Book Review - Toward the Sea of Freedom (The Sea of Freedom Trilogy Book 1) by Sarah Lark, by L. A. Keller
I selected this book based on a recommendation. It is not a mystery but more of a historical
romance. I hesitate to classify it totally as romance because there is a touch
of women's fiction involved as well.
This is the first book I have read by this author and likely
will be the last. My reason is due to
the characters, not the writing. This book received more than 500 almost five
star reviews on Amazon. This review include spoilers so be forewarned.
Here is the book description:
In
mid-nineteenth-century Ireland, charming Kathleen and dashing Michael harbor
secrets and dreams. Imagining a life beyond the kitchen and fields of the
wealthy family they both work for, they plot to leave their homeland, marry,
and raise the child Kathleen is secretly carrying. The luck of the Irish,
however, is not on their side.
Soon, they find
themselves swept up in circumstances they never could have fathomed. Kathleen
is forced to marry against her will and immigrate to New Zealand. Michael is
imprisoned for rebellion and exiled to Australia. As time passes and their new
lives march on, they long for those stolen moments in the lush green fields of
their native land. And they both still dream of escape, with no idea of how
close fate will eventually bring them.
The stunning Mary Kathleen is a ‘good girl’ who falls in
love during the famine in Ireland. The exceedingly handsome Michael comes from
a bad family and Kathleen’s father doesn’t approve. Despite knowing she shouldn’t
be intimate with Michael before marriage due to her religion, she is swept away
by his promises and their love. When she
finds she is pregnant Michael vows to get money by any means for them to sail
to America. This poor decision will set
the course for the next twenty years of their lives.
When Michael is shipped off to a penal colony in Australia
Kathleen marries Ian Coltrane, who takes her to live in New Zealand where he
plans to make his fortune. Ultimately,
Ian is a swindler and wife beater. His jealousy keeps Kathleen from having
friends and isolates her on a small farm which he leaves her to tend.
Around page 85 we meet a new character, Lizzie. Lizzie is a
prostitute forced to steal to make ends meet for herself, her girlfriend and
her girlfriend’s two children of whom Lizzie is very fond. Lizzie is described as attractive when she
smiles but otherwise rather bland. I liked this line about Lizzie, “Lizzie
Owens would have liked to be a good girl.” Unfortunately for her, she needed to
eat and have a place to sleep.
When Lizzie is caught stealing pastries she sentenced to serve
her time on the penal colony. By luck a few male prisoners, Michael included,
are put on the same ship and when illness breaks out at sea, Lizzie volunteers
to tend to the sick. Predictably, she
falls in love with Michael.
Blended into Kathleen and Lizzie’s stories is the culture of
the native New Zealand tribes of the Maori who arrived from Polynesia. Some of the customs were interesting but
after a point I didn’t believe it worked in the story. I felt the natives were
too accepting of the white woman, Lizzie and too easily incorporated her into
their tribal hierarchy.
Around page 204 the story became more exciting for a few chapters.
But the author describes a giant stallion of fifteen hands which threw me out
of the story completely. Fourteen hands six is a pony. A giant stallion would be considered by most
horse people to be more than sixteen hands and closer to eighteen or nineteen
hands.
By page 311, I noted the story was dragging again. By page 450,
I was tired of the Maori words with no explanation of what they meant. By page
468, I wished one good thing would happen for Lizzie rather than a constant
repetition of her succeeding at something only to lose it again due to events
out of her control.
Meanwhile despite years of abuse, somehow Kathleen seems to
land on her feet and do well. Additionally, despite years of hard farm work she
maintains her beauty. Eventually the
character’s paths all cross leading the lovers back together. To Michael’s
surprise Kathleen is not the same docile character she once was.
Ultimately, I found this book boring, repetitious and
aggravating. It attempted to show women
as strong - overcoming adversity and making a life for themselves. But I found
them to be weak. I liked Lizzie through
parts of the book, until the ending, which made me dislike her immensely. As
for Kathleen, she lacked depth and I felt that she was portrayed too saintly,
when in reality she wasn’t a good person.
Despite my criticism, the writing was well done. I didn’t
find typos or glaring errors. I would have liked to have felt more of a
connection to at least one of the women but I didn’t.
Happy Trails,
Leslie
Comments
Post a Comment