Category: Fiction

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.

A perfect sequel to The Kadin, the story of Janet Leslies descendants is just as compelling as her own. This follows the life of Catriona Hay and her cousin Patrick Leslie, the earl of Glenkirk, who were matched to marry by their great grandmother while they were both still children. Although Janet planned the marriage with the best of intentions, it started off incredibly rocky and almost didn’t happen at all. After resolving their differences and coming to an agreement before their marriage, the earl and countess had several years of happiness. Unfortunately, everything they built over the years began to fall apart after several unfortunate incidents including an unwanted affair, betrayal, and a lack of trust and respect. Things work out for the best for both of the Leslies of Glenkirk in the end, but there are many years of turmoil, pain, and misery before either of them become truly happy. 

I loved this book and would read it again but there was one thing that really bothered me. It had to do with the dates in which certain events happened. The death of an important character occurs in the spring of 1599 in Love Wild and Fair. However, in another book, Lost Love Found, this same character is still alive in the year 1602. I think that at the time when Mrs. Small was writing Love Wild and Fair, she did not yet know that she would be writing another book involving some of the same characters 11 years later. I will forgive her for this, but it will always irritate me. I will not tell you to not read this book because of that, because if I did you would be missing out on an incredible story.

Last week I said that I needed to read something a bit more educational, but I ended up going away over the weekend and I could not concetrate on a nonficiton book. So I went ahead and read the next Bertrice Small book on my list, The Kadin.

This book was amazing! The life long tale that is The Kadin begins in Scotland with a young, illegitimate Janet Leslie being taken in by her father as his wife’s deathbed wish. Briefly, we see them at Scotlands court before being sent to San Lorenzo where her father has been asked to be the king’s ambassador. It is here that Janet is captured and sold as a slave and thus begins her decades long life as Cyra, the great love of prince Selim and the eventual sultan of Turkey. As the princes’ favorite, she holds a position of respect and influence in his harem. When she becomes mother to the princes’ heir she gains even more esteem. And as mother of the future sultan, she will eventually become the second most powerful person in the kingdom. She never lets any of this go to her head, she rules over everyone with fairness and wisdom. I loved that the majority of the story took place in the East. Due to conflict Cyra was forced to return to Scotland where she is reunited with the family that never forgot her. 

The book ends when Janet has peacefully passed away as an old woman and it leads into the sequel which follows her legacy. I am very excited to read the next book in this two part series, I actually had to tell myself that it was necessary for me to write this review before I started the next book or I would never get it done. I finished this over four hundred page book with incredible speed and I imagine that if the sequel is as good as The Kadin I will finish it just as quickly, so you can look forward to my review of Love Wild and Fair next week.

I forgot to mention on Friday last week how very proud I am of myself for getting a bonus review out to you after letting on that I might the Tuesday before. It has made me eager to write more of them this year because it made me feel so accomplished. For anyone reading this, I am happy to have caught your attention and I hope you stick around. Now, onto this weeks review.

This book takes place during my favorite historical romance time period, that being the mid 15th century to mid 17th century, as well as taking place in my favorite countries to read about, England, Scotland, and France. It’s romantic, frustrating, brutal, tragic, and promising. The plot is full of border disputes, bride stealing, political power struggles, various types of seduction, and blossoming love, all of which centers around English heiress Arabella Grey and Scottish earl Tavis Stewart and their various allies and adversaries. I enjoyed the book as a whole, but I feel like the end was a little rushed. I always want more when I read a great book, and I mean, who doesn’t, but when I was getting to the last few pages I was wondering how everything was going to get wrapped up. This always gives me readers anxiety, and I was feeling it to the extreme here. It was done well, but still, I wanted a little bit more, I wanted to get more of the characters. 

I have found a mild solution to my hunger for more of this story in another one of  Bertrice Smalls books, The Kadin. This novel follows the story of Janet Leslie, who was briefly introduced in The Spitfire when Tavis traveled to Glenkirk to try and convince the current lord to go and see the king. And on the plus side of having another novel with similar characters in the same time period, it is not a stand alone, it does have a sequel. I do think I need to take a break from my romance and spice binge and read something more educational, but once I have at least read one non fiction book I will not be able to resist discovering what happens to the young Leslie girl.