Book Review: The Firebird by Susana Kearsley

Veronica has been a huge fan of Susanna Kearsley for some time now, so when Good Reads and Simon & Schuster were doing a giveaway for her new book, The Firebird, we crossed all our crossables and hoped we would be one of the lucky few to receive an advance readers copy. Surprisingly enough, Ashley was the big winner this time around (usually Veronica has all the luck) and we were able to check out this new book.


Veronica:
The lovely and generous Ashley lent me her ARC of The Firebird to read cause I love Susanna Kearsley and simply couldn't wait for it to be released. Ashley won this on Goodreads courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

I basically devoured this from cover to cover, not wanting to put it down. My recommendation for anyone unfamiliar with Ms. Kearsley's novels is to actually read The Winter Sea first then dive into The Firebird. Trust me, you'll thank me if you do.

The Firebird is a clever, thoroughly researched and detailed novel about Nicola Marter, a young woman who has an ability to "see" things but struggles with appearing normal and keeps psychometry a secret.

And then we have Rob McMorran (we first met him in The Shadowy Horses, good to read before but not necessary to this storyline), whose psychometry skills are honed. Rob embraces who he is and fully accepts his abilities.

As with all of Ms. Kearsley's novels, she expertly weaves 2 tales into one vastly entertaining read. Nicola and Rob embark on a trip to follow Anna, the girl who owned the the Firebird in hopes of finding it's authenticity. What they found instead was each other.

As always, I find myself drawn more to the past than the current. Ms. Kearsley's prose and skillful ability of weaving actual historical events and shaping them into a wonderful novel makes me wish I'd paid more attention in History class.

Ashley:
It would seem that Susanna Kearsley is quickly climbing up my list of favourite authors. I love how she writes and blends historical non fiction with modern day fiction and weaves it all together into these layered, lovely stories.

I'm so glad that Veronica insisted I read the Winter Sea before this, though. It made the characters that much richer and having loved the Winter Sea as I did, it was exciting to see how those characters stories continued.

As I said, I admire Kersley's ability to break up the historical fiction with a modern day story, this time focusing on Nicola and Rob. That is my only complaint this time, I much preferred the flashback story of Anna and the characters from the Winter Sea than the present day adventure of Nicola and Rob. I didn't care much about their relationship and while their 'gifts' provided the ability to see the story of the past, I thought mixing a supernatural-like component was a bit too much on top of everything else.

That aside, it was certainly a great read and I'll be reaching out to take in the rest of Kersley's work as soon as I can get my hands on them.

City Girl Rating: 4 out of 5 glasses of wine.

The Firebird was released yesterday, April 30, and is available everywhere books are.