Goodreads Review: The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I read this book as a book club selection and when I first started it, I had a bit of a challenge getting into it. The first few chapters were a little slow for me, but once I got into the story, the rest just flowed seamlessly. I very much love this book. Her writing became poetic and became a background to the story itself where you weren't reading the words as much as you were inside the story and all the fabulous characters. It was a wonderful change of pace to read something that had a lot of actual history, as well as a lot of romance that wasn't really about the romance.

The story is set in two locations: modern day Scotland and eighteenth-century Scotland. There's a lot of fun twists and turns as you find out more about the characters, their plight and what is really happening to the people on this forlorn coastline in northern Scotland. I became entranced by her imagery without being fumbled along inside of it and the characters were as real to me as they were to the woman writing about them.

An enchanting love story that crosses ages and barriers that will have you gripped with intrigue, fascinated by history and wondering which characters were real and which were fabricated. (FYI: the author adds a little postscript that tells you...) It was nice to have a story about war without a lot of war and gore in it, focusing more on the politics and the way wars were waged back when. I learned a lot about a portion of history that no one seems to remember and a lot of people who would otherwise be forgotten.

Excellent read. Five stars. Highly recommended for ages 13 and up due to content and historical interest.



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