The first book I read by Sarah Maine was THE HOUSE BETWEEN TIDES and I was blown away
by the wonderful story and the atmospheric setting. I was eager to find
out if WOMEN OF THE DUNES
would be as good. And it was!
To be able to effortlessly write a book with three different storylines
without confusing or making any of the storylines less interesting than
the others is a gift and I think that Sarah Maine has this gift. I'm so
used to dual storylines that getting one with three storylines feels like
an oddity, in a good way.
First, we have the present-day story with Libby Snow, an archaeologist,
who has been intrigued by the legend of Ulla since she was a small
child and staying with her grandmother in Newfoundland. When she
gets the chance to travel to Ullanessm, the Scottish Island where it is
said that Ulla was washed ashore according to legends, she is thrilled.
What she didn't expect to find on the Island is a body from the
Victorian era. Who has been buried there and why? As the story
progresses, two more stories are also told: the real story of Ulla, as well
as the story set in the nineteenth-century with young Ellen, caught
between two brothers, one who she has always loved and one who just
want to ruin her for his own pleasure.
WOMEN OF THE DUNES made me
feel like I was in Scotland. I was with Ulla when she washed ashore and
all that what happened to her next. I was also with Ellen when she
desperately tried to avoid the clutches of a man that has no good in his
heart while she dreamed about a future with the man she loved. And, I
was with Libby as she tries to find out the truth about the body in the
dunes. I loved how the legend of Ulla that Libby knows has some grain
of truth, but at the same time is far from it.
It's such a wonderful book and I'm glad that I haven't read BEYOND
THE WILD RIVER, another book by Sarah Maine. I'm so looking forward
to reading that one and future books by Sarah Maine.
From the author of the acclaimed novels The House Between
Tides and Beyond the Wild River, a rich,
atmospheric tale set on the sea-lashed coast of west
Scotland, in which the lives of a ninth-century Norsewoman,
a nineteenth-century woman, and a twenty-first-century
archeologist weave together after a body is discovered in
the dunes.
Libby Snow has always felt the pull of
Ullanessm a lush Scottish island enshrouded in myth and
deeply important to her family. Her great-great-grandmother
Ellen was obsessed with the strange legend of Ulla, a Viking
maiden who washed up on shore with the nearly lifeless body
of her husband—and who inspired countless epic poems and the
island\'s name.
Central to the mystery is an ornate
chalice and Libby, an archaeologist, finally has permission
to excavate the site where Ulla is believed to have lived.
But what Libby finds in the ancient dunes is a body from the
Victorian era, clearly murdered…and potentially connected to
Ellen.
What unfolds is an epic story that spans
centuries, with Libby mining Ellen and Ulla\'s stories for
clues about the body, and in doing so, discovering the
darker threads that bind all three women together across
history.
Infused with Sarah Maine\'s signature
\"meticulous research and descriptive passages of lush,
beautiful landscapes\" (Publishers Weekly), Women
of the Dunes is a beautifully told and compelling
mystery for fans of Kate Morton and Beatriz Williams.
© 2003-2024 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy