Out of all the O’Malley saga books, this one, the fifth one, might be my favorite. It has the least amount of spice, but I find the story incredibly romantic. We are introduced to the eldest daughter of Skye’s youngest brother, Valentina. Unbeknownst to Valentina, her mother Aiden spent some time in the East as a slave and found herself pregnant shortly after being rescued. She had been with three men in a very short period of time, so she was never able to say for sure which one of them was Valentina’s father. Valentina discovers this decades old secret and claims that she must find out who her real father is, and that the only way to do so is to go to these foreign lands and question the friends and family of these men.
While this adventure is exciting and mysterious, the romance I mentioned involves Valentina finding the love of her life. After her very short and loveless first marriage, she is determined to not marry again unless she is in love. On top of that, Valentina refuses to even consider a second husband until she has journeyed to the East to try to unravel the mystery of her birth. She has many admirers as a young widow before she even learns that the man who has raised her might not be her birth father, but the two most persistent suitors turn out to be her cousin Padraic, Skye’s youngest son, and a very good friend of his, Thomas Ashburne.
I think I like this story so much because there is a message, it’s about seeing what is right in front of you, but in a new light, and you see this theme expressed in several different ways and between several different characters.
Nonfiction and Nonsense 