I have to share this wonderful find with you.
I just finished reading a book by an amazingly talented author, Susanna Kearsley. It was the first book of Ms. Kearsley’s that I’ve read. However, I am going to be on a hunt for the others.
Winter Sea, by Susanna Kearsley, is hauntingly beautiful. 
The cover is lovely and from this scene you are introduced to Sophia/Carrie who are linked by ancestry. Sophia is the 18th century ancestor of Carrie, the 21st century main character of The Winter Sea. By reading that you are assuming it’s another “time travel” novel but it is so much more than that. Carrie doesn’t “time travel” as much as “time drift” through the experiences of her ancestor, Sophia.
This is a historic fiction, though I almost hesitate as using the word fiction due to the intense research that has gone into the characters in this novel. It is historic fiction at its best in my opinion.
I took this book out of the library where it sat on the shelf of “New Book”. The local library was without a director for several months and monies for new books accumulated until a responsible person was in position again to purchase books for the library. May I say I like Nancy, the new director, from the moment I saw her? We just “clicked” and I’m thinking perhaps it is because we know a good book when we see it. No, every book I’ve ever picked up has not been a “good book” but I’m lucky because the majority of them have.
My mother used to read voraciously as the younger children in the family played around her feet, around the room, around the warmth of the kitchen stove. She was able to block out all the external noises and disturbances, absorb herself right into her books. What a wonderful example of a reader she was. She would have loved The Winter Sea. My sisters and several of my brothers all took her example and carried it forth, reading book after book at every opportunity. I can’t wait to have my sisters read The Winter Sea. I know they are going to love it, and I know they will be ordering it up on their Kindle as soon as they get my message.
The Winter Sea is set modern times, 2008 to be exact, and the main character, Carrie, is a writer and she’s hoping to write a best seller. Now I’m not a writer but it seems to me every writer must set out to write the next best seller. Carrie travels to Scotland to experience Slains Castle for the setting of her new novel and finds she is drawn to the castle and the surrounds immediately. She rents a cottage on a hill from a Scotsman and sets up her computer, for she is a modern writer and uses a laptop rather than the old notebook and pencil. Her ancestors begin to share their lives with her in such as way as she has never experienced in her writing. One of the reviews I was reading called this sharing I mention as a “time slip”. She doesn’t “travel” through time but as she writes she “slips” into almost a trance as the words seem to come tumbling from the mouths of her ancestors.
It’s such a wonderful book and I don’t want to give away too much, but I assure you if you enjoy historic novels, The Winter Sea is among the finest. Being intrigued with the writer of historic novels that I’ve never come across before, I did a little research only to find out that she has many books, some written under a pen name, Emma Cole. I found ten other titles by Susanna Kearsley and I can’t wait to begin the search to find them. She is a Canadian author, living near the shores of Lake Ontario, and her books have been published in many languages. I hope they’ve all been published in the US so I can be successful on my quest.
Are any of you familiar with this writer? If you aren’t, you must begin to acquaint yourself with her writing. If you have enjoyed the likes of Philippa Gregory, Daphne du Maurier, Diana Gabaldon, and other talented writers of historic fiction, you will certainly fall in love with The Winter Sea.
Susanna Kearsley has a “not-a-blog” which she calls her blog as she feels a blog gets written in frequently and hers does not. It is interesting to peruse it, and click on some of the links she provides us. Who could not love a woman who includes a YouTube video of Bob from Sesame Street singing “Keep Christmas With You”?
Happy reading,
Marsha
On The Go Quilting 