In the early 1900s, in the elegant, isolated villa Il Piacere, the playwright Galeazzo D’Ascanio lived for Celia Sands. She was his muse and his mistress, his most enduring obsession. And she was the inspiration for his most stunning and original play. But the night before she was to take the stage in the leading role, Celia disappeared. Now, decades later, in a theatre on the grounds of Il Piacere, Alessandro D’Ascanio is preparing to stage the first performance of his grandfather’s masterpiece. A promising young actress – who shares Celia Sands’ name, but not her blood – has agreed to star. She is instantly drawn to the mysteries surrounding the play – and to her compelling, compassionate employer. And even though she knows she should let the past go, in the dark – in her dreams – it comes back.

Sourcebooks Landmark has been reissuing Susanna Kearsley’s older books with new, gorgeous covers, and I wholeheartedly approve. Let’s take a moment to appreciate the beauty of these books:

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But back to Season of Storms. Originally published in 2001, Season of Storms mostly holds up, although (as the author acknowledges in a preface to the new edition), old technology makes certain passages and exchanges feel clunky. Still, the emotions and connections have a timeless quality to them that makes the plot work, more or less, despite the occasional awkwardness. (Remember using someone else’s computer to send an email, then getting the response printed out on a piece of paper courtesy of the computer owner? And don’t even get me started on the whole telephone issue…)

The book is much more about modern-day Celia Sands than her predecessor, whom we know only through her portraits and through the stories that have come down over the years about her mysterious disappearance. Our Celia is a bit of a blank, to be honest. She’s a 20-something aspiring actress, having very limited stage success in tiny roles, supporting herself as a waitress, and realizing that her funds are about to run out, when she’s offered the role of a lifetime, taking on the lead role in the play that the original Celia never got a chance to perform. Off our Celia goes to a lovely Italian villa, with cast members, the director, a few shady characters, and the dreamy grandson of the playwright. Gee, where is this going?

What I liked: Quite a bit, actually. Susanna Kearsley simply excels at creating a feeling of gothic romance among lush and beautiful settings, mixing in a sense of menace and otherworldly threat with the more mundane stories of people finding their way and working through their pains and sorrows. The setting in the Italian countryside evokes a luxurious time gone by, an air of mystery, and a sense of being removed from the real world. The concept of family here is very au courant: Celia’s mother is a self-centered actress with no moral compass. Celia instead was mostly raised by Rupert and Bryan, a gay couple who provided her with stability, love, and responsible role models during her mother’s self-absorbed absences and misadventures. In Season of Storms, family is where you find it — the people, regardless of blood or legality, who take you in and nurture you unconditionally.

What I didn’t like quite so much: This book, at 500+ pages, is slow and long. The first half is mostly the set-up, and it takes far too long to get to the heart of the romance, the mystery, and the adventure. Celia’s character is not well enough defined for us to really care all that much about her. I never felt a connection with her character — I knew about events in her life, but in the current drama, didn’t get a true sense of how she would feel or why. Additionally, her acting chops aren’t really established. Apparently, she’s brilliant on stage, but I found this hard to believe.

But back to the plus side: Once we finally get to the mystery in the latter half of the book, it’s quite good. There’s intrigue, red herrings, and danger. The resolution to certain parts of the mystery were truly a surprise. Also to the good: The secondary characters are all nicely drawn, with interesting lives and quirks, all unique but not too far-fetched, with personalities that stand out, are believable, and quite enjoyable.

Overall, as with all of Susanna Kearsley’s books, I enjoyed Season of Storms and was glad to have read it. It’s not her strongest, and I felt it suffered by the lack of truly interesting people in the two lead romantic roles. Still, for atmospheric romance with a touch of doomed longing, it’s hard to beat a Susanna Kearsley novel. I’d still recommend Marianna or The Winter Sea as better starting points for newbies — but for the author’s fans, Season of Storms is yet another must-read.

If you’re interested in learning more about this author’s works, check out my reviews of some of her other books:
Mariana
The Firebird
Shadowy Horses
The Splendour Falls

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The details:

Title: Season of Storms
Author: Susanna Kearsley
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication date: Originally published 2001; reissued September 2, 2014
Length: 504 pages
Genre: Romantic fiction
Source: Purchased

Book Review: The Splendour Falls by Susanna Kearsley

Emily Braden has lost her faith in romantic love and fairy tale endings, but she does love a good story. When her cousin Harry, a renowned historian who tends to be a bit flaky when it comes to reliability, invites her to accompany him on a research trip, she’s hesitant to accept. But clearly, everyone else in her family thinks she needs a bit of excitement, so she reluctantly agrees to meet him in Chinon, France — for a trip that turns out to be the opposite of routine or ordinary.

Centuries earlier, young Queen Isabelle was besieged at the Chinon chateau by enemies of her husband King John, and rumor has it that Isabelle’s treasure is still hidden somewhere within the tunnels under the town. Not only that, but in the more recent history of World War II, a second treasure was supposedly hidden after an ill-fated romance ended in tragedy. Now the myths surrounding both treasures impact Chinon’s townspeople as well as the tourists staying at Emily’s hotel — and an accidental death just may turn out to be a clue in some sinister happenings, all of which tie back to the history of Chinon itself.

The Splendour Falls was originally published in 1995, and was just reissued this month with a beautiful new cover to match the author’s most recent books. I’m a big fan of Susanna Kearsley, and I rank her novels The Winter Sea, The Rose Garden, and The Firebird among my favorite books.

Sadly, while interesting, The Splendour Falls just isn’t in the same league as some of these others. The plot of The Splendour Falls has a meandering feel to it. Things happen, and Emily is carried along by plans and events, but it’s not until quite late in the book that the plot takes on any sense of urgency. At that point, the book shifts gears and becomes a mystery, with danger lurking around every corner and Emily’s life possibly on the line. But until then, we just follow Emily on her travels, as she meets other hotel guests, explores Chinon, and wonders about what’s going on in everyone else’s life.

Emily herself is a bit of a cipher. We know she’s 29, that she’s lost her trust in the permanence of love and marriage after her parents’ divorce, and that she’s afraid of caves and enclosed spaces. What does she do for a living? Well, something with her family’s business, but it’s not clear what (and doesn’t seem important). No career interests or passions are ever mentioned.

There’s a love story in The Splendour Falls, but I didn’t find it convincing in the slightest. We know who Emily’s love interest is because she describes her first sight of him in quite epic tones, but she barely spends any time with the guy and I didn’t get a sense of any true chemistry between the two — certainly no more of a connection than Emily has with any of the other hotel residents whom she befriends.

The Splendour Falls does boast a beautiful sense of place. The town of Chinon is intricately described, so that I felt the narrow, winding streets and dramatic views really lived and breathed in the pages of the book. More than anything, reading The Splendour Falls made me desperately want to book a trip to the Loire Valley, stat!

It’s disappointing when a book by a beloved author doesn’t live up to expectations. In this case, I’m reminding myself that The Splendour Falls is actually from much earlier in the author’s career, and perhaps that’s why it doesn’t have the romantic magic or sweeping grandeur of her later books. I’m still glad to have read it — but for anyone looking for a first experience with Susanna Kearsley’s beautiful writing, I’d recommend starting elsewhere.

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The details:

Title: The Splendour Falls
Author: Susanna Kearsley
Publisher: Sourcebooks Landmark
Publication date: January 14, 2014 (originally published 1995)
Length: 384 pages
Genre: Adult contemporary
Source: Purchased