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Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The Girl in the Castle by Santa Montefiore



Set in the 1900s in an Anglo Irish aristocratic family, Kitty is certainly different to the other members of her family. She associates with the estate workers, visiting their homes, true it is surreptitious and always hidden from her mother and sisters. She is more akin to her grandmother whom her mother dislikes. Her mother seems to dislike everyone but she has a special venom towards Kitty and she makes no bones about it.

The story of being fey, of having the second sight is very well put in this story. Both Kitty and her grandmother have it but they do not want it known or spoken about though a few people do realise. They know they are the odd ones out and now Kitty has to live her life, maneuver her way around an ineffective father, a domineering mother and an economic lifestyle which will not support them anymore.

The people of Ireland are rebelling as well and Kitty is caught in the middle. She is siding with the rebels against her own, as her heart and mind are on the sides of the Irish but where this will lead her is the main crux of the story.

The history of the beginnings of the Irish Anglo conflict set against Kitty's own personal turmoil and the history of the Deverill family combines the best of fiction and history. Characterization is superb and the story well told.

Sent to me by Edelweiss.

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