Review: Mariana

Mariana by Susanna Kearsley

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Susanna Kearsley is becoming my go-to for light Gothic dual-time historical fiction / romance. I don't read this type of book often, but when I need something a little different from my usual fare, I find that Kearsley's books hit the spot. There's just the right mix of history, romance, mysterious ghostliness, and an ephemeral sense of times past and present.

Even though the format of Kearsley's books remain similar to each other with the time-slip discovery narrative, the situations that are explored in both time periods are still unique. The similarity is familiar and comforting enough that I'm actually hoping for it when I pick one up, but I also wouldn't recommend reading them back-to-back.

Mariana was the book that launched Kearsley's career, so it wasn't as good as the later ones I've read, but still very good for a debut novel. The time-slip aspect is almost exactly like the one in A Winter Sea, but this was not as polished or satisfying. Both time periods could have used - something - more to make them more compelling. And the present-day romance was not as good as it could have been, and not well tied into the earlier timeline.

Still, it did hit that spot with the dreamy, ghostly echoes of the past trying to make itself heard in the present.



View all my reviews