The Winter Sea (Slains, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

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

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

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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Nov 16, 2011 mstan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, src-winter-2011-12, british, kindle

*edited to a 3-star read on hindsight

This was a pleasurable and fun read - probably closer to 3.5 stars than 4, though, with the possibility of a long-term 3. It's definitely better than Madame Tussaud: A Novel of the French Revolution, and I liked the historical parts and political intrigue quite a bit. After reading this and compounding the atmospheric Scottish effect with The Game of Kings, I'm sure I'll be planning a trip to Scotland in the near future...

Carrie is a writer who specialises in ...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical, scotland, romantic

I've been a fan of Kearsley's for years, but her books have always been difficult to find in the US as she's lacked significant distribution here for reasons unfathomable to me. Thankfully that appears to be changing, and this is a great reminder of how much I enjoy her work. Her research is spot-on and she knows how to write a story that's emotionally strong without being sappy or facile. Hopefully this book's recent appearance as a Kindle Daily Deal will open her up to the wider audience she r ...more

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Jan 07, 2022 Andy Plonka rated it liked it

Shelves: src

Despite the fact it took me a long time to read and I don't much like books that jump from one time frame to another. I did like this book and the insights into the difficulties involved in writing historical fiction. ...more

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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 29, 2018 Susan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Historical novel, alternating between past and present. Not a real page turner but the historical part was interesting, altho all in all, the book could have been better with about 100 pages cut....

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Sep 17, 2012 Erin (NY) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-i-own, romance, historical-fiction, fantasy, read-in-2014

I heard of this book a lot, so I was excited to read it. However, when i first started it, I was mostly disappointed, because it was slow, and the book within a book format was not working for me initially. I just couldn't get myself to care about the book within a book characters. However, the second half of the book lived up to the hype. Despite the fact that it is not realistic, it is a cute idea. I do like how present day gets tied to history though. ...more

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