Mariana and The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley Reviewed!

The first time Julia Beckett saw Greywethers she was only five, but she knew at once that it was her house. Now, twenty-five years later, by some strange chance, she has just become the new owner of the sixteenth-century Wiltshire farmhouse. But Julia soon begins to suspect that more than coincidence has brought her there. 

As if Greywethers were a portal between worlds, she finds herself abruptly transported back in time. Stepping into seventeenth-century England, Julia becomes Mariana, a beautiful young woman struggling against danger and treachery, and battling a forbidden love for Richard de Mornay, handsome forebear of the present squire of Crofton Hall.

Each time Julia travels back, she becomes more enthralled with the past, falling ever deeper in love with Richard...until one day she realizes Mariana's life threatens to eclipse her own--and that she must find a way to lay the past to rest, or risk losing a chance for love in her own time.
  

The title immediately makes me think of Alfred Tennyson’s poem of the same name introducing themes of a lonely isolated heartbroken woman desperately searching for her own sense of happiness and love.  One could find these attributes within the main character of Julia Beckett if you were to look closely enough. I don't know if this was the author's intention. However,  a stanza of Tennyson's Mariana is included in the opening novel pages!

I always enjoy Susanna Kearsley’s gripping writing style and her historical descriptions in her flashback chapters. However, she uses a very calculated formula when writing her novels. For instance, there is always the lovelorn lonely single woman needing an escape from her life, discovering an unexplainable attraction to an old house, the past life connection solution providing her a romantic love relationship! Hey, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it right? This would be my one complaint. When I read her novels, the premise is always the same but I fall for it hook line and sinker…bring on the history and the romance!

 

"Whatever time we have," he said, "it will be time enough."

Eva Ward returns to the only place she truly belongs, the old house on the Cornish coast, seeking happiness in memories of childhood summers. There she finds mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time.

But Eva must confront her own ghosts, as well as those of long ago. As she begins to question her place in the present, she comes to realize that she too must decide where she really belongs.

 

In The Rose Garden we meet Eva Ward whose sister has just passed away and she has been given the task of finding a resting place for her ashes.  Eva remembers her happy childhood in Cornwall, England, and off she goes for a visit she will never forget! Of course, staying in an old cottage there evokes her imagination when she starts to see a ghostly image of a man and strange things happen. She sees a garden path that doesn’t exist and her visions begin again! Oh, and she hears voices from the past when she sees that male ghostly figure that of course she is very attracted to! Do you see where I’m going with this? Is it imaginary or is it reality?

The descriptions of Cornwall and the smell of roses coupled with the author’s beautiful descriptive writing style make this historical time travel romance not as formulaic as you would expect! Actually, the premise did remind me very much of A Cottage by the Sea by Ciji Ware which I loved so so much. I highly recommend it as well. I read it a few years ago, and some of the scenes and chapters remain in my memory still!

My review of The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley

Nicola Marter was born with a gift: when she touches an object, she sometimes glimpses those who have owned it before. This has never been something that Nicola welcomes, or wants, and she certainly wouldn’t dream of mentioning it to her charismatic boss, Sebastian Karakazov, owner of the premier London gallery of Russian art and artifacts. 

Things change when a young woman offers Sebastian a small wooden carving for sale, with the claim it was given to one of her ancestors by Russia’s famed Empress Catherine. In the young woman’s family the carving has always been known as The Firebird, named for the mythical bird that inspires the quest in the old Russian fairy tale; but to Sebastian, it’s valueless. There’s one problem, though. Nicola has held it and she knows that the woman is telling the truth – she must set out to uncover the secrets behind the legend of The Firebird.

When the gallery she works in receives a wooden carving she can see the object’s history and knows that it was named after the Firebird, the mythical bird that inspires an old Russian fairytale and was once owned by Russia’s famed Empress Catherine. 

Nicola’s investigation into the Firebird’s origin draws her into the 1715 world of Anna Logan and leads her on a quest through Scotland, France and Russia, unearthing a tale of love and sacrifice, of courage and redemption.

 TITLE: The Firebird
AUTHOR: Susanna Kearsley
COPYRIGHT: 2013 (Jan 28th in the UK and Australia, Jun 4th in the US)
PAGES: 500
PUBLISHER: Allison & Busby
SETTING: England, Scotland, Belgium & Russia, 21st and 18th century.
TYPE: Romance
SERIES: Follows The Winter Sea, and is connected to The Shadowy Horses

MY THOUGHTS
The Firebird is not part of a trilogy but Susanna Kearsley continues the historical flashback stories by placing them in a different story in varied cities and countries within a plot of a different present day novel.  She does this beautifully and with deft persuasion that the reader is immediately caught up in the gripping characters, locations, and various eras.

