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Acclaimed author Susanna Kearsley's previous works have won the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award, and finaled for both the UK Romantic Novel of the Year and the RITA awards.
Eva Ward is a modern woman thrown back three centuries to 1715 - only to find that might be exactly where she belongs. There, she finds true love with Daniel Butler, but the discord surrounding Hanoverian King George plunges the lovers into a world of intrigue, treason, and romance.
Juliet Beckett believes in destiny. When she moves into Greywethers, a beautiful 16th-century farmhouse, she suspects that more than coincidence has brought her there. The locals are warm and welcoming; especially the eligible squire of Crofton Hall, yet beneath the ordinaries, Julia senses a haunting sadness about her new home. Then she learns of Mariana, a beautiful young woman who lived there 300 years ago. It seems history has been waiting for Julia...
Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea. Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it - not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has "seen" a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.
For nearly 300 years, the cryptic journal of Mary Dundas has kept its secrets. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas travels to Paris to crack the cipher.... Jacobite exile Mary Dundas is filled with longing - for freedom, for adventure, for the family she lost. When fate opens the door, Mary dares to set her foot on a path far more surprising and dangerous than she ever could have dreamed.
Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary town of Chinon, and promptly disappears - well, that's Harry for you. As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm.
The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time.
Acclaimed author Susanna Kearsley's previous works have won the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice Award, and finaled for both the UK Romantic Novel of the Year and the RITA awards.
Eva Ward is a modern woman thrown back three centuries to 1715 - only to find that might be exactly where she belongs. There, she finds true love with Daniel Butler, but the discord surrounding Hanoverian King George plunges the lovers into a world of intrigue, treason, and romance.
Juliet Beckett believes in destiny. When she moves into Greywethers, a beautiful 16th-century farmhouse, she suspects that more than coincidence has brought her there. The locals are warm and welcoming; especially the eligible squire of Crofton Hall, yet beneath the ordinaries, Julia senses a haunting sadness about her new home. Then she learns of Mariana, a beautiful young woman who lived there 300 years ago. It seems history has been waiting for Julia...
Archaeologist Verity Grey has been drawn to the dark legends of the Scottish Borderlands in search of the truth buried in a rocky field by the sea. Her eccentric boss has spent his whole life searching for the resting place of the lost Ninth Roman Legion and is convinced he's finally found it - not because of any scientific evidence, but because a local boy has "seen" a Roman soldier walking in the fields, a ghostly sentinel who guards the bodies of his long-dead comrades.
For nearly 300 years, the cryptic journal of Mary Dundas has kept its secrets. Now, amateur codebreaker Sara Thomas travels to Paris to crack the cipher.... Jacobite exile Mary Dundas is filled with longing - for freedom, for adventure, for the family she lost. When fate opens the door, Mary dares to set her foot on a path far more surprising and dangerous than she ever could have dreamed.
Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary town of Chinon, and promptly disappears - well, that's Harry for you. As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm.
The charm of spending the Christmas holidays in South Wales, with its crumbling castles and ancient myths, seems the perfect distraction from the nightmares that have plagued literary agent Lyn Ravenshaw since the loss of her baby five years ago. Instead she meets an emotionally fragile young widow who's convinced that Lyn's recurring dreams have drawn her to Castle Farm for an important purpose - and she's running out of time.
In the early 1900s, the playwright Galeazzo D’Ascanio lived for Celia Sands. She was his muse and the inspiration for his most stunning and original play. But the night before she was to take the stage, Celia disappeared. Now, decades later, Alessandro D’Ascanio is preparing to stage the first performance of his grandfather’s masterpiece. A promising young actress - who shares Celia Sands’ name, but not her blood - has agreed to star. She is instantly drawn to the mysteries surrounding the play - and to her compelling, compassionate employer. And even though she knows she should let the past go, in her dreams it comes back.
No one lives forever. But the truth survives us all. Kate Murray is deeply troubled. In front of her lies a dead man, a stranger who only minutes before had approached her wanting to tell her about a mystery, a long-forgotten murder. The crime was old, he'd told her, but still deserving of justice. Soon Kate is caught up in a dangerous whirlwind of events that takes her back into her grandmother's mysterious war-time past and across the Atlantic as she tries to retrace the dead man's footsteps.
Lady Aline Marsden was brought up for one reason: to make an advantageous marriage to a member of her own class. Instead, she willingly gave her innocence to John McKenna, a servant on her father’s estate. Their passionate transgression was unforgivable - John was sent away, and Aline was left to live in the countryside - an exile from London society - and he took her love. Now McKenna has made his fortune, and he has returned - more boldly handsome and more mesmerizing than before.
