Lilac Ink

The Knocknashee Story, Book 1

De: Jean Grainger

Narrado por: Caroline Lennon

As the world teeters on the brink of war in 1937, two young souls separated by an ocean are about to discover a connection that defies logic and time.

Grace Fitzgerald, a fiery-haired dreamer, longs to escape the confines of her windswept Dingle fishing village. Across the Atlantic, Richard Lewis, heir to a Savannah banking fortune, suffocates under the weight of societal expectations he can't quite understand.

When their worlds collide through a twist of fate, Grace and Richard uncover a bond so profound it shakes the very foundations of their existence. As Europe inches towards chaos, they find themselves caught in a whirlwind of discovery, challenging everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other.

From the rugged Irish coastline to the genteel streets of Georgia, 'Lilac Ink' weaves a tapestry of love, destiny, and self-realization against the ominous backdrop of impending global conflict. Grace and Richard must navigate not only their impossible connection but also the turbulent waters of family expectations, social norms, and their own conflicting desires.

This mesmerizing journey through time and place will leave you questioning the very nature of fate and the extraordinary power of human connection. In a world being torn apart, can two hearts, inexplicably linked, find a way to beat as one?

©2024 Jean Grainger (P)2024 Gold Harp Media Ltd.

Grace is a lovely woman

Poor Grace. Lied to over and over again but she doesn’t see it at first. She has led a very difficult life but she remains a beautiful and loving woman.

Irish words included

I loved this story and the only thing I didn’t like was that it ended! The best part is the inclusion of Irish words. I have been studying Irish with Mollie for a couple of months now and can recognize some words and can figure out how others are spelled to look them up. One word that popped up a lot sounded like kai-yuhk. I tried several different Irish spellings, and then the character mentioned that the cailleach probably rode on her broom. That was it: witch! It would be nice to have a pdf with a glossary of the Irish words used. That is the only drawback to only having the audio version of the book. Carolyn Lennon’s narration was superb and you could hear the main character ‘s voice maturing as she went from 17 to adulthood. Thank you, Jean, for another wonderful series. I can’t wait for book two.

Loved it all!

I get so wrapped up in this series along with other by Jean Grainger I can’t put it aside to concentrate on other things!

Lilac Ink

Every thing about it. The history and narrator was excellent. Waiting for the next book in the series.

The mean sister

I liked how sweet Grace was and how she continued to make her life better and better.

The reader was wonderful

It doesn’t tell you the name of the sequel and leaves you hanging, wanting more

I WASN’T SURE OF THIS BOOK FOR THE FIRST FEW CHAPTERS, BUT IT STEADILY GOT BETTER AND BETTER…

When I started this book, I began to wonder if it really had been written by my favorite author, Jean Grainger. By Chapter five or six, I wasn’t sure I would be able to stick with the book — I just couldn’t get into it. Am I ever glad I did stick it out. The story began to build and got better and better with each chapter.

Irish girl Grace is so kind, gentle, trusting and tender. She’s the exact opposite of her hostile, nasty, pious, overly-religious sister Agnes, with whom Grace lives. Agnes is the worst kind of school teacher. She teaches children by using intimidation and fear. She is not afraid to hit students for the slightest infraction. Grace is her “teaching assistant.” She teaches the lower grades before they move up to Agnes’ level. Agnes hates Grace’s teaching style. She teaches by letting students have a little fun, by making subjects interesting and by letting students learn through exploration. Grace never utters an unkind word, raises or voice and would never physically hurt a student. Grace is the light to Agnes’ dark.

Grace does everything Agnes does plus more. After both classes are done, it’s Grace who is forced to clean both classroom and prepare them for the next day. In exchange for all this, she earns absolutely nothing. Agnes takes her entire paycheck under the pretense of saving every penny for Grace’s future. Grace doesn’t receive a penny, which keeps her wholly dependent on Agnes (which is exactly how Agnes wants it). Grace is Agnes’ slave once home, doing all the cooking, shopping, laundry and mending.

Then one day, quite by accident (largely in part because of the kindhearted people in the village who love Grace and can’t stand Agnes), Grace finds out quite by accident that her sister has not saved a single penny of her wages in her savings account. She finds out instead that her hypocritical sister has been using HER earnings to court and pay for dating the highest power in the church in their village — hotels, wine bars, fancy dinners — every single expense has been paid for with Grace’s earnings.

A long overdue showdown happens between the sisters. The towns people all refer to Agnes as “the witch.” Those same people now stand with Grace and against Agnes, and Agnes is livid. Agnes is going to make sure everyone gets what’s coming to them, and she’s going to get her “boyfriend,” “The Cannon, to help her. He has the power of the Church behind him and can do a lot of damage.

The silly act of throwing a bottle in the ocean with a letter from Grace pouring out all her sadness is found in Georgia, U.S. by Richard, who comes from a very wealthy banking family. Richard is being groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps to be a banker, but he DESPISES the life AND the job and everything in him rejects it all. His entire family is horrified when they discover what Richard REALLY wants is a life in the creative arts. He wants to write songs and poems; but to be somewhat practical, Richard begins writing articles for one of the biggest papers in Georgia.

On a whim, Richard begins to corresponde with Grace. It’s the single bright spot in Grace’s life. They begin “talking” through the mail. They help each other through their problems. Even though he has never met her, Richard finds himself falling a little in love with Grace — her grit, strength, gentleness, her courage and so many other things. He has, through her words, pictured Grace as somewhat unattractive physically because of her disability, Richard has realized her disability doesn’t matter to him at all.

Richard realizes he has fallen in love with the INNER Grace. He is absolutely shocked when Grace sends him a small photo of herself and he sees that she is absolutely stunningly gorgeous. Richard doesn’t see that childhood polio has made her less attractive at all — it’s just another part of who Grace is in his opinion. Everyone EXCEPT Grace thinks she’s beautiful. Grace is baffled as to why someone educated and wealthy as Richard would anything at all to do with someone like her.

During this time of Grace and Richard getting to know each other, the rumbles of war are making themselves heard. Hitler is starting his hate campaign against Jews and countries are beginning to decide who is going to stand up to him and fight, who will do their best to remain neutral (Ireland is hoping to remain neutral), and those European countries who are naively hoping that MAYBE if they stay quiet enough, Hitler won’t notice them and will go away…

Richard decides that as a journalist, he has an obligation to travel with his dear friend (who happens to be Jewish and is the newspaper’s photographer) to Europe and to report on what is really happening as WWII is gearing up. It just so happens that he and his friend will have to stop in Ireland…

Suddenly the book stops here. I was not ready for such an abrupt ending, but it certainly left me wanting to know when Book Two in this series will be available!

The narrator did very nice work, but I found her Irish accent a little “hard.” So many of Ms. Grainger’s other books have been narrated by the incredible Siobhan Waring; I was sorely disappointed to learn she was not the voice talent for this book. Ms. Waring could read the DICTIONARY or a book on home repaired and I’d BEG her to never stop! No disrespect to the narrator of this book - she just has incredibly big shoes to fill.💕

PLEASE, MS. GRAINGER, HURRY UP WITH BOOK TWO (AND PLEASE GET MS. WARING BACK)❣️

Outstanding!

Fascinating story, excellent narration, and a complete delight! I will read this book again and again.

Outstanding

This is a great story and the narrator was top notch. Looking forward to book 2.

Her compassion towards her sister

Love all the characters, and the way the narrator tells the story in the different accents