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Mariana by Susanna Kearlsey
5★'s
From The Book
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 Wilshire 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.
My Thoughts:
This was such an intrigue book from start to finish. The small town life that Julia acquired when she bought Greywethers and the townspeople were among my favorite parts but my absolutely and undoubtedly favorite part was the time travel. 300 years before it had been the home of a young woman named Mariana. Julia, unwillingly at first begins to experience a series of time regression events at which time she realizes that she is Mariana. Julia begins to eagerly welcome these time trips as she is anxious to know more about Mariana and the events in her life . As the past unfolds it Julia sees Mariana's romance with a neighboring aristocrat, Richard. When Julia learns what happened to Mariana and Richard, she realizes that in order to close the circle, find happiness for herself and closure for Mariana, she must find the present-day man who embodies Richard just as she embodies Mariana. It's not a gooey romance but it is a delightful tale of an old house retaining the passions of past events with just a smidgen of the supernatural.
