Monday 1 October 2012

Review - The Legacy by Jill Rowan

A time-travelling page-turning wonder.

Fallady is an orphan raised in a children's home with her brothers and sisters. She is approached by the solicitor, on behalf of the lady who used to run and own the children's home, who has left her house to Fallady in her will.

All that is required of her is that she must live in the house for two years before it is totally hers. What could possibly go wrong?

When she comes downstairs the morning after she moved in, she finds that she has a cook and a gardener. These are actually two inherited household ghosts. Her search for answers to where these trapped souls have come from unearth the most amazing encounter she could possibly experience when she finds herself literally thrown into the 18th century.  There she meets Walter who saw her fall from the sky before his very eyes. Stuck in the past with no known way to get back to the present, she makes the most of being there and falls in love with Walter and knows he is her soul mate.  She has to make an excrutiating decision which is to choose between love and sacrifice.

This was an absolutely outstanding book about the love of a lifetime, true romance and time travel. If someone had asked me whether I would have wanted to read a book with this subject, I would have said "sorry, but it's really not my thing". However, I was totally surprised and I really cannot put into words just how much I loved this book.

The character of Fallady was purely wonderful. I felt every single one of her emotions as she walked into this house for the first time that was to become her home. I felt every single one of her emotions when she was transported back in time to the 18th century and met and fell in love with Walter and how she was beside herself with grief at the thought of not being with him. Walter again was a superb character and I really felt like I knew them both very well.

At one point when Fallady read a letter that Walter had sent her I found myself a total emotional wreck.

This book was absolutely delightful. I could not stop thinking about the characters during the day when I was away from the book. I could totally see the mill that she had inherited and could picture both scenes from the past and the present in incredibly colourful detail from the way that Jill Rowan described them so brilliantly. I found myself wishing that I was the character of Fallady and imagining how it would feel to be her!

This book is an extremely delightful insight into the 18th century and their ways and made me realise how very privileged we are today. I learned a lot from this book as well as enjoyed it. 

I'm really not one for reading historical novels. Or should I say I wasn't! I could not put this book down.  I think I've been converted!

Perhaps time travel is a new genre which I will be reading in the future. Or maybe in the past!

Jill Rowan was born in Hertfordshire, England, but now lives in the Shropshire countryside. She gave up a career in accounts to pursue her passion for writing. She has both a BA and a BSc. from the Open University, is a keen photographer and also enjoys natural history, walking, cycling, travel, and endless amounts of reading.
 
 
 
 
 

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