For my Timeless Tour post today I'm sharing my review for Susanna Kearsley's BELLEWETHER!
Scroll to read about BELLEWETHER and Susanna Kearsley, after that you'll find my review. ;)
to participate in the Timeless Tour and give an honest review.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Canada
Release Date: April 24, 2018
Number of Pages: 414 (Paperback)
DESCRIPTION
Some houses seem to want to hold their secrets.
It’s 1759 and the world is at war, pulling the North American colonies of Britain and France into the conflict. The times are complicated, as are the loyalties of many New York merchants who have secretly been trading with the French for years, defying Britain’s colonial laws in a game growing ever more treacherous.
When captured French officers are brought to Long Island to be billeted in private homes on their parole of honour, it upends the lives of the Wilde family—deeply involved in the treasonous trade and already divided by war.
Lydia Wilde, struggling to keep the peace in her fracturing family following her mother’s death, has little time or kindness to spare for her unwanted guests. French-Canadian lieutenant Jean-Philippe de Sabran has little desire to be there. But by the war’s end they’ll both learn love, honour, and duty can form tangled bonds that are not broken easily.
Their doomed romance becomes a local legend, told and re-told through the years until the present day, when conflict of a different kind brings Charley Van Hoek to Long Island to be the new curator of the Wilde House Museum.
Charley doesn’t believe in ghosts. But as she starts to delve into the history of Lydia and her French officer, it becomes clear that the Wilde House holds more than just secrets, and Charley discovers the legend might not have been telling the whole story...or the whole truth.
About Susanna Kearsley
A former museum curator, Susanna Kearsley brings her passion for research and travel to her novels, weaving modern-day and historical intrigue. She won the prestigious Catherine Cookson Fiction Award for her novel Mariana, the 2010 Romantic Times Book Review’s Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction novel for The Winter Sea, was shortlisted for a 2012 RITA Award for The Rose Garden, and was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel from the Crime Writers of Canada for Every Secret Thing. Visit her at SusannaKearsley.com or follow her on Twitter @SusannaKearsley.
Follow Susanna: Facebook | Twitter
REVIEW
I've been reading historical fiction for a while now, but somehow this was my first time reading one of Susanna Kearsley's books...I can definitely say that it won't be my last though because I absolutely loved BELLEWETHER!I've always been a fan of multi-POV stories, and I love split-timeline narratives, so I really loved how BELLEWETHER was organized. I loved that you got to see Charley's POV in the present time paralleled against Lydia and Jean-Philippe's POVs set in the past, and I really, really loved how the two stories interconnected. Susanna Kearlsey wove the two narratives together perfectly and I loved how when something would happen in one of the narratives, the following section would make it that much clearer in the present part of the story. It was extremely well done and a very thoughtful method of storytelling that kept me riveted to the page!
And the romance! Oh boy, did I ever love the romance in BELLEWETHER! I loved Lydia and Jean-Philippe, and I also loved the budding romance in Charley's storyline...I totally called that one and I was so glad that I was right! With Lydia and Jean-Philippe, I loved seeing how their relationship shifted as they got to know one another, and I loved getting to see glimpses of it through Charley's eyes in the present, too...it was like a little romantic mystery wrapped perfectly into the story and I loved it. I also loved being pulled into Lydia and Jean-Philippe's world. Their clothing, way of life, the setting, and everything going on around them were described impeccably and I really loved getting to experience the atmosphere of 19th century America. And I also loved everything about Charley's storyline, from her job to her coworkers to her family...everything! I loved getting excited over the Wilde family's history just as much as she did, and I thought that she was a wonderful character to view the story through.
Now...it's time for me to address the ghost in the description. ;) While I tend to stay away from scary things and haven't read many books involving ghosts, I really loved how the whole paranormal elements of the plot came into play in BELLEWETHER. The ghost definitely wasn't scary. Instead, it added an element of mystery and whimsy to the story that I didn't expect and I actually ended up loving the ghostly parts!
Overall, I thought that BELLEWETHER was absolutely wonderful! I loved the characters, and I adored how Susanna wove the story back-and-forth between the present and the past. It fit the stories together seamlessly and I loved both storylines so much! I'd recommend BELLEWETHER to historical fiction fans who like a little bit of mystery mixed in with some romance, and readers who love stories that fully immerse them in different times and places!
Follow along with the Timeless Tour on the tour website, www.timelesstour.ca.
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[Timeless Tour] Kick Off Questions & Full Tour Schedule post.
What do you think?
Does Bellewether sound like something you'd like to read?
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