As the sole survivor of the car crash that killed her parents, grief-stricken paramedic Kit MacKlenna is stunned to learn her life is built on lies. A legacy from her father includes a faded letter and a well-worn journal. The journal reveals she was abandoned as a baby 160 years ago. The only clues to her identity are a blood-splattered shawl, a locket with the portrait of a 19th century man, and a Celtic brooch with magical powers.
India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who'll accept her - an enigmatic and mysterious man from America, a man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he's ill.
It is 1831 when eight-year-old Aurelia Vennaway finds a naked baby girl abandoned in the snow on the grounds of her aristocratic family's magnificent mansion. Her parents are horrified that she has brought a bastard foundling into the house, but Aurelia convinces them to keep the baby, whom she names Amy Snow. Amy is brought up as a second-class citizen, but she and Aurelia are as close as sisters. When Aurelia dies at the age of 23, she leaves Amy 10 pounds. But Aurelia also left her much more.
Jake McKallister might have been a rock star, but he was no ordinary one. Surviving an unspeakable crime as a young teen had shaped him into a guarded workaholic, and he now lived his life trying to forget. If it hadn't been for music and the redemption he found through it, he might not have survived. Career success came easily for him. Personal connections did not.
Judith Hampton was as beautiful as she was proud and loyal. Her dear Scottish friend from childhood was about to give birth, and Judith had promised to be at her side. But there was another reason for the journey from her bleak English home to the Highlands: to meet the father she had never known, the Laird Maclean. Nothing prepared her, however, for the sight of the Scottish barbarian who was to escort her into his land...Iain Maitland, laird of his clan, a man more powerfully compelling than any she had ever encountered.
Single-and-pregnant museum worker Melanie voices an idle wish while examining a Scottish artifact, that a Highland warrior would sweep her off her feet and help her forget her cheating ex. The last thing she expects is for her wish to be granted. Magically transported to the middle of a clan skirmish in the 16th-century Highlands, she comes face to face with her kilted fantasy man.
England, 1666; the year all the prophecies said the world would end. For Chloe Hervaux, marriage to wild, unpredictable Alex Deveril offers escape from a home she hates. For Alex, waking up with an epic hangover, the discovery that he has acquired a bride is an unwelcome shock. But while the marriage remains in name only, other forces are gathering. England is at war with the Dutch, and Prince Rupert suspects that sabotage is at work in the fleet. Instructed to find and stop the traitor, Alex enters a dark, secret labyrinth of intrigue.
Weaving a vibrant tapestry of fact and fiction, Into the Wilderness sweeps us into another time and place...and into the heart of a forbidden, incandescent affair between a spinster Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate readers from the very first page.
USA TODAY best-selling Morna's Legacy Set #1 contains the following books from the Morna's Legacy Series: Love Beyond Time (Book 1), Love Beyond Reason (Book 2), A Conall Christmas (Book 2.5), and Love Beyond Hope (Book 3).
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.
Nicola Marter has a gift - when she touches an object, she can see into its past. When she beholds a small wooden carving called the "Firebird," her abilities transport her to 18th century Russia, where she finds young Anna Moray, one of the object's original owners. As impressive as time travel is, what I kept marveling at was author Susanna Kearsley's writing. She effortlessly entwines two narratives in The Firebird, and manages to make them equally compelling. Her beautiful, rich prose created such vivid images in my mind (enhanced by the always excellent narrator, Katherine Kellgren), that I feel as though I have actually met all of the characters and seen the places we journey to in this book. As soon as I finished listening, I immediately downloaded The Winter Sea, so that I could learn even more about Anna's family. Suffice it to say, Kearsley is quickly becoming my new favorite author.
38 of 40 people found this review helpful
This review is tough because I am comparing it to "The Winter Sea", which I loved and gave 5 stars. This book is a worthy continuation of that story. I did enjoy this book, but not as much as The Winter Sea because "The Firebird" is much more involved in the romantic storyline of the past and present characters than on the historical times of Russia and the Jacobites while the Winter Sea was heavier on the historical times with the romance as a backdrop. I would have enjoyed more history in this one.
Additionally, whereas the narrator of the Winter Sea immediately engaged me, I had to get used to this one.
If you haven't listened/read the Winter Sea first, I would highly recommend it. I believe this book could be a stand alone, but I believe you get much more out of it reading it in sequence.
Overall, it is a solid 4 star read.
51 of 56 people found this review helpful
Is there anything you would change about this book?
I love Kearsley's stories. But the narration for this story was painful. The reader has a "haughty" tone when reading as the main character. Miss Jane Hathaway from Beverly Hillbillies came to mind while listening. Then there's the way she runs sentences together - as if punctuation is merely a suggestion that can be ignored. Makes it hard to follow the story. It's like she was in a rush to get through the book.
How could the performance have been better?
A different narrator.
55 of 61 people found this review helpful
I love getting two books in one as the story jumps from the present to the past and back. The historical story is richer for its details, as well as its more diverse characters, but both stories were satisfying. As with all the best writers, Kearsley's prose seems effortless. She's a master of setting mood through description, and her characters are well delineated. The only fault I can find in this one is that all of the young males are stock Romance characters (tall, well-muscled, enigmatic, masterful and never crude). That may keep the ladies coming back for more. As for me, I'll try anything Miss Kearsley puts her hand to, because the power of her writing overcomes any cookie-cutter characters that may insinuate themselves into her stories.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful
I loved The Winter Sea, so I was anxious to listen to The Firebird. This one was more heavy on the romance, but I still loved it. The story of Anna as a child, Anna whisked away to a convent in Belgium for her own protection, Anna in St. Petersburg, Russia at the time of the Czars . . . and parallel story of Nicola and Rob in modern day who both have the "gift" of seeing into the past . . . I learned a lot about the history of the Jacobites, Scotland and Russia . . . and as for Rob and Nicola's physic abilities, well, they aren't plausible . . . but who doesn't love a good fairy tale?
12 of 13 people found this review helpful
Ms. Kearsley never disappoints, and this story is right up there with 5 stars, as are her other books. I've read. I listened to "The Winter Sea" a long time ago, and this story brings back some of it's characters for an update many years later. It's a beautiful narration, recreating many historical places and people bringing this delightful, and sometimes tear jerking tale to light. The 14 hours fly by, so don't let that dissuade you from listening, as it's well worth your time.
18 of 20 people found this review helpful
This is one of the best audiobooks I have listened to. I love Susanna Kearsley's writing style and the beautiful characters that you come to love. She has her stoies flash back from modern times to some point in the past fluidly. I always am disappointed when it is time to change centuries but quickly become enraptured with the current tale and forget I was ever disconcerted.
This book all revolves around finding out the history of a small figurine called The Firebird. The story travels between London, Scotland, and Russian and the reader gets to experience it all like he is there because of Kearsey's wonderful imagery. There is romance, family ties, faith, and a touch of supernatural that makes it a perfect blend for me.
Katherine Kellgren does a spectacular job narrating this book and handles a variety of accents with perfection.
24 of 27 people found this review helpful
Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?
I enjoy Susanna Kearsley and loved each one of her other audiobooks, even though each narration is very different than any other. This one did not do a great job with pace, volume or accents. Shame! It was a big distraction to me for much of the book. Seemed as if she was rushing and almost shouting for half the book. I would so much have preferred a different performer.
Would you be willing to try another book from Susanna Kearsley? Why or why not?
Absolutely
Would you be willing to try another one of Katherine Kellgren’s performances?
No
Any additional comments?
This one felt a little forced; pulling all the strings together from other books. Not as natural as the others.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful
Without giving away spoiler, which you will discover in the first few pages, I liked the instrument she used to move back and forth between story lines. Yes the story is a little heavy on romance and all too predictable, with the men being something out of a yard sale romance novel. However, the story itself moved along quickly enough that this was not a serious drawback.
The narrator was absolutely a dream to listen to and I wouldn't mind hearing more of her. There were lots of different accents to handle, Scottish, Russian, Irish, British, American- and they may not have all been "strictly authentic, ( I am not an expert) but her ability to move quickly between them was amazing as well as her ability to handle both men's and women's dialog.
9 of 10 people found this review helpful
What disappointed you about The Firebird?
Unbalanced story, there are no heroic or caring female characters other then the 2 females, all the other characters are men. The narrator sounds like she is speaking down her nose and her voice is not appealing, rather shrill.
Would you ever listen to anything by Susanna Kearsley again?
Not likely
Would you be willing to try another one of Katherine Kellgren’s performances?
Never
What character would you cut from The Firebird?
Anyone of the men, give me a caring woman in the story.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful