Tag: Author: Susanna Kearsley

Review: Named of the Dragon

Posted 21 January, 2016 by Lianne in Books / 4 Comments

Named of the Dragon
By: Susanna Kearsley
Format/Source: eBook; my purchase

Although it goes against her workaholic nature, literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw lets herself be whisked off to Wales for the Christmas holidays by her star client, flamboyant children’s author Bridget Cooper. She suspects Bridget has ulterior motives, but the lure of South Wales with its castles and myths is irresistible. Perhaps a change of scene will bring relief from the nightmares that have plagued her since the death of her child.

Lyn immerses herself in the peace and quiet of the charming Welsh village, but she soon meets an eccentric young widow who’s concerned her baby son is in danger—and inexplicably thinks Lyn is the child’s protector.

Lyn’s dreams become more and more disturbing as she forms a surprisingly warm friendship with a reclusive, brooding playwright, and is pulled into an ancient world of Arthurian legend and dangerous prophecies. Before she can escape her nightmares, she must uncover the secret of her dreams, which is somehow inextricably located in a time long ago and far away…

I clearly went through a lot of Susanna Kearsley’s backlist last year, lol. By the time I posed this question, I had about 3 of her books left that I hadn’t read. I decided to pick up this book next of the three because the setting was very different–Wales this time–and unlike the other book, this one had more favourable reviews.

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Review: Mariana

Posted 12 January, 2016 by Lianne in Books / 4 Comments

Mariana
By: Susanna Kearsley
Format/Source: Paperback; was a birthday gift

The first time Julia Beckett saw Greywethers she was only five, but she knew that it was her house. And now that she’s at last become its owner, she suspects that she was drawn there for a reason.

As if Greywethers were a portal between worlds, she finds herself transported into seventeenth-century England, becoming Mariana, a young woman struggling against danger and treachery, and battling a forbidden love.

Each time Julia travels back, she becomes more enthralled with the past…until she realizes Mariana’s life is threatening to eclipse her own, and she must find a way to lay the past to rest or lose the chance for happiness in her own time.

I read this book years ago when it was given to me as a birthday gift. It was my first Susanna Kearsley novel, but I believe I didn’t review it at the time because I was in grad school and travelling back and forth between cities. I decided to revisit it recently as I read a number of her books that were sitting on my TBR queue last year 🙂 The following contains spoilers (as I will be talking a lot about my first time reading this book & the ending)!

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Review: The Firebird

Posted 4 December, 2015 by Lianne in Books / 4 Comments

The Firebird (Slains #2)
By: Susanna Kearsley
Format/Source: eBook; my purchase

Whoever dares to seek the firebird may find the journey—and its ending— unexpected. Nicola Marter was born with a gift. When she touches an object, she sometimes sees images, glimpses of those who have owned it before. It’s never been a gift she wants, and she keeps it a secret from most people, including her practical boss Sebastian, one of London’s premier dealers in Russian art.

But when a woman offers Sebastian a small wooden carving for sale, claiming it belonged to Russia’s Empress Catherine, it’s a problem. There’s no proof. Sebastian believes that the plain carving—known as “The Firebird”—is worthless. But Nicola has held it, and she knows the woman is telling the truth and is in desperate need of the money the sale of the heirloom could bring.

Compelled to help, Nicola turns to a man she once left and still loves: Rob McMorran, whose own psychic gifts are far greater than hers. With Rob to help her “see” the past, she follows a young girl named Anna from Scotland to Belgium and on into Russia. There, in St. Petersburg—the once-glittering capital of Peter the Great’s Russia—Nicola and Rob unearth a tale of love and sacrifice, of courage and redemption . . . an old story that seems personal and small, perhaps, against the greater backdrops of the Jacobite and Russian courts, but one that will forever change their lives.

The Firebird is the last Susanna Kearsley novel that’s been sitting on my TBR queue (at the moment?). Despite reading The Winter Sea (review) and The Shadowy Horses (review) right after each other, I decided to take a wee bit of a break before delving into this novel. Many contain spoilers if you haven’t read Susanna Kearsley’s other novels!

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Review: The Shadowy Horses

Posted 27 October, 2015 by Lianne in Books / 4 Comments

The Shadowy Horses
By: Susanna Kearsley
Format/Source: eBook; my purchase

Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea.

Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he’s finally found it—not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has “seen” a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.

Here on the windswept shores, Verity may find the answer to one of the great unsolved mysteries of our time. Or she may uncover secrets someone buried for a reason.

Whoo, final book in the Susanna Kearsley eBook bundle collection 🙂 Sort of made sense to read this one instead of jumping to The Firebird since I’m almost through with the collection. Still in Scotland but this time looking a Roman mystery (which is quite chilling if you think about the details of the Ninth Roman Legion and how the Romans were pretty meticulous at recording).

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Review: The Winter Sea

Posted 21 October, 2015 by Lianne in Books / 4 Comments

The Winter Sea (Slains #1)
By: Susanna Kearsley
Format/Source: eBook; my purchase

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.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her…

This book keeps popping up over the years whenever I’m browsing the shelves but it didn’t intrigue me enough to pick it up. This period of history didn’t interest me as much (heresy, I know, especially as I did study 18th century English history towards the end of my undergrad) and I was still reeling from how Mariana, the first Kearsley novel I read, turned out. Fast forward a few years later and I finally got around to reading more books by the author after reading great reviews from fellow book bloggers. And so here we are, finally reading The Winter Sea (or Sophia’s Secret, as my eBook bundle has it under) 😛

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