Let me begin by explaining that I love Scottish history, I love the brogue, the accent, the inflection and rhythm of the words spoken by Scots present day and historical. I was therefore, caught up in Nicola and Rob's storyline based in the fishing village of Eyemouth, Scotland. Rob is written almost as a perfectly behaved man i.e. his temperament is very even keel, he is patient in most situations and has a very charming sense of humour. Oh, and he is very good looking, according to Nicola. They make for an interesting couple, maintaining a 'friendship' for most of the storyline and novel. The looming question of will they or won't they take their friendship that one step further is answered in The Firebird, though, you do have to wait until almost near the end! If you are looking for a romance read, this may not be the one to choose! I would have preferred the romantic angle to show up just a bit earlier and when the twist comes Rob's behaviour is surprising. I won't give anything else away. I thought this was actually quite silly and unrealistic but worked for the sweeping saga aspect!

I do not find reading about Russian history that interesting, if I'm honest. For whatever reason, it just doesn't grip me as much as British, French, Italian and or Scottish history.  Therefore, in The Firebird, several characters i.e.one other female protagonist and little girl Anna Logan, Peter the Great, his wife Catherine, and others take up the mid to end of the book. I found myself skimming through pages just to get back to Rob and Nicola as they travelled through Scotland to Belgium on their way to Russia in search of Anna's Russian history as her storyline progressed. Rob and Nicola are ghost hunting Anna and her guardians Colonel Graeme and Captain Jamieson; characters from Susanna Kearsley's previous novel, 'The Winter Sea' which I loved! It was wonderful to read about them again.

The book title The Firebird is an object and the main connection between Rob, Nicola and Anna. It is the main reason for their travelling. So, when it was not worked in to much of the chapters or the book itself, I had a hard time getting past that fact. Even though, Susanna Kearsley ties up loose ends and questions are answered neatly, I found myself enjoying The Firebird but just not as gripping as her previous novels.

Feel free to leave comments,

The Shadowy Horses by Susanna Kearsley, A Review:

With its dark legends and passionate history, the windswept shores of Scotland are an archaeologist’s dream. Verity Grey is thrilled by the challenge of uncovering an ancient Roman campsite in a small village. But as soon as she arrives, she can sense danger in the air.

 Her eccentric boss, Peter Quinnell, 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.

 Surprisingly, Verity believes in Peter, and the boy, and even in the Sentinel, who seems determined to become her own protector...but from what?

 

The book title references 'the shadowy horses' taken from W.B. Yeat's The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). The Shadowy Horses are representations of the supernatural world, 'the horses of disaster' or the coming of the apocalypse. 'The Horses of Disaster' are the internal manifestation of 'The Shadowy Horses.' The poem represents longing and yearning for someone's 'beloved' and the connection to death. Also, the connection to 'the sidhe' can be addressed in this story as well. I couldn't help thinking of the Walter Crane painting as I was reading the poem: 

 

Walter Crane's Horses of Neptune, 1892

The Wind Among the Reeds by W.B. Yeats (The Shadowy Horses)

I HEAR the Shadowy Horses, their long manes a-shake,
Their hoofs heavy with tumult, their eyes glimmering white;
The North unfolds above them clinging, creeping night,
The East her hidden joy before the morning break,
The West weeps in pale dew and sighs passing away,
The South is pouring down roses of crimson fire:
O vanity of Sleep, Hope, Dream, endless Desire,
The Horses of Disaster plunge in the heavy clay:
Beloved, let your eyes half close, and your heart beat
Over my heart, and your hair fall over my breast,
Drowning love’s lonely hour in deep twilight of rest,
And hiding their tossing manes and their tumultuous feet

'The Shadowy Horses' is written from the first person perspective narrated by the protagonist and heroine, Verity Grey. When her former lover urges her to join a dig in the tiny fishing village of Eyemouth, Scotland, an archeologist herself, she leaves her position with the British Museum. An independent, free spirit is Verity who meets many fascinating men along her journey, some who become friends and colleagues, one who may become a love interest. Sadly, it was not the one I was hoping for.

There are many mythological and literary references throughout this well written story. It is a time-slip novel and one of the storylines takes the reader back to AD 60/61 during the days of Boudica, the Legio IX Hispania and whether or not the Ninth Legion really existed. All fascinating reading and Susanna Kearsley has done her homework. I should know I ran to my computer and did some searches for the Ninth Legion; all a bit out of my depth. One beautiful aspect to this storyline is that the novel is broken up into five parts called 'horses' where you will find excerpts of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, 'In Memoriam.' Brilliantly done is how 'The Sentinel' mention from In Memoriam could be supported by becoming part of the subplot to 'The Shadowy Horses.' I cannot give all away. Half the fun is finding these little gems for yourself. 

Although, I did enjoy 'The Shadowy Horses' immensely and highly recommend it, the aspect of the archaeological dig is a bit cliche and happenings fit together just a bit too smoothly; even if I did enjoy the humorous ghostly bits!

A Roman Sentinel

And hear at times a sentinel

Who moves about from place to place

And whispers to the worlds of space

In the deep night that all is well

Tennyson, In Memoriam, CXXV

. . and trust

With faith that comes of self-control

The truths that never can be proved

Until we close with all we loved

Tennyson, In Memoriam, CXXX

NOTE:  Do pay attention to a character named Robbie, for he has returned in The Firebird by Susanna Kearsley, due out in the UK on 28 January, 2013.  

For more information, Susanna Kearsley

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