Recent Reads {The Witch from the Sea}

The Witch from the Sea by Philippa Carr -  This will catch me up on this series for now!  I didn't read them all this weekend, just to be clear!  The third in the Daughters of England series tells the story of two women - Catherine's daughter Linnet, and Linnet's own daughter Tamsyn.  In Part One, Linnet journals her experiences beginning with her family's meeting a young man that is considered an excellent suitor for her.  She is very interested in the kind, peace-loving Fennimore Cooper, but on a journey with her mother to visit the Cooper family, fate intervenes.  Linnet is noticed, and pursued by the powerful Colum Casvellyn, and she is forced to accept her role as his wife and the life she has at his castle on the rocky coast.  For a time all is well, but Linnet begins to suspect her husband of foul play both past and present.  Things only get more dramatic and dangerous when she rescues a mysterious woman from drowning on their shore and takes her into their home.  Linnet learns more about her husband than she wishes to know and becomes very fearful for her own life as he becomes more and more detached from her.

Part Two begins quite abruptly, with Tamsyn's remembering her mother's death.  As Tamsyn grows up, she realizes there was more to her mother and the intrigues in the castle than she had thought, and her strange relationship with her 'sister' Senara is often enigmatic.  Tamsyn eventually uncovers the secrets of the castle and her mother's unexpected and sudden death, and must make decisions about what she must do to keep herself safe and to bring some kind of justice for the crimes that have been committed.

More dark Gothic novel intrigue with dramatically drawn characters and fantastically imagined storylines, but (for me, anyway) hard to put down.  The series continues through many more generations, all the way to the early 1900s (if I remember correctly), and once restarted on the road of re-reading the series, I will be at it for awhile to come.

By the same author: The Miracle at St Bruno's , and The Lion Triumphant