The Winter Sea in Pop Sugar's Annual Ultimate Reading Challenge

Nov 22, 2011 Filipa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own, english-books, 2012-reads, historical-romance

4,5 stars

Susanna Kearsley has enchanted me since I read Shadowy Horses. Since I read that book I've wanted to read the rest of the books she's written. Sophia's Secret seemed to me a great book so I picked it up - and oh my, was I right or what?!
I loved it! I still don't believe that the book has ended. I wish that it could last forever... 527 pages is nothing, really. Time [and pages] fly by. I was totally captivated by the plot and all its twists.
I've loved the actual History about Scotland. ...more

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Jul 30, 2011 Jilly rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, fiction

Wonderful book! I really enjoyed it and was definitely enthralled from the beginning (the premise interested me). Thankfully I was not disappointed! This is a "book within a book", and I was equally interested in the two stories unfolding together. I thought the author did an excellent job of intertwining the two stories in such a way that enhanced the overall theme and experience of the book. Although I saw some of the plot twists coming, they were nonetheless exciting, and there were many plot ...more

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Jun 20, 2020 Chris rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015owned, fiction, scotland, historical-fiction, romance, 2016owned

What a disappointment! I've had this book on my shelf for several years, and finally the time seemed right for a historical fiction romance with a touch of the supernatural that promised to sweep me away to another time. Consider me unswept. The characters both in the present and in 1708 Scotland are thin as cardboard. Carrie is a modern-day historical fiction writer working on a story about the 1708 Jacobite uprising, which she's been working on in France because that's where the rebel Scots we What a disappointment! I've had this book on my shelf for several years, and finally the time seemed right for a historical fiction romance with a touch of the supernatural that promised to sweep me away to another time. Consider me unswept. The characters both in the present and in 1708 Scotland are thin as cardboard. Carrie is a modern-day historical fiction writer working on a story about the 1708 Jacobite uprising, which she's been working on in France because that's where the rebel Scots were based. But a drive past Slains Castle north of Aberdeen gives her an odd feeling. So of course she moves her base of operations to be nearer to this (very real) ruin of a castle on the North Sea. Here she rents a house from an older man and becomes involved with his two sons who are her own age. And of course EVERYONE knows all the basic details of the various Jacobean uprisings. But suddenly Carrie is falling into stupors and writing pages and pages about a young woman named Sophia who comes to Slains in 1707 and becomes involved in the plans for the rising not to mention following in love with one of the conspirators. When Carrie awakens, she always finds that the details she's written, names of ships, minor players, turn out to be right there in the historical records she has yet to look at! What's more, Sophia is her real ancestor. How can this be possible! We don't know because no one looks real hard it. There's some mumbling about our DNA being able to retrieve ancestors' memories. Really? And so we bounce back and forth as Carrie writes her book using her inside knowledge, begins an affair with one of the brothers, and tells us the story of what really happened to Sophia and the people at Slains Castle. Except the ending pretty much destroys the reason why this "ghost" DNA would have wanted to continue to live on, and the final disclosure, not surprising but some people do find it a bit icky, just seemed more like silly to me. Frankly, I've read far better for this genre. ...more

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