The Winter Sea (Slains, #1) in Book Riot's Read Harder Challenge

Oct 02, 2013 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-romance, beach-cover, womens-day, romance, scotland, historical-romance, historical-fiction

on NPR's list of 100 best romance books http://www.npr.org/2015/07/29/4267318...

Reading this book made me happy. It's not that it was a completely happy book, and it's not that it was the best book ever, but it just really set well with me, it fit perfectly into that space inside of me that wanted a book.

I have a hard time categorizing Ms Kearsley's books. This is the second book I've read by her, and like the first (The Shadowy Horses), it feels mostly like a general fiction book, but it is al on NPR's list of 100 best romance books http://www.npr.org/2015/07/29/4267318...

Reading this book made me happy. It's not that it was a completely happy book, and it's not that it was the best book ever, but it just really set well with me, it fit perfectly into that space inside of me that wanted a book.

I have a hard time categorizing Ms Kearsley's books. This is the second book I've read by her, and like the first (The Shadowy Horses), it feels mostly like a general fiction book, but it is also a romance, with a touch of paranormal, and in this case, historical fiction/romance as well. Just as in Lauren Willig's fantastic The Secret History of the Pink Carnation series, this is the story of an author researching the history of a era so that she can write a book, in this case she is researching the Jacobite efforts around the 1708 attempt to bring King James II back to Scotland (Diana Gabladon's much beloved Outlander takes place several decades later), centered on a Scottish castle Slains.

Things I liked:
I liked the characters, especially the extras: Carrie's father, Dr Weir, Jimmy Keith, Angus, Kristy, the countess, Graeme, Ogilvie, Captain Gordon, etc.
My American brain thought Ms Kearsley did a great job w/ the Scottish dialogue. (Not sure how a native Scot feels about it.)
I liked the parallels between present-day Graham and18th Century Moray, and I liked both Graham and Moray.
The ending was such a page turner - I knew she wouldn't leave it like that, but yet I wasn't sure!

Things I didn't like:
Carrie's prying agent, Jane, was annoying - I think perhaps she was meant to add a lighter note, and be the good-girl-friend, but I can't stand people who pry
(view spoiler)
The romance between Graham and Carrie was nice, but at the end they moved too quickly from "yes I am INTO you!" to "moving in together! Graham's house is MY house!"
The gardener Wick was a little too evil - if he was that skeevy, the countess (who is, we are repeatedly told, very astute) would have canned him ages ago. ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Jeanne Bufkin rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2016, reviewed-in-2016, own-on-kindle

WOW! This book caught me completely by surprise! It was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend and once I started it, I absolutely COULD NOT put it down. This book is the first book I've ever purchased from Amazon just so I could immediately finish it because my library loan expired and I couldn't wait the weeks it would take for it to be my turn with it again!

The concept of this book absolutely fascinated me. It's written from the point of view of Carrie, a historical fiction author who loves WOW! This book caught me completely by surprise! It was recommended to me by a Goodreads friend and once I started it, I absolutely COULD NOT put it down. This book is the first book I've ever purchased from Amazon just so I could immediately finish it because my library loan expired and I couldn't wait the weeks it would take for it to be my turn with it again!

The concept of this book absolutely fascinated me. It's written from the point of view of Carrie, a historical fiction author who loves to write stories according to how history actually played out, and not necessarily with the happy ending readers expect. Once she settles in Scotland to continue her latest story, she begins to realize she somehow has a tie to how the tale she's telling actually happened, and not in the way you would think based on other books you've read.

I don't want to spoil how she discovers the story hidden at the Slains, but trust me, it's one of the most original ways I've ever read on how to tell a story from the past that switches narrators. I loved how all of the characters had their roles in the history, no matter how large or small. They were actual people. The way the story switched back and forth between the modern and the Jacobite settings helped move the story along and the reader along with it.

The character development in this book made it very easy to get lost in the story. Every time I picked up the book, I was immediately immersed in the story and the surroundings. I was there with the author. All of the story arcs flowed seamlessly into one another with no gaps or unexplained happenings.

This is the first book I've read by Susanna Kearsley, but will definitely not be the last! I've already purchased another of hers, and I will shortly be buying the next in the Slains series. Her writing style is effortless and consuming. I cannot recommend this book highly enough! "The Winter Sea" gets an enthusiastic 5 stars from me with no hesitation or remorse!

Check it out. You won't be sorry!! ...more

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Dec 19, 2012 Megan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, romance

This is really a 2.5 for something that happened at the end. I'll get to that under the spoiler tag.

Carrie, an romance author, spends some time in Scotland to research and write her latest historical fiction novel. We get two stories in this book - Carrie's and the woman she is writing about, Sophia. That's when things get weird.

There's also some really bad biology. It doesn't work that way! Clearly, the doctor in this novel did not learn about how Lamarckian evolution is incorrect. Terrifying.

( ...more

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Jan 26, 2014 Lianne rated it liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy, 2014

Not my usual genre -- historical romance with a bit of fantasy -- but overall I enjoyed it, and learned some about the Jacobites, which is great since my international history knowledge is sorely lacking and I (embarrassingly?) hadn't even heard of them prior to the novel. I do wish there had been less exposition, since I often got lost in some of the long descriptions of historical details, and there were parts that lacked any real action. Despite that, I teared up (view spoiler) ...more

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Nov 23, 2014 Nina rated it really liked it

Shelves: novel, kindle, fiction, library_book, historical

I really enjoyed the historical half of this story more than the modern-day story, but I expect that was the point. Also, the main character is a writer, and she reminded me of the most important thing about writers: they write!

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Apr 15, 2022 superawesomekt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, scotland, time-travel, atwi80b-challenge

3.5 stars

This was a pleasant surprise! No embarrassing content and lots of interesting history. I have read references to Jacobites in other historical fiction without really understanding the context—this novel does a great job of explaining it without overwhelming or boring the reader.

I do a lot of family history and genealogical research as a side hobby so I also enjoyed that thread of the novel. There was a fantastical element to it (some would call it time travel, but it's not quite that) ...more

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Aug 03, 2018 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

I adored this book. Kearsley's writing style flows beautifully and pulled me in immediately. The parallel-narrative works really well. It moves the story along and never feels repetitive. The only problem with this book is that now I want to move to Scotland and be a writer! ...more

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Dec 03, 2013 Stacey rated it really liked it

I somehow missed that there were two books about Slains and read the second one first. The Firebird can stand alone, but now that I have read The Winter Sea, I understand the history of the characters a bit better. Overall both were great winter break reads.

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