the book title was announced...

One thing I always find interesting with Kearsley’s books are the various techniques that she uses to enable to the storytelling to take place in two different places and times - whether it be through dreams, regression or whatever. How did you find the technique worked for you as a reader in this book?

I think the reason I love Kearsley’s books so much is because of this method. She makes it seem so natural. You want to call it a fantasy novel, but at the same time it is entirely believable. I really liked how the character in this book kept travelling through time. When she was in the other world, time in her own world stayed the same and she wasn’t even missed when she came back. The use of two times in her creative manners is definitely what leads me over and over again to read her books. I only have one left to read!

I have a couple left to read - particularly the hard to find ones!

We should talk a little about the actual story. The main character is Eva. Her movie star sister Katrina has recently died and Eva has been given the duty of finding a place to scatter her ashes. As Eva thinks about where that place would be, her mind turns to the place that she hasn’t lived for years but feels like home - Cornwall. She return to the village where Eva and Katrina spent their summers, and to the house where her childhood friends the Halletts still live.

The Hallett’s are battling to save their aging home, and Eva volunteers to use her publicity knowledge to help them. At first she associates the strange events with her grief and tiredness, but it quickly becomes obvious that there is something more going on.

Yes, talking about the actual story is probably a good idea. The story starts off on a very negative note when Eva loses her sister, but the book becomes about much more than that. It is obvious why Eva is so connected to Cornwall. It was just the place that she is meant to be. She goes through a lot while she is there. The Hallett son was Katrina’s first love and even though many years have gone by and she married someone else, he is still battling with the emotions that her death evokes. His father has died and he is tending the family gardens, but he hates the public side of things and is resistant to much change. His sister, though, has big ideas and Eva helps her discover them by advertising the tea house that she has built. That tea house is so much more to the story, though... The reason it came to be in the first place was a touching story.

Given that you have read other books by Kearsley what did you think when Eva started hearing voices?

I wasn’t really surprised because I knew there was something of that nature to expect, but it was just a matter of finding out what method she was going to choose. That didn’t mean there were not a lot surprises in store, though!

So, the hearing voices is the first clue that all is not as it seems, which becomes even more obvious when Eva finds herself in the same house, but that it is occupied by different people in a different time. The house is occupied by a widower, Daniel Butler and his friend Fergal. They are men with a secret of their own - secret Jacobite supporters. The local constabulary, especially Constable Creed, is deeply suspicious of the Butlers and an unexplained woman appearing could make things awkward, especially as she is sometimes there and sometimes isn’t, and she can’t really talk due to her obvious accent and different use of language. Also add into the mix a bit of smuggling and the charismatic and vivid brother Jack and life becomes very complicated all round.


First of all, I loved the characters you mentioned. I know, I am getting off track, but I can’t help pointing out how well written they all were! From the very beginning I loved Daniel. The very first scene was entertaining and I enjoyed watching him develop as a character each time she ‘magically’ appeared. I believe that he really brought the early setting to life by being so realistic. I could picture him and everything that was going on around him. I also love Fergal. Sometimes I think he was simply there to lighten the mood from time to time, but then Jack appeared and took that to a whole different level. Jack is interesting to say the least! In many ways the opposite of his brother, but he grew on me with time. Then, there was the very well-written villain, Constable Creed. I have to admit that I was not there, I was just reading about it, but every time the ‘law’ paid them a visit he creeped me out. It made the story dark just having him there and you never knew what was going to happen, but you felt like it was going to be bad. I cannot applaud Kearsley enough for writing such excellent characterizations. It is why I enjoy her books so much - coupled with the fact she writes fascinating story-lines, captures the time period very well, and has settings that I always want to visit!

Oh yes, the law man was totally, totally creepy!

One other aspect that I did find interesting was the fact that when Eva travelled through time, the treatment of the clothing aspects seemed very logical. I loved that she kept on having to hide the 18th century clothes (including Daniel’s dressing gown) in the future. It also tied in to her worries about changing things in the past.

I appreciated the fashion in general. That was another thing that was explained very well. I can just imagine how hard it is to go from the fashion of today to the fashion of the 18th-century. It was the same in Outlander by Diana Gabaldon. In this book the two men knew that she had no idea what she was doing so they aided her, but I found the description illuminating because it is not something I generally think about. The clothes themselves worked well to tie in other things, as well. One of the dresses that she brings back to the modern world belong to Daniel’s deceased wife, so using this one dress we learn more about Daniel and his past that might not have come up right away.

So wrapping up now, Kearsley has once again done a stellar job of making time slip seem like a completely probable possibility, has delivered a lushly romantic story, and this time also made us both gasp out loud with a fabulous twist in the tale!

I know! I have been writing this review and thinking ‘I want to read this again...’ I also want to reread her other books all of a sudden! It has brought the story back and reminded me just how much I loved this book, which I had not entirely forgotten, of course. I am so happy that you, and a few other people, lead me to read her because for the longest time I didn’t think she was my type of writer. I was wrong!

