Books - Book Review - The Winter Sea - Susanna Kearsley

Review Copy - Courtesy of Sourcebooks.com

Carrie McClelland, a Canadian historical fiction writer, is working on her newest book about the attempt of James Stewart trying to regain his throne in Scotland in the early 1700s. Carrie went to France, where the King and his entourage were in exile, to learn more about this king and to be inspired. However, she was getting writer's block.

She took a quick trip to northeastern Scotland, to visit her agent and to meet her agent's baby.

While there, she runs into Slains, a castle where some of the planning to return King James to Scotland took place.

Carrie takes her agent's advice and starts to write the novel through a woman's viewpoint and starts dreaming of things that really happened. She writes as though possessed.

This novel switches from the present day to the 1700s. I liked reading about the writing process, how even being in an very inspiring place can lead to no writing.

Carrie follows her instinct and the story starts to write itself.

I learned a lot about this period of history and I enjoyed Kearsley's writing style and how she set up the novel.

One place sounded familiar: Kirkcudbright. I started looking at the atlas and found out that I probably saw the name on the bus ride that I took from the Dumfries to Newton-Stewart, on my way to Wigtown, Scotland. It was cool to read about a place that I actually saw!

I read this novel as quickly as I could. I really wanted to find out about King James and the roles that Carrie's characters played in this historical event.