The Winter Sea

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This past month's book for book club was The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley.  After several months of "heavy" reading, mostly about World War II, we decided on a lighter read.  Here's a brief description:

"It is 2008 and Carrie McClelland can't hit the right note for her next novel, but an unplanned detour in Scotland, and a stop at the castle that inspired Count Dracula, sets her on a different path; a path that took her back in time exactly 300 years, to that same castle, and to a rebellion doomed to failure. Alternating between the contemporary setting and the past, The Winter Sea takes us at every turn into little known worlds; historical footnotes writ large, a history of Scotland and the Jacobite rebellion of 1708 and the possibility of genetic memory."

The first thing I have to say is that if you're a romantic at heart, then you will absolutely love this book.  It is romance and historical fiction at its best.  I absolutely devoured this book.  The history is intriguing, and there's not 1 but 2 romance threads throughout the book.  I appreciated that it was a clean romance, and also that it was based on real events in history.  My only word of caution is that the first 100 pages are a lot of set up and history, so don't get too discouraged, because it takes off like crazy after that.  I had a hard time putting it down.  All of the fabulous one-liners have be to my collective "favorite part" of this book.

I really enjoyed Susanna's Kearsley's writing style, so I was curious to see if I would like her other books.  They all tend to be historical fiction with a connection to modern day with some sort of romantic interest.  So far I have read 2 of her other books, The Rose Garden and Mariana, and I definitely like The Winter Sea by far the best, but they are still good reads.