I could do with rereading as well, but I have lent the book to my non reader sister, who just read her first Kearsley and enjoyed it.

Ever since I first read The Winter Sea I have been encouraging everyone (not just you!) I know to read Susanna Kearsley. This book has reinforced that desire even more! So, if you haven’t read Kearsley, what are you waiting for?




This review cross posted at Adventures of an Intrepid Reader and The Written World.

Cover Story: The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

You may have noticed that we are big fans of Susanna Kearsley here at Historical Tapestry. Her upcoming release, The Rose Garden, was selected as one of our most anticipated new releases of 2011, and so I couldn't go past the opportunity to do a cover story on the book as soon as I saw the US cover images.

So here is the UK cover

And here is the US cover

For all that it is a headless woman cover, I do really like the US cover, especially with the tag line "There's no safety among the thorns"

This book will be released in the UK on 11 May 2011, and in the US in fall by Sourcebooks.

If you are interested you can read the first two chapters of the book at Susanna Kearsley's website, however I am not sure that I would recommend this as it just made me more impatient for the day when I can actually read the whole book!

Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley

Chinon-chateau of legend, steeped in the history of France and England. It is to Chinon that Emily goes on a long-awaited holiday, to meet her charming but unreliable cousin, Harry. Harry wanted to explore the old town and the castle, where Queen Isabelle, child bride of King John, had withstood the siege of Chinon many centuries ago, and where, according to legend, she hid her casket of jewels. But when Emily arrives at her hotel she finds that Harry has disappeared, and as she tries to find him she becomes involved with some of the other guests and learns of a mystery dating from the German occupation during the Second World War. Another Isabelle, a chambermaid at the hotel, fell in love with a German soldier, with tragic results.

Emily becomes increasingly aware of strange tensions, old enmities and new loves; as she explores the city, with its labyrinthine dungeons and tunnels and its ancient secrets, she comes ever closer to the mystery of what happened to both the Isabelles of Chinon's history.

One of the reasons that I really love Kearsley's books is because she manages to blend the contemporary and the historical in a very natural manner. Sometimes when an author changes back and forth between time periods it can leave the reader feeling confused or overwhelmed with information, but I never feel that way with Kearsley. That's probably a good thing, though, because this book is set in the contemporary world, but it also ties in World War II and the world of Henry II. It sounds really complicated, but I thought she handled it well. I saw a couple other reviews that said it was confusing, though, so I guess it really depends on the person.

The novel is told from Emily's point-of-view. She has traveled to Chinon to meet her cousin Harry, but when she arrives he is no where to be found. Instead she must navigate on her own while she waits for him to appear. She starts associating with the other guests in the hotel right away, though, and it is with these characters that most of her interaction is played out. Is it sad that I was happy she included two brothers from Canada as characters? She pulled them off really well, too. They would get really defensive when people called them Americans and that is very Canadian! I keep hoping that Kearsley will write some books set in Canada, but I suppose I also enjoy her foreign settings.

Anyway, back to the review! This novel is about two Isabelle's from two different time periods. Queen Isabelle offers a bit of mystery to the story, while an Isabelle that was a chambermaid at the hotel that Emily is staying at had a ill-fated romance with a German soldier. When I look back on the book it amazes me how many things were happening all at once, but they all managed to flow together and work seamlessly by the end. Kearsley doesn't forget about her subplots like some authors do. If things are not exactly all tied up in a pretty little bow by the end, there is at least enough of a conclusion of things that you will not be left dangling at the end.

I have an attraction to things set during the World Wars, so I was happy to see how Kearsley managed to write a connection in. I was also happy to see how things played out. It is the stories from the war that always attract me, and this one doesn't disappoint. It is weaved in with the main plot expertly. I also don't really know a lot about Queen Isabelle. I thought the mystery of her hidden treasure really added to the story because ultimately it is what started everything off. She is why Harry was in the area in the first place, so without her Emily would never have came to Chinon and the events never would have played out. And, once again there is some romance thrown in, but there is too much going on to call it just a romance novel.

This is another great book from Susanna Kearsley that I enjoyed reading!

Susanna Kearsley Week - Why I Love Time Slip

I blame Rod Taylor. That long-ago Saturday when the Twin Cinemas in our small town played a matinee show of The Time Machine, I had just reached an impressionable age. I emerged from that theatre completely enthralled, and not just with the dashing Australian, but with the whole concept of time travel. Reading the book made it worse. As did reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, a book that still, all these years afterward, makes it impossible for me to pass by a wardrobe without that small wondering moment, that impulse to open the door and make certain the back of the wardrobe is actually solid.

For me, the idea that, if I could find the right vehicle, or the right doorway, I might leave the place and the time I was in and wind up somewhere else…well, that seemed like a magical thing to me, then. It still does.

