The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley

I can not remember the last time I sat down and read a book in two days--at least not recently.  I loved this book.  I would have read it faster if there had been more hours in the day and I didn't have a life! 

The Winter Sea weaves the lives of Carrie McClelland so closely with the life of the other main character Sophia Paterson that I can imagine they are actually one person.  She challenges me to believe in DNA memories and a continual stream of consciousness across not one but multiple generations and centuries.  We all experience periods of deja vu but she makes them come alive.  I loved the way she drew parallels with the life of the 1700 Sophia and her own modern life. 

Writing good historical fiction is a challenge as someone might check the facts and find that it is just that, fiction.  When books are made into movies, this often is the case--so little of the history remains and the fiction takes over.  Reading the notes Ms Kearsley includes at the end of the book, I was happy to see she had kept as close to history as possible. Having never travelled to Scotland I felt like I knew the locale she described.  I could almost smell the sea air.  I also found it interesting that the village carries the same name as a street in our community.  Our own Rosses Point Ct. street is named after an area in Ireland and now Cruden Bay seems to be tied to Scotland.

I must confess that I agreed with Jane, her agent in the novel, that the ending had to change. I did not see the change coming until Colonel Graeme showed up. It was a delightful and very appropriate ending for Sophia but I will not discuss that further in case some have not finished the book.  I also liked the way the author brought the entire story into a neatly wrapped conclusion.  This is one book I look forward to discussing!