I really want to read this one after enjoying THE WINTER SEA but my library doesn't have a copy! I am eager to hear what you think...

My library doesn't have it either, but I signed up for an Audible.com account and they sent me an email a few days back letting me know it was a new book they had (probably because I had just bought THE WINTER SEA). It was faster than asking my library to buy it (which I do a lot). I hope that it's as good as TWS. I'm only a few chapters in so it's hard to tell. I hate to buy books when I don't know beforehand if I'm going to like it. ;)

Oh good, I am glad you liked it! Since I preferred the contemp part of THE WINTER SEA I am wondering if I will like this one better myself (though I see you preferred TWS). I just ordered a copy so we shall see! Thanks for sharing your review!

I feel like my review is already a little spoilery so I'll wait until you read it to say anything else. :)

Okay Deva, time to spill the spoilers! No one else gets automatic updates on these comments but us! And if anyone else is reading this, be warned of MAJOR SPOILERS below for any and all books by Susanna Kearsley!

I'm curious what elements of TWS that you didn't like at the end (or that at least made it hard to buy Into the end). I thought those endings were vastly more satisfactory than in TRG. TRG was too open, there wasn't enough closure and resolution for me. It reminded me of when I was in college and went to see a play that a friend wrote. At the end, the woman is *finally* reunited with her husband and it looks like they will not be separated again (as they were constantly during the play ... In a way that you understood but agonized over, not in a "my parents are keeping us apart" annoying kind of way). The first time I saw it, she just sees him offstage and runs offstage, presumably to him, and then lights out the end. But the second time I saw it, the man actually comes out on stage, they embrace and then walk off together. Since the show was in a workshop stage, my friend got a lot of feedback that he used to make tweaks and changes during the 2 weeks it ran. And one of the major comments was about the first ending. When he changed it, the reaction switched and left people much more satisfied. The ending of TRG felt like the original ending to that play. I needed more, even if it was just an embrace. And I think I would have preferred knowing the future parts about going to Spain and not leaving when away from Trelewath (sorry, dont know how it's spelled since I didn't read the words) after she goes back to Daniel, not before.

I would have also liked to have Daniel be a bigger part of the overall story. I agree that we get to see and know Fergal much better. But in a way we get to know Daniel better through Fergal. I think it can be more revealing to know what another person thinks and knows of a character than trying to reveal it in the character first-hand sometimes. And given Daniel's past, it would be hard for him to be open and reveal himself so Fergal gets to do some it for him.

Yeah, I also would have preferred to see more of what actually happens with Daniel and Eva (and Fergus!) in the past -- ideally an epilogue sort of thing showing where they settle, etc. And while I'm not sure it would have fit into the book, I also wondered if she was tempted to bring back anything with her that would have made life easier. Or that she would have missed. But I could overlook that last bit since she never seemed to be particularly tied to any modern "stuff" even from the beginning.

But still, I believed her choice, and I really liked how things worked out with Claire being a fellow time-traveller as well, which is why I felt I preferred the plot resolution in TRG. It felt more clever and cohesive to me intellectually, and I felt the characters acted believably.