The Traveller in The Time Machine goes forward to the future, and the children in the chronicles of Narnia discover a completely different world, but if I’d had my choice I would have journeyed to the past. My love of history started early, with the stories and the myths my mother read to me at bedtime, and the family history that my father introduced me to, the tales of our own ancestors, so well-loved and familiar that the faces gazing out at me from all those faded photographs seemed utterly alive.

Time-slip novels, with their tandem narratives, allow me to explore that past while keeping one foot firmly in the present. And they let me explore, too, the ways that the present is shaped by the past, and the way what is happening now can be rooted in seeds that were sown generations ago. Straight historical novels can do this as well, of course – readers can spot the connections themselves – but I love how the use of both present and past, side by side, can make each one more interesting, just as complementary colours make each other more intense and vivid.

Sometimes connecting my modern-day characters with a past story, whether those characters physically enter the past or just study it, lets me more naturally bring certain details of history to life, since those characters, like us, are not of that world, and will notice the things that are strange to them.

Time-slip, for me, is the best of both worlds: I can pass through the wardrobe and back again, freely, whenever I want; send the time machine spinning to places unknown and return to my starting place, just like Rod Taylor did those years ago on that Saturday in the Twin Cinemas, when he first made me believe such a thing might be possible.

Susanna Kearsley is the author of several novels. Her novel, The Winter Sea, is being published in the United States for the first time. For more information on the author and her books you can visit her website and don't forget to check out all the other great posts during Susanna Kearsley week

Named of the Dragon by Susanna Kearsley

When I read an author, generally the first book by them will hold a special place for me no matter what I read next. In Kearsley's case that would be The Winter Sea. I loved that book and it will likely remain my favourite by her, but this one almost pushed it out of the number one spot. There was so much going on in this book that left me really enthralled with the story! So, The Winter Sea stays in first place, but this one is in a very close second. It's too bad this is one of her books that is harder to get a copy of. It is mostly out-of-print and my library didn't have a copy, so I wound up lucking into a copy at the second-hand bookstore. I will say if you get a chance to read this book, you should!

The main character of the novel is Lyn. She is battling with life at the moment. She has a successful job, but she is still facing demons from the death of her child. Normally she cannot even handle have children around her, but she finds herself spending Christmas with a woman with a young baby and there is not much she can do about it. Actually, she finds herself wrapped up with this woman and her baby in more ways than she could ever have expected. She starts having dreams where a woman is trying to give her a baby to protect and she soon learns that her dreams are connected to events occurring in the present. They bring in an Arthurian connection that I was very excited about. I have an obsession with anything of that nature. I wasn't sure if it was going to work well in the novel, but by the end she had managed to work things in rather well.

One thing I really like about Kearsley is her ability to write characters that I actually find myself interested in and care about. Lyn is one such character. I really felt for her through the events of the novel, and when things didn't seem to be going very well for her I kept hoping that they would improve. She is someone that you want to see come out all right in the end because she really deserves it. People call Kearsley's novels romance novels, but for some reason I can't put that label on them. I just find that there is too much else going on to limit them to any one genre. This one, for example, does have some relationships that are developed, but it also ties in history and mythology. There is also a lot of connections to literature in general through the use of the characters and also by including quotes from famous writers at the beginning of every chapter.

I will point out that this is one of Kearsley's early novels, so it isn't as strong as say The Winter Sea in some areas, but it still manages to capture you from the very first page and take you on a wonderful journey to Christmas in Wales. You will find yourself both loving and hating the characters, but in the end you will be happy that you stayed for the experience. I closed this book and felt very satisfied. This review does not do justice to all the things happening in the book, but hopefully it will entice you to find out what I didn't mention. I look forward to rereading it in the years to come.

The invitation to spend Christmas in Angle, on the Pembrokeshire coast, is one that Lyn Ravenshaw is only too happy to accept. To escape London and the pressures of her literary agency is temptation enough, but the prospect of meeting Booker Prize nominee James Swift - conveniently in search of an agent - is the deciding factor. On holiday she encounters the disturbing Elen Vaughan, recently widowed and with an eight-month-old son whose paternity is a subject for local gossip. Elen's baby arouses painful memories of Lyn's own dead child and strange, haunting dreams, in which a young woman in blue repeatedly tries to hand over her child to Lyn for safekeeping.

Who is the father of Elen's baby? What is the eerie, monstrous creature of Elen's dreams that tries to ensnare her son, and what makes her so sure that Lyn has been sent to protect him? As she begins to untangle the truth behind the stories, the secret she discovers leads Lyn to an encounter with the past that will change her life forever.

Susanna Kearsley Week: Breaking News

We are very pleased to announce that Susanna Kearsley's UK publishers (Allison and Busby) have contacted us, and in addition to the 3 copies of The Winter Sea that we are giving away courtesy of Sourcebooks, we are now also giving away 3 copies of Sophia's Secret (which is the same book, just with a different title), so there are now six chances to win as part of Susanna Kearsley week.

