The Winter Sea

By: Susanna Kearsley

Narrated by: Rosalyn Landor

Length: 15 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

History has all but forgotten...

In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her...

Please note: This novel has also been published under a different title: Sophia's Secret.

Please note, this title is the original recording, which is now known as Sophia's Secret

©2010 Susanna Kearsley (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

• Audie Award Winner, Romance, 2012

"Rosalyn Landor provides delightful Scottish accents for many of the characters Carrie meets inside and outside her novel....Landor adds a poetic edge to her storytelling while at the same time giving a dreamy aura to the historical side of the story." ( Audiofile)

Awesome story, so worth it.

The story is so good...It made me laugh, cry, everything I want from a good story! I will definitely listen to this again and again!

Great book

This is the second book i have read from this author and i picked this one out because the first was so good! This book did not disappoint! Great read. Wonderful engaging story!

Thoroughly enjoyed this book.

i really did enjoy this book. However, the music at the very end was so awful, it was almost funny.

My favorite book!

This is my favorite book. I have read it twice and now listened on Audible. I am still in love.

Excellent story full of love and history

I really loved this story. It's the first book I've read by Susanna Kearsley and I'll definitely check out her others now! I only got this because an Audible promotion and I'm glad I took the chance. The characters are so fun, unique and loveable. Kearsley's frame narrative is also very interesting. You get two stories in one since it's about an author writing her next historical fiction book so you get to "read" the book she's writing. At times it was a bit of a stretch for the character author to remember an ancestor's memories, but it was certainly entertaining and interesting. Kearsley's dual plotlines were very well done in my opinion. I didn't want it to end!
I've seen other reviews of people expecting something along the lines of Outlander. The similarity is that they are both love stories set in Scotland so don't expect more than that. I wouldn't call this a romance novel in the typical sense and to expect this book to be an Outlander lookalike is silly because then it wouldn't be an original. The narration was very good, although sometimes the accents were a bit too heavy for me to fully understand.

this was written just for me it seems.

I love anything about family history and my ancestors with our still living on a other side.

The Winter Sea

Wonderful book with great narration. Can't wait for more by Susanna Kearsley and Rosalyn Landor!

Good story

Great narration. I liked how they used Scottish accents. It was interesting to hear about the history.

Different Approach

Love Historical Fiction but this missed the mark. The story was lackluster at best. Too bad.

Author and Narrator

Maybe one of my favorite books ever. Even though I’d guessed the major, final, plot twist about halfway through, the whole thing was compelling to the end. Rosalyn Landor, was the true heroine; the one who brought this book to life. I could have read it on the Kindle, and it might have made an impact, but not like this. When this ended, I wanted to cry. The story itself had a happy ending, but my loss at having finished this book feels devastating. From the atmospheric elements of Cruden Bay and Slains Castle to the pure sweetness of Sophia, I just did not want to leave this one. Part of me wants to go live there. Live out my days there—Cruden Bay. Landor’s ability to characterize other voices and accents is just magnificent. Her straight narration is the voice I fell in love with in Never Let Me Go, but there is so much more. Scottish accents, British accents, Canadian/American accents of all genders and ages are excellent. Her straight narration, and her voicing of the author, Carrie, in a flat, accentless (to my ear) Canadian-American accent, and of the 18th century Scottish Kirsty and Sophia are superb (the latter two just cute as buttons). I’m a little in love with her voice. I might try Kearsley on the Kindle because she has more books, but none of them is narrated by Landor. I’ve tried samples of the other narrators and none will do. It’s Rosalyn Landor or nothing.