It’s been awhile since writer Carrie McClelland has had a place she could call home. She goes where ever her books take her. This time it’s France, but after five months of gathering research her story just isn’t coming to her. So, she decides a break is in order in the form of a visit to the eastern coast of Scotland to visit her agent Jane, who has a new baby. As fate would have it, on her drive up from Aberdeen she is diverted to the coastal route where she is transfixed by the ragged but grand remains of Slains Castle, an estate associated with the failed 1708 Jacobite rebellion. What she doesn’t yet know is that the woman who will become her main character happens to be a real person – one of her ancestors who lived at Slains in threw months leading up to the rebellion. Settling in to write at an old cottage near the castle, more and more of her fiction turns out to be based on fact, and pretty soon Carrie realizes that she may be the only person who knows the truth of what happened and the real reason why the winter sea seems to call to her.
As anyone who followed my status updates on Goodreads will know, I fell hard and fast for The Winter Sea. At the time I didn’t know if my love for it would be sustained throughout its lengthy page count, but I was hopeful, and as it turns out, the book met my expectations and then some. The Winter Sea joins a small group of exceptional books that took over my life during the course of its read and an even more elite few that had me recommending the book to others before I had even finished reading it myself.
That said, naturally I don’t know how I can possibly do this completely absorbing novel justice. My fears that the alternating points-of-view between Carrie and the Jacobite chapters would bring out a preference for either the contemporary or the historical story were unfounded from the get go. I was very interested in Carrie, and when the perspective switched I was just if not more enthralled by Sophia. Without spoiling anything Carrie comes to find she has ancestral memory, and it’s that interconnection between the two narratives – each significantly affecting the other – which makes the story as a whole so compelling. Most crucial of all is that it’s believable when this sort of fantastical element could have so easily been far-fetched. I came to love both plots individually and as a whole and that both are as finely written is quite a feat. That I’ve never read anything or been particularly interested in this period of history before now and that I shed the rare tear or two at two different points in the book also says a lot about how wrapped up I was in these characters and their turbulent lives. Though the conclusion was heavy on the historical perspective and I partially guessed how it would play out, those small qualms didn’t lessen the complete satisfaction I felt at its conclusion or dampen my overall adoration of The Winter Sea. Even now I eagerly await my own personal copy, currently in transit, to push on anyone who will listen.
Second Opinions
Angieville Review
Luxury Reading Review
Tempting Persephone Review
The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader Review
As you probably saw in my review (thanks for linking to it), I adored this book so much too! I just finished reading her latest book The Rose Garden and loved that too, and The Shadowy Horses. I guess you could say I am a bit of a fan girl now!
So glad you loved this book too. Oh, and I originally read it through the library, but had to buy my own copy and it is currently on loan. I have pushed this book onto anyone who would listen ever since I read it.
Have you read Mariana? I’m definitely going to get The Rose Garden as soon as the price drops on Book Depository. Thanks for all of your Kearsley reviews. I think I may become a fan girl before long too.
I have read Mariana and liked it a lot. I have also read the one that is set in Italy (name escapes me at the moment), which was good, but not quite as good as the rest. Now I am trying to track down some of her harder to find titles.
I think it’s Season of Storms?
Yes that’s the one.
you captured my attention with all your goodreads status’s ~ it sounds like a perfect book for me and i was quite devastated to find my library does not have it
it is on my wishlist for the next time i splurge
thanks for the rec and the awesome review!
Neither of my libraries had it either, but I suggested the library I work at to purchase it, so they probably will.
I hope you can splurge soon!
The Winter Sea looks like a fantastic read.
I love alternate point of view chapters, so that’s definitely a selling point of The Winter Sea.
AND JACOBITES, yay!
Thanks for the recommendation!
Me too on the alternating POV! You’re welcome.
I just downloaded this for only $2.99 on my kindle–can’t wait to get started on it. Nice Review.
What a great deal! Thanks for letting me know. I’m going to spread the word.
When I looked at the premise of the book in Goodreads, it didn’t look like something that I’d enjoy reading. But since it looks like you loved this, I’m going to add it to my wishlist and see if I can find a copy somewhere.
Love is definitely the right word.
There’s something about the cover for this book I really like. And thank you for mentioning the ancestral memory part of the story because as you were describing it I was really wondering HOW does she know what really happened to her ancestor. I was going through “ghosts”, “reincarnation/past lives”, and “memory in her DNA” as possibilities when you explained it. Phew. The reason I most liked.
The cover is both lovely and mysterious, isn’t it? I love the cascading red hair and how she is facing away from us towards the blue sea on the aged paper.
I’m glad that helped. I agree that it’s a much better reason than the others you listed. Those others would be deal breakers for this book IMO.
I’m definitely popping this in my ‘to read’ box, and even better my library has a copy! The cover is not as wonderful (a bit on the old fashioned side) but no matter I shall certainly be picking this one up. And as a bonus they also seems to have most of her other titles as well! I may go on a Kearsley gorge!
Oh, that’s great that your library has it. I think I know the cover you are thinking of. It looks sort of cheap and amateurish. It’s too bad. AND they have the rest of her titles? That’s awesome. Lucky you.
Since I forgot to ask you for it, I bought it on Kindle for $2.99! Quite a bargain for all the positive reviews that it has garnered. Thanks for the recommendation. I look forward to lazy hours spent reading in the next weeks. . . Love summer break!
I was thoroughly swept up in THE WINTER SEA from the very moment I started it. It was almost jarring to put it down; I had to accustom myself to the real world. This one is going to see many a reread.
Ahh, I know the experience when the book world seems more real than the real world, you’re so caught up in it. Those are the finest kind.
Have you read any of Kearsley’s other books?
I just finished MARIANA this past Friday. It was good; had I read it before THE WINTER SEA, I might have liked it even more than I did. And I just ordered THE SHADOWY HORSES; I had started that one some time last year, but had to return it to the library before really getting in to it. Before long I’ll have gone through her entire backlist.
Ah. Good to know. The Shadowy Horses – love that title. I may splurge on her latest The Rose Garden.
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