The contest ends on December 3, 2010. If you have already entered, then there is no need to enter again. If you have not already entered then please, click on the link below and complete the form to do so!

Giveaway Entry Form

Susanna Kearsley Week - An Interview

Today we are lucky enough to have an interview with Susanna Kearsley for you to enjoy! She is the author of numerous novels including The Winter Sea, Marianna, Splendour Falls, and Named of the Dragon. Here are some of her thoughts on things that we at Historical Tapestry were wondering.

Photo by Ashleigh Bonang

What is it about the UK, specifically places like Scotland and Cornwall that provide such good settings for novels?

For me, it’s the layers of history they give me to play with. Because I like to interweave the past and present in my books, I’m drawn to places where the history stretches back a little further than it does in my own part of Canada. Here, we consider a house to be ancient if it’s from the mid-1800s. In Britain, that’s practically modern! Besides which, the history itself is so interesting. And there are parts of the UK – especially some of the more remote areas along the coastlines – that lend themselves more easily to stories of suspense, because they’re already so far removed from everything that’s commonplace, and have a certain magic all their own; a certain atmosphere.

As one of our two Canadian HTer’s Kelly specifically would like to know do you have any plans to write anything set in Canada?

Actually, in spite of what I’ve said above, I do have an idea for a story set in Canada, in one of the few places in this country where the history does stretch back into the mists, and hasn’t all been well-recorded. But since I’m not sure how long it will be before I get around to writing it, the best that I can offer Kelly is my thriller Every Secret Thing, which is set partly in Toronto and around it, in the present and the past, and has a few scenes at the secret wartime training camp for spies, Camp X, that lies not far away from where I live.

I have seen you mention that one of your major influences is Mary Stewart. Can you tell us a little bit about her influence, and your favourite books by her? What other books would you consider your ‘Books of a Lifetime’, books that have shaped you as a reader and a writer?

My mother and I often joke that it’s her fault I’m such a great fan of Mary Stewart, because my mother was reading This Rough Magic (newly published, in those days) while she was pregnant with me, so we figure my love of Mary Stewart’s writing must have seeped in at some elemental level while my brain was being formed. Either that, or else genetic memory was at play and I inherited my mother’s taste in writers. Whatever the reason, Mary Stewart did turn out to be my very favourite author, and This Rough Magic remains my favourite of her books, followed closely by Touch Not the Cat, The Moonspinners, Wildfire at Midnight, Nine Coaches Waiting, Madam, Will You Talk?, The Ivy Tree, My Brother Michael, and The Gabriel Hounds, though their order as my favourites sometimes shifts around depending on my mood.

As for her influence on me as a writer, well, I think it’s probably self-evident. One of the kindest compliments anyone can pay me is to say that my novels remind them in any way of hers, although I’ve never consciously set out to imitate her storytelling style. I did, however, grow up wanting to be a Mary Stewart heroine, imagining I, too, was one of those wonderfully resourceful, intelligent, ordinary women who travelled alone to the islands of Greece, where while sipping my wine in an outdoor café I’d be suddenly caught up in some unexpected adventure. It sounded so marvellous.

But other authors helped shape my imagination, too. The major books, I think, that had the most effect on me as both a reader and a writer would be A.A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh & The House at Pooh Corner, the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, all the stories of Gregory Clark, Nevil Shute’s A Town Like Alice, and Bride of the MacHugh and My Lord Monleigh by Jan Cox Speas. There have, of course, been countless other books I’ve read and loved, and many that I still re-read and treasure, but the ones that I’ve listed above lodged more deeply, I think, in my heart, and I don’t think I’d be the same person I am now if I’d never read them.

How do you feel about your books finally being published for a wider audience?

In a word, I feel fortunate. Luck, not only good but bad, plays such a large part in a writer’s life, and certainly I’ve had my share of both, but through my whole career I have been carried by the kindness and encouragement of readers who have taken time to write and tell me they enjoy my books, and I have had my friends and family there to anchor my priorities and see that I don’t lose my sense of balance, and my agents in the UK and America have worked to find me editors and publishers who seem to share their faith in me. So as I say, I’m very, very fortunate.

One of the interesting things about your work is the backgrounds you give your contemporary characters. For example, in The Shadowy Horses, Verity is an archeologist with an interest in Legion IX and in The Winter Sea, Carrie is an author researching the Jacobite rebellions. How much research does it require for you as an author to make these roles feel real to the reader?

Well, Carrie was easier than most, because I simply let her do what I do. But for the others, I did do a lot of research. It’s important that my heroines be independent women, and their jobs are often central to the plot, so I do try my best to get the details right. In Verity’s case, that meant having a real archaeologist be my advisor and lead me through the daily tasks that Verity, as finds supervisor on a dig, would really be doing. And when I wrote Season of Storms, with a young stage actress as my central character, I contacted an actress here in Canada who’s known for both her work in television and on stage, and she sat down with me and shared the inner workings of rehearsals and the staging of a play.

I don’t do this only for heroines, I do it for any character who does a job I’ve never done before myself. I’ve talked to fishermen and artists, former spies from World War II and, for my latest novel, rose growers. I’ve found most people, if politely asked, will very generously answer any question I might throw at them, and many of them, afterwards, will take the time to proofread sections of the book before it goes to print.
Finding these people, talking to them, sometimes even meeting them in person, is a fun part of my research.

Due to the timeslip aspect of your novels, and also with the contemporary strands of your story, you have to write more than one leading man. What are the key elements required to make a convincing leading man?

It all starts, for me, with the name. I like plain, solid names for a man, not only when it comes to the historical heroes, where plain, solid names were the norm, but in my modern-day men as well. David and Richard and John – these are names of the men I might meet on the street every day, and that makes them more real to me.

I also like it when a hero isn’t perfect, since real men always have their imperfections and their blind spots, though that doesn’t stop us loving them. And physical perfection isn’t necessary, either. Because I write in the first person, when a hero in one of my books is described as being handsome, we’re seeing him through eyes of the heroine, so while to her he might be the most handsome man she’s ever met, that doesn’t mean he has movie-star looks, only that he fits her own definition of what makes a good-looking man. We all have different views, on that count.

I can only draw from men I’ve known in my own life: my grandfathers, my father, and my husband and my friends, all different men, and yet with certain commonalities. If my heroes tend to be quieter men, it’s because the real men I know don’t go emoting all over the place – as a rule, they don’t talk much at all (though to be fair, I talk so much myself it may just be that they can’t get a word in edgewise). They don’t always say the right things, but they’re there, really there, when you need them the most. They’re dependable, trustworthy, decent, intelligent, honourable men with a good sense of humour. So I give these traits to my own leading men.

You also have written crime novels under the name Emma Cole. How does writing a crime novel differ from writing a historical novel, and do you think that your writing style changes depending on which kind of novel you are writing?

I’ve actually only written one and a half crime novels, of what I hope will one day be a trilogy, and the Emma Cole name seems to have fallen by the wayside now, since my UK publisher has re-issued the first thriller as a Susanna Kearsley title. But the process of writing the thrillers is definitely different.

For one thing, they take a lot longer to write! The first took me four years to finish, and the sequel to it is taking even longer. Which is rather ironic, because with a thriller I have to make the book move faster, be much more aware of pace, and cut from scene to scene instead of making the more leisurely transitions that I’m used to. Because of this, I have to make an outline for the crime novels, instead of simply sitting down and letting my subconscious lead me where it will.

But when I get the characters in motion on the page, the writing feels the same, to me. As for the voice, I confess that I honestly don’t see a difference, to me it’s the same voice I always tell stories in, but I do know that some readers have commented otherwise.

Can you give us a sneak peek about what you are working on next?

I have a new book, The Rose Garden – a time travel story set on the Cornish coast – that’s coming out this spring (though not till autumn in the States), and right now I’m working on a book that continues the story of the eighteenth-century characters from The Winter Sea, characters I grew to love so much I wasn’t ready to let go of them.

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley

Impulse has brought Verity Grey to remote Eyemouth, Scotland from her home in England. Verity's friend and ex-lover Adrian Sutton-Clarke has tempted her with an archaeological mystery. What it is, exactly, he won't tell her until she gets to Eyemouth. By then, the impetuous museum worker is intrigued enough to stay.

At the estate known as Rosehill, Verity meets her boss, Peter Quinnell. People say Peter is quite mad, but the eccentric old man believes he has found the site of the lost Ninth Legion of Rome. With the help of a young boy with second sight, Peter intends to unearth the remains of the Roman camp. Verity's job would be cataloguing and drawing the artifacts that are found- but she isn't convinced of the site's authenticity.

While at Rosehill, Verity also meets David Fortune, an archaeologist working with Quinnell. What starts out as a working relationship builds into a romantic attraction as the two find themselves embroiled in a mystery that dates back to ancient Rome.

Ana Says:

I have had this book in the TBR pile for a while now. I added it because my blog colleagues were raving about how good Kearsley was; any author/book they recommend is bound to be a winner so how could I resist?

The main character is an archeologist, that fact alone is enough for me to be interested, but she is also a very likeable and sensible woman. Her name is Verity Grey and she is the character we get to know better because the story is written in the first person.

Verity is invited by a former lover to join an excavation in Scotland. He doesn’t tell her what they are digging up but she is curious enough to join them a day early. On the way she meets David Fortune, another archeologist involved in the excavation but it’s only after she meets the head of the team – Peter Quinnell - once a renowned archaeologist but now considered a bit mad due to his theories on the Legio XI Hispana, the famous lost 9th Legion of the Roman Empire.

Verity is at first very dubious about the evidence of such a thing as the fate of the 9th is almost the subject of legend; but she can’t help liking Peter and it is a well payed job so she decides to stay. However she soon starts to feel that not everything is at it seems and once she meets Robbie, a young boy known to have The Sight, she realizes that there is someone else walking the fields at night. Someone who might have a clue about what they are digging up but that also feels that there is danger lurking around.

I think Kearsley did a wonderful job at creating a very suspenseful atmosphere. We get to know the characters through Verity’s eyes; we see her doubts about some of them, her attraction to David and her curiosity about Robbie’s abilities and what he can help with. She creates a wonderful atmosphere with her description and her dialect and we never feel like it is too much. Instead it feels wonderfully evocative and the supernatural elements are perfect addictions to the suspense.

I do love contemporary books with a bit of history thrown in and this one is a perfect example. By coincidence I read a lot about the 9th Legion last year after finding 2 movies about it and while I wouldn’t say the solution here is the perfect one, there’s no doubt that Susanna Kearsley’s writing whets our appetite for more about them and for more books by her.

Grade: 4.5/5

Kailana Says:

This was my second foray into Susanna Kearsley. This was another great blend of history, suspense, and the contemporary world. She does things very seamlessly. The history was something that I was very interested in. I had heard about the 9th Legion, but this was the first time I had really seen an author tackle the mystery. While it might not have actually happened that way, I was impressed by her creativity. She pulls it off very well. I really enjoy books about archeology, so that was a big draw for me. Reading about Verity was really great. She was a strong, captivating character that interacted with other great characters during the course of the book.

I really enjoyed that this book was set in Scotland. I hadn't read a lot of books set there until recently and I am starting to really enjoy it for a setting. It makes me really want to go there, but at least until that is possible I can travel there through the pages in the books I am reading. There is a lot going on in this book, but that seems to be Kearsley's trademark. When you try to explain it to someone it sounds almost like too much, but she always manages to get everything to work out in the end. She never forgets about the subplots and she develops the secondary characters so that you feel like you know them almost as well as the main one. You always find yourself caught up in them and what they bring to each book.

I actually enjoyed the addition of Robbie in this book. He is a young boy who is gifted with the Sight. It is he that creates the mystery because he has abilities to see things that no one else working on the dig can. It might be rather silly to some people, but I think she pulls it off really well. She has this ability to make even the slightly strange seem natural. I really like that about her books.

While I didn't love this as much as The Winter Sea, I still really enjoyed this book and recommend it strongly! I look forward to rereading it at some point because it is easily a book you can visit over and over again.

Marg says:

Originally published in 1998, The Shadowy Horses has recently been re released in the UK by Allison & Busby. After first discovering Susanna Kearsley when I read and adored The Winter Sea, I promptly set out on a quest to read my way through her back list. I had read and thoroughly enjoyed Mariana and this was the next book I picked up.


When I started it, I was expecting something a little paranormal, most likely some time travel, a somewhat romantic storyline, and a darned good read. Whilst I did get most of these elements - this was more a ghost story than time travel - there was a also a suspense filled plot. Once again I was lost in the world that this author has created.

Verity Grey is an archaeologist who lives in London. She is looking for a change in her life, and so when she is invited to participate in a dig at a property on the Scottish coast, she is tempted by the offer. The only thing is that she isn't told very much about either the dig or her prospective boss when she heads up to the small fishing village of Eyemouth to take a look around at the invitation of her former boyfriend Adrian, who also works on the dig.

On the way to her destination she meets David Fortune, part time archaeologist and part time university lecturer, and a man who is very protective of Peter Quinlan, the man who would be Verity's boss. Quinlan's life long passion has been to find evidence to help solve the mystery of what happened to the lost Ninth Roman Legion. Within the archaeological world, Quinlan has a reputation of being somewhat eccentric, and to a degree is shunned, and that isn't likely to change given that his dig at the location is based purely on the experiences of a young boy, Robbie, who has 'the sight' and who believes that he can see the ghost of a legionnaire, known as the Sentinel.

Verity accepts the job knowing that she can't stay away from the dig, from Scotland and increasingly from the somewhat distant David Fortune, but when things start going wrong at the dig, it appears that someone is trying to sabotage it. Could it be Adrian, could it be other archaeologists, or could there be something else at play? And why does the Sentinel seem determined to protect Verity from some unknown danger?

Verity must work out if her boss is a little mad, or if maybe, just maybe, he has finally found what he has been working for all these years, find out what actually happened to the Sentinel, and work through her feelings for David, all the while knowing that someone is becoming increasingly desperate to stop the dig from going any further.

For all the archaeological focus of the novel, the author did a fantastic job of keeping the technical jargon accessible, but without dumbing it down too much.

Once again I opened up the pages of a Susanna Kearsley and found myself immersed in the world that she has created. I did ask her at one point if she could maybe create me a hero who works in Human Resources/Payroll, because all of her leading men so far have been very dreamy characters. Not sure how she is going with that request though!

Whenever I see Susanna Kearsley compared to another author, it tends to be Mary Stewart. I haven't read any Mary Stewart, but if she writes anything like Susanna Kearsley then I know that I am guaranteed some good reads.

Grade: 5/5

Susanna Kearsley Week: The Winter Sea discussion

In honour of Susanna Kearsley Week Kelly, Marg and Alex discuss The Winter Sea, a book that they all loved!

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Marg: When I first read a review of The Winter Sea, I added it to my list thinking I would read it one day. When I finally had read it, I regretted not having done so earlier. It had lots of elements that I love - some gothic elements, set in Scotland, time travel! Kelly and Alex, what prompted you to want to read it?


Kelly: I have to admit that my first reaction to this book was that I probably wouldn’t like it. It just didn’t seem to be my sort of book. I read a few enthusiastic reviews of it, though, including yours Marg, and I thought maybe I should ‘think outside the box.’

Marg: I told you you would like it! lol

Kelly: Well, the first time I brought it home from the library I couldn’t get beyond the first chapter. I think I was just worried I wasn’t going to like it and that point I really wanted to! So, I took it back and got it again about a month later. That time I loved it! It flowed very the beginning. I actually recommended it to a friend and when I was talking to her the other day she said she had just read the first chapter online and loved the book all ready!

Marg: That’s exactly how it was for me! A couple of pages, and I just KNEW I was going to love it. It was just a case of whether that feeling would last to the end of the book. I am trying to think of the right description - maybe like I was thirsty and that this book was the book that could quench my thirst fully!

Kelly: That’s a good way of looking at it! There is just something about Kearsley’s writing that draws you in and makes you feel comfortable. She has a very readable style and can capture characters and setting in such a way that you easily get drawn into the world she is spinning.

Alex: Last year I decided to visit Scotland and I have this habit of taking with me books set in the country I’m visiting. This time I decided to travel with The Winter Sea, especially after reading Marg’s raving review. From the first pages I knew I was going to love it! I remember being in the middle of the story and I was so curious that I decided to make a little break during my visit to the Edinburgh Castle. I just sat in a bench, enjoyed the sun and read a few pages. This is one of my best memories of this trip!

Marg: Alex, I love that you read books set in the countries you are visiting. So awesome! And I am a little bit jealous that you got to go to Scotland so recently. I haven’t been there for years.

Kelly: Well, I have never been to Scotland, so I am jealous period! I think it is great that you have books to tie in with your trips. That would really add to it!

Marg: This book has been published under different titles in the US and the UK - The Winter Sea and Sophia’s Secret. Which one do you think fits the story better?

Kelly: I like The Winter Sea better myself. It might be because I live near the sea, but I really liked the mystery to the title. It is more in keeping with her other books. She tends to find something briefly mentioned in the book, but still important, for her title. Sophia’s Secret is a strange title for her because it reveals more about the plot. It is still mysterious, but maybe The Winter Sea is a more atmospheric title... I might think differently if I had read a copy with the title Sophia’s Secret because I would have connected with the title because I loved the book so much. It is really hard to say.

Alex: I read the UK edition, Sophia’s Secret, and to be honest, I find the name The Winter Sea more poetic and more suitable to this story. The sea is an omnipresent element and when I look at Sophia’s Secret cover, I think of a garden and Spring.

Kelly: Yes, I agree about that, Alex.

Marg: Clean sweep of preferences for The Winter Sea as a title because that is my favoured title as well. I am glad that the new US edition has maintained that as the title, given that the sea was a key element in the story.

Kelly: One of the things I really like about this book is the mixture of different things that are happening in it, but managing to work together. There is a bit of science-fiction, romance, historical fiction, small-town charm, etc. What are your thoughts?

Marg: There is a bit of everything! I love the idea of being drawn to a specific place, like a falling down castle in Scotland, and ending up being in the right place to achieve so much, even if you aren’t sure that that is the right place when you first get there. The town, and the castle in particular, were so important to the storyline, almost to the point of being a character.

One thing that I really loved was the fact that the past storyline revolves around a little known incident during the Jacobite Rebellions. Having read quite a few books about the events around Culloden, I was surprised to find out that there were these other events that are so little known now.

Alex: I think that’s the reason why the story is so wonderful! Susanna Kearsley gets everything perfectly balanced. The Winter Sea will certainly please to someone who enjoys historical fiction, but also to those who are more into romance or even mystery.

