Rate this book

Island House (2012)

by Posie Graeme-Evans(Favorite Author)

3.56 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1922052256 (ISBN13: 9781922052254)

languge

English

genre

Romance

publisher

Simon & Schuster Australia

review 1: I found this book challenging at first; it took me three attempts at it to get beyond the first couple of chapters, but once I got used to the time-switching of chapters, and began to learn more about the two female leads, I relaxed into the story. The author’s ability to vividly describe a setting, giving a comprehensive description of the sights, sounds, and feel of a scene, is quite captivating.As we follow Freya Dane’s journey to get to know her absent father, through his work as a fellow archaeologist, the story is woven with mystical visions which are – with an open mind – believable given the island’s emotive setting, rich with shadows from a past where the Pagan, Christian and Viking histories run deep in its heritage.The Island House has been written –... more or, more likely, edited – so that each page is filled with words that add value to the pace and setting of the story, and, while this holds the reader’s attention, we are often left with no space for character development. I found that, with the exception of Freya, Signy, and Bear, the other characters felt very ‘flat’; their personalities had been muted, or edited out. For example, Daniel Boyne went from a broody, emotionally damaged introvert to a romantic hero with no indication of how he got there. And Simon went from being an attractive, easy going potential sexual encounter to a treasure-hungry intruder – again with no real insight into how the change came about. I also feel that the bitterness within Robert Buchannan was woefully under-developed, he could have added such a villainous edge to the drama.That said, once I was into the novel, it held my attention and I enjoyed the read, the characters, and the conclusion.
review 2: Archeologist Freya Dane arrives on the desolate Scottish island of Findnar. She hopes to carry on the work here of her recently deceased father, also an archeologist, and from whom she was estranged, although he willed her the island he owned.Freya would love to finish what he began, as well as perhaps get a better idea of why her father abandoned both her and her mother, to finish out his life on this uninhabited island. As the story progresses, Freya finds her actions and those of the people around her to be impelled by a force they don't understand.Meanwhile she finds out more about the history of the island than he father was able to. That history goes back to 800AD, where Signy, a Pictish girl loses her whole family in a Viking raid. Although she falls in love with a Viking boy left behind in the confusion after the raid, she renounces him to adopt the newly arrived Christian religion, and eventually becomes a nun. But when the Vikings return, things come to a violent head. In the aftermath, the island is left deserted, and its secrets will remain until Freya uncovers them.The more Freya and her associates discover about this past story, the more they discover about their own... less

Download links for: Island House

Advertising