The Firebird

By: Susanna Kearsley

Narrated by: Katherine Kellgren

Length: 14 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Nicola Marter was born with a gift. When she touches an object, she sometimes glimpses those who have owned it before. When a woman arrives with a small wooden carving at the gallery Nicola works at, she can see the object’s history and knows that it was named after the Firebird - the mythical creature from an old Russian fable.

Compelled to know more, Nicola follows a young girl named Anna who leads her into the past on a quest through the glittering backdrops of the Jacobites and Russian courts, unearthing a tale of love, courage, and redemption.

©2013 Susanna Kearsley (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Fascinating book, worth reading ...

Amazing characters with a great story line. Listened through Audible. Narration was fantastic. The story led me through so many countries delivering all there cultures with past and present times. Thank you Ms. Kellgren for this glimpse of time. Wow. I can't say enough about this book but it is defiantly worth reading.

A Scottish/Russian tale set today and long ago

I enjoy the author’s style and character development. I like incorporating a little bit of what we don’t understand in a historical fiction narrative. Having her mentally be able to communicate with Rob and view the past with their abilities, made for interesting storytelling. I enjoyed both the present day story and the ancient Scottish/Russian story. A bit of a love story in both times made it even more interesting. Sex is mentioned but not explicit. The narrator in the audiobook does a wonderful job with the accents. I really enjoyed this book.

predictable

Narrator was wonderful to listen to. Story swings between past and present with a predictable ending with one exception and that one seemed an afterthought.

Lost in Translation

Because this book has two story lines, I had a hard time keeping up with the transitions. For that reason, I hated this book at first and picked it up again when I had finished another book and decided to give it another try. I listen to audible in my car while driving, so that may be part of the problem. I am thinking of purchasing an electronic version which I think would probably make better sense to me. In the end, I think I like this book but am not sure.

Interesting novel

This book was not a normal read for me. A sweet dual love story, this book takes a while to unfold and drags in some areas. I enjoyed the historical aspects as well as the contemporary. The performance is really good, and it was fun to listen to all of the different accents, from Irish to Scots, to Russian and British. However, I feel the narrator needs to slow down just a bit. Again, a sweet read.

Enjoyed the book!

The narrator really irritated me at first because she did a good job with her accents. So I’m glad I stuck with it. At times a very soft and lovely voice came through which would’ve been so much easier to hear for some of the female parts - however not as authentic.

Made me want to visit The Hermitage

The Firebird format takes a bit of getting used to. It moves from the present day, with the lead characters sharing a special talent, one very gifted with it and one not, to Scotland and Europe in the years around 1710 when King James is in exile. I listened to the book. Every once in awhile I had trouble understanding that a shift of time had been made until the subject matter made it clear.

There are romances set in each time period. While there is no direct relationship between the women in both stories, as there sometimes is, the stories do proceed apace through pinch-points. There are fun historical details and, if you like this sort of thing, The Firebird very much made me want to travel to St Petersburg to visit The Hermitage museum, a place I'd previously had no interest in. Ah, the power of words.

My disclaimer: I bought the book. I'm totally independent of the author/publishers.

A PS just for the guys: Most of the men in this book are upstanding and excellent representatives of our gender; no random male bashing here.

Firebird

I enjoyed Susanna Kearsley's second book in this series after Winter Sea and wish there were more. Great job of narration.

Not my favorite

The only character I could really warm up to was Anna, partially due to the narrator. I found her sounding like a librarian with a bun on her head and glasses on her nose. I liked THE ROSE GARDEN and THE WINTER SEA much better.

Love the Characters

Any additional comments?

I really enjoy Kearsley's books. She has a nice clean style of storytelling and doesn't get bogged down with too much detail. Kellgren, who has become a familiar voice (she narrated Connie Willis's books), does a fine job of pacing and gives a sense of being almost carried away in one particularly emotional scene.

It's too bad that Audible doesn't have The Shadowy Horses as that is the story where we meet Rob as a boy and learn about the Roman sentinel in the field near his home. If you've enjoyed this and The Winter Sea, I highly recommend you look for it.