Kelly: I liked that it was natural. When you read about everything that is happening in the book, you might think it sounds a bit far-fetched or hard to pull off, but it wasn’t like that at all. When I was trying to describe it to my friend I almost didn’t know what to call it because I didn’t want to limit it in such a way she wouldn’t want to read it.

Marg: By very definition, timeslip novels are really a bit far-fetched, but some are definitely better done than other. Over the years, I have seen various techniques used to facilitate the time travel, from drugs to hypnotism to dreams and more, but the technique that Kearsley chose to use felt very organic.

Kelly: Yes. I just worry that the moment ‘timeslip’ leaves my mouth that someone will not read the book because they are worried it is going to be science-fiction. The funny thing is that I thought this was a romance novel, and it does have romance in it, but if I had heard timeslip from the very beginning I would probably have read this book faster!

Alex: That’s the thing, I was really not into those kind of “timeslip” novels and I avoided them as much as I could. This book not only taught me that I should step out of my comfort zone more often, but that I do like one kind of “timeslip” novels: the ones written by Susanna Kearsley (just read Marianna and it was fantastic!).;-)

Marg: When I read this time slip type of novel, I generally prefer one strand of the story over the other, and I spend my time wishing we could get back to my favourite part. That didn’t happen here because whilst I liked reading about Sophia, I also couldn’t wait to see what happened next for Carrie! I have to ask you both, which strand of the story did you enjoy most? Past or present?

Kelly: That’s a hard one! I was captivated by both storylines, so I am not sure that I could pick a favourite. Sometimes when I read there are parts of a book that I am not so excited about, or characters I am not so interested in learning more about, but everything interested me about this book. There was no disappointment. I found myself savouring every word and I wish that happened more often!

Alex: I’m much like you, Marg, I was cheering up for both girls! I immediately fell in love with Carrie. The first scene when we met her is simply magical and I could perfectly imagine her looking at that impressive fallen castle and being interrupted by a mysterious handsome stranger. She is very down to earth and a very warm person, so it’s impossible not to like her. Sophia is more mysterious, but also quite attaching. For me the answer is easy: Past and Present.

Marg: Kelly, you aren’t a romance fan as such. How did you feel about the romantic aspects of this book?

Kelly: Well, like I say above, I thought this was a romance novel. I didn’t really look into it a lot in the beginning, so that was all I knew about it. When there is romance in a novel it has to be done really well. I need a story to keep my interest. If it is just a bunch of romantic scenes then I am not usually very interested. In this book, it was a story. There was romance involved, but there was so much more offered that it didn’t really seem like a problem for me. I actually found myself liking it, and for me, that takes some really good writing! It is not a very large number of books that are technically romance novels that I can safely say that I loved!

Marg: Our fellow HT’ers Teddy and Ana have not yet read The Winter Sea (to which I say “What are you waiting for?”) What one thing would you both say to them to convince them, and our readers, to pick this up and read it?

Kelly: I would probably say that I have yet to see a negative review of this book, really. I think it is a book that if you take a chance on it, you are pretty much guaranteed to enjoy the experience.

Alex: Kelly is not into romance and I was definitely not into “timeslip” stories and this book became one of our all time favourites. For me, The Winter Sea is one of those beautifully weaved stories who will please to anyone who enjoys the genres mentioned previously.

Marg: Just talking about this book again during this discussion makes me want to put down the book I am reading now and pick this one up for a reread despite the fact that I only rarely reread a book! It is a book I can see myself rereading again and again in the future! And watch out if you ask me for a reading recommendation because there is every chance that this book will be one that I mention!

Kelly: I know! A mark of a favourite book, for me, is that when I finish it I want to start it all over again. There haven’t been a lot of reads like that for me this year, but this is definitely one of the few! I can see myself rereading it, too, but I always say that and then never seem to do so! I plan to buy a copy of it for myself for Christmas, though, so I don’t have to rely on the library.

Alex: Absolutely! Two friends of mine are so curious about this novel after listening to me talking about Carrie and Sophia (oh well and all those yummy heroes of Kearsley’s novels!) that I’m planning to give them a copy of The Winter Sea.

You can actually read the first chapter of this book on her website if you are interested in learning more!

Susanna Kearsley Week - An Introduction

When you really love an author a day to celebrate them really will not do! Alex, Marg, and Kelly have all become very big fans of Kearsley over the last couple years, so in tribute to her, and in honour of the U.S. release of The Winter Sea, we have dedicated a week to her.

Over the next week there will be reviews, an interview with Susanna Kearsley, a guest post, and a give-aways! We hope that everyone enjoys learning more about Susanna Kearsley and her body of work.We are also hoping that Ana and Teddy will be inspired by this week and read The Winter Sea, too!

To get things started, though, I am going to announce the give-away. We are giving away 2 U.S. copies and 1 International copy of The Winter Sea. To enter simply clink on the link below to take you to the entry form!

The contest ends on December 3, 2010

Giveaway Entry Form