The O’Malley saga is what I consider to be Bertrice Small’s greatest collection of stories, and the first book in the series is titled after the incredible woman herself. We are taken on the amazing adventure that is Skye’s life beginning in Ireland in the mid 16th century where we are introduced to her and her large family headed by her pirating giant of a father. Described later on as a woman who is always in love, we see the tragedy of her experiencing love at first sight, that love being reciprocated, and her unfortunately being married to another man. A great deal of this first book narrates the ill-fated circumstances of Skye and Niall and how the very universe itself seems to be keeping them apart. When you aren’t despairing over the unfairness of these two being kept apart we sail with Skye as she takes over the family business after the unexpected death of her father. After a huge turn of events, we follow her to Algiers where she lives for many months, and eventually we make our way to England where she finds herself being welcomed into the elegant court of Queen Elizabeth the first.
Even though I have read this book and the others that follow it many times, I knew I couldn’t have a book blog and not include these stories in it. I could read any one of the Skye O’Malley books in a few days, although I am certain they are meant to take much longer than that to read. If you love historical romance you cannot neglect to include these books in your collection. Add Skye O’Malley to your list, and pick up the sequel, All The Sweet Tomorrows, because I guarantee that once you finish reading the first book you are going to be dying to know more about this woman and people surrounding her.
I am also going to add a picture here so you can see what you are getting yourself into. If you love the scenes that romance novels are famous for, you will be getting your money’s worth here. I marked down all of the scenes worthy of noting, I definitely did not mark all of the scenes, and it is a lot! I think out of all the books this one probably has the most scenes, so if you read and end up finding it excessive, I believe after the next book things slow down.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 