Just Finished Reading The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsely

Susanna Kearsely writes historical romance novels, a genre I've previously avoided.  Her The Winter Sea came out in 2008, three hundred years after the events she covered in it.  Back in 1708, hopes for the reestablishment of Scottish independence from England were dashed when the attempted landing of James, son of the former King James of England and Scotland, was aborted.  What happened way back then, and why is it that novelist Carrie McClelland, who is the story's main protagonist, seems to have a special link to one of the figures from that time...a young woman named Sophia Paterson?  Carrie has writer's block as she researches the above historical scenario for her new romance novel and moves to the Scottish coastline around gloomy Slain's Castle, the site of young James' intended invasion, to gain inspiration and break out of her rut.  In the process she discovers a "genetic memory" tying herself to Sophia, who turns out to be a distant ancestor.  And so is laid out the basic structure of this story, with the narrative of 2008/Carrie and her personal life toggling back and forth with that of 1708/Sophia and her personal life.  Of course, if you're one who tends to think that simply sharing some DNA code with a distant ancestor will impart their life's memories to you is an extremely absurd notion, you just might have some issues with this tale's credibility.  But that's okay with me, because after all, it's just a story and let's not get too serious about it all...

In the final analysis...in spite of the genetic memory nonsense...I found myself enjoying this novel.  Sure, it had its romance aspect...not something I'm particularly inclined toward with my reading interests.  But the characters were interesting and I did learn some things about history in the process.  The one major problem I had was a decision that Sophia made toward the story's end that I thought was extremely insensitive and which ran completely contrary to the compelling character that Kearsely had created for her.  But since describing this in more detail would be giving away too much of the ending, I had better leave that to you, the potential reader, to find out for yourself.  In any event, The Winter Sea was a pretty decent story...looks like I may be trying out another one of Susanna Kearsely's books down the road...