Sailing in a Sea of Words

Book: The Splendour Falls

Author: Susanna Kearsley

Genre: Fiction/Mystery/Romance

Summary: Emily Braden has stopped believing in fairy tales and happy endings. When her fascinating but unreliable cousin Harry invites her on a holiday to explore the legendary town of Chinon, and promptly disappears - well, that's Harry for you. As Emily makes the acquaintance of Chinon and its people, she begins to uncover dark secrets beneath the charm. Legend has it that during a thirteenth-century siege of the castle that looms over the city, Queen Isabelle, child bride of King John, hid a "treasure of great price." And in the last days of the German occupation during World War II, another Isabelle lived at Chinon, a girl whose love for an enemy soldier went tragically awry. As the dangers of the past become disastrously real, Emily is drawn ever more deeply into a labyrinth of mystery as twisted as the streets and tunnels of the ancient town itself. -Sourcebooks, 1995

I cannot even begin to describe how much I loved this book. The summary was charming enough to enchant me, but the story itself was enthralling.

Emily decides to go with her cousin to Chinon to take a holiday from the life she's lived in lately. She arrives separately from her cousin and while she waits for him, she endears herself to the other travelers and the land she lives in. When her cousin fails to appear, she begins to think something has gone wrong and finds that the quaint village she's been in has a dark side as well.

Kearsley writes beautifully. I can't say that enough. Not only is her plot deep, intriguing, and captivating, but her characters are all wonderfully crafted. Every single one is memorable, quirky, and fun in their own ways. I yearned to be with them and at one point, I even cried over one event in the story - that's how powerful Kearsley's writing was to me.

I was sucked in from the first page to the last, and I was left yearning for more - a sequel would be wonderful, but I'm equally satisfied with what I read. I'll definitely be reading this one more than once.

The only fault that I could find with it was that she left Emily's past troubles in the dark and never fully explains them. It's a small fault though, and it doesn't bother me enough to affect my rating for the book.

I have more books by Kearsley in my list of books to read and I'm more than excited to read another one.

I give The Splendour Falls an A+.

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