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    Season of Storms
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    Season of Storms
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    Season of Storms
    Ebook596 pages9 hours

    Season of Storms

    By Susanna Kearsley

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "I've loved every one of Susanna's books! She has bedrock research and a butterfly's delicate touch with characters—sure recipe for historical fiction that sucks you in and won't let go!"—DIANA GABALDON, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Outlander

    Master of intricate paranormal historical fiction, Susanna Kearsley illuminates a multi-generational Italian romance, where the theatre only scratches the surface of the drama—and the danger.

    In 1921, infamous Italian poet Galeazzo D'Ascanio wrote his last and greatest play, inspired by his romance with his muse, actress Celia Sands. But on the eve of the premiere, Celia vanished, and the play was never performed.

    Two generations later, Alessandro D'Ascanio plans to stage his grandfather's masterpiece and has offered the lead to a promising young English actress, also named Celia Sands—at the whim of her actress mother, or so she thought. When Celia arrives at D'Ascanio's magnificent, isolated Italian villa, she is drawn to the mystery of her namesake's disappearance—and to the compelling, enigmatic Alessandro.

    But the closer Celia gets to learning the fate of her predecessor, the more she is drawn into a web of murder, passion, and the obsession of genius. Though she knows she should let go of the past, in the dark, in her dreams, it comes back...

    Hints of the paranormal and the passion of the Italian stage will draw readers of Diana Gabaldon, Kate Morton, and Kate Mosse, into the romance of Susanna Kearsley's lush historical fiction.

    Also by Susanna Kearsley:

    The Winter Sea

    The Firebird

    A Desperate Fortune

    The Rose Garden

    The Shadowy Horses

    The Splendour Falls

    Named of the Dragon

    Mariana

    Bellewether

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateSep 2, 2014
    ISBN9781402258749
    Unavailable
    Season of Storms
    Author

    Susanna Kearsley

    New York Times, USA Today, and Globe and Mail bestselling author Susanna Kearsley is a former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page, often in twin-stranded stories that interweave present and past. Her award-winning novels have been published in translation in more than 25 countries. She lives near Toronto.

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    Reviews for Season of Storms

    4/5

    132 ratings14 reviews

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    • 5/5
      This is the first book I've read by Susanna Kearsley and it was everything I had hoped for. The dual narrative was very enjoyable. Although the focus was clearly on the story set in the present, I enjoyed reading about past events that had happened at each location. They added context to the present-day mystery and presented a bit of a mystery of their own. The descriptions of the Italian setting were beautiful. The location is very atmospheric and the hints of the supernatural added some spice to the story. I particularly liked learning a bit of Italian history and a bit about the process of putting on a play. Fiction that exposes me to different locations and or professions is something I always appreciate.

      The plot pacing was spot on. Something exciting was always happening, whether mystery or romance. I also loved the characters. They all were really brought to life, with their own unique personalities and interests, and I enjoyed their interactions. I was very happy to see characters resolve their misunderstandings by talking about them, instead of acting on assumptions in frustrating ways. Celia was a wonderful main character. She struck the perfect balance between confidence and insecurity, making her very relatable. Her game of assigning people roles in Shakespeare plays also endeared her to me and helped illustrate the type of people the other characters were. If this story jumps out at you as your kind of story, as it did for me, I don't think you'll be disappointed. I'd recommend it particularly to fans of Italian setting and stories with hints of the supernatural.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey.
    • 4/5
      This book, had a slow start for me. Whilst I didn't enjoy it as much as Mariana (one of my favourites) it was still a very good read and grew on me as I got further into the book. I look forward to reading more books by Susanna Kearsley.
      I felt this book was similar in style to some of Kate Morton's books.
    • 4/5
      Another old-fashioned romantic suspense novel from Kearsley, who does them so well. Unlike most of Kearsley's books, this one has little or no paranormal content.Struggling young actress Celia Sand is invited to perform the lead in a play written decades ago for her famous namesake, a play that has never been successfully performed. At first reluctant, she is persuaded to take the role by the prospect of working with her beloved godfather, Rupert, who will be directing. Once settled on the Italian estate now owned by the playwright's grandson, where the play will be performed, Celia at first feels out of her depth but soon finds her footing among the disparate personalities of the small company. Fighting an attraction to the grandson, who is involved with another--rather unpleasant--woman, she resolves to focus on the play.Not my favorite of Kearsley's works, but well worth reading.
    • 3/5
      I could definitely see that this was an earlier work of Kearsley's. I absolutely love her later work, Firebird. She has a way of talking about people's feelings about each other that rises above a misunderstanding and miscommunications, but gets at trust and love. Anyway, here there are slows and starts of pacing, repetition of the coziness of the rooms in the Italian villa, disconnection between the past storyline and the present, just many things that didn't feel fluid and effortless like her later writing. Still, it makes a good end, and was interesting enough for a short read.
    • 4/5
      Early 1900, Celia Sands, mistress of Galeazzo D'Ascanio is due to star in his play. The night before however she disappears. Decades later her namesake, Celia Sands has been asked by the grandson Alessandro to has agreed to star in the play.I really enjoy books by Susanna Kearsley because for me they have a bit of everything. This book has a little mystery, a romance, and a touch of the supernatural. I did at times think this book was slightly like an Agatha Christie novel where there is a group of people bought together in an old house and I was waiting for them to be killed of one by one. This doesn't happen however.What I love about SK books is that they are so easy to read and the reader can quickly get drawn into the characters and will want to read to the end. This story for me was a lovely read, not dark and oppressive like some thrillers, and not over the top with the supernatural element. A llovely read and I would highly recommend this author.
    • 4/5
      So, I'm really thinking I may just need to read all of Susanna Kearsley's books. I particularly enjoyed this one, with its Gothic atmosphere and the mystery which spans two time periods. Celia and Alex are wonderful main characters, with an excellent supporting cast of character surrounding them and the plot includes a few delightful twists. Fun and very enjoyable to read.
    • 3/5
      I could definitely see that this was an earlier work of Kearsley's. I absolutely love her later work, Firebird. She has a way of talking about people's feelings about each other that rises above a misunderstanding and miscommunications, but gets at trust and love. Anyway, here there are slows and starts of pacing, repetition of the coziness of the rooms in the Italian villa, disconnection between the past storyline and the present, just many things that didn't feel fluid and effortless like her later writing. Still, it makes a good end, and was interesting enough for a short read.
    • 3/5
      A quick read that doesn't have much staying power. The book promised more of a gothic mystery than it delivered. The ends were all tied up a bit too nicely in the end.
    • 3/5

      This novel is the story of Celia Sands, a young actress given the lead role in a play written by Italian poet and playright Galeazzo D'Ascanio some seventy years previously. The play - Il Prezzo - was inspired by D'Ascanio's muse and lover, an English actress also named Celia Sands. (The actresses are not related). The first Celia disappeared on the night before the play was due to have its first performance and D'Ascanio's grandson has decided to recreate the play in the outdoor theatre built in the garden of his grandfather's estate on Lake Garda.

      I really like some aspects of the novel. Kearsley writes clear, elegant prose. She's good at description and her dialogue reads well. There's a big tick for the scenes set in Venice, one of my favourite cities. There's an equally big tick for locating most of the action in a beautiful villa on Lake Garda. I've not been there, but this novel has placed going there on my to-do list. As a theatre lover, I liked the theatrical references: there's stuff about Shakespeare and about Sophocles, about stagecraft, about blocking and technical rehearsals. I also liked the division of the novel into Acts and scenes rather than chapters. It's a cute device in a novel in which theatre is central. There's also an appealing hero, a couple of very nice dogs and some attractive supporting characters.

      However, there's quite a bit on the negative side. Overall, the characterisation is flat. The hero isn't fleshed out nearly enough, the heroine / narrator is a bit young and silly and the villains are in the style of bad melodrama. There are very slight supernatural and mystery elements, which don't really go anywhere. Indeed, the mystery - such as it is - is very pedestrian. In addition, it's one of those novels in which coincidence is piled upon coincidence - to the extent that Kearsley has one of the characters comment on the inherent unlikelihood of part of the narrative. There's also some heavy-handed telegraphing of a not terribly important plot point, which had me repeatedly rolling my eyes.

      This is the third novel by Susanna Kearsley which I've read and while I like her work well enough, it seems unlikely that she'll ever blow me away. That said, if I were a novelist, I wouldn't mind being like Susanna Kearsley. She sets her books in beautiful locations and clearly spends time in those locations as part of her research. This presumably gives her a useful tax deduction, even if the novel isn't a bestseller. To me this seems like a very sound business plan for a novelist who likes to travel.

      If I didn't love the theatre and Italy, I wouldn't have enjoyed this book all that much. However, the setting, the subject matter and the fact that it's an easy, pleasant read make it worth the three star rating.

    • 4/5
      great setting (Lake Garda in the Italian alps); nice gothic tone; interesting heroine
    • 4/5
      I read this book while I had a bad cold and needed a good, comforting read to carry me over. Season of Storms was just the kind of book that got me through that. The historical element of this book is not as strong as in, say Mariana or Sophia’s Secret, and the “mystery” that takes place in the past is a little predictable, but the modern-day story more than made up for that. There’s a mystery and some ghosts in the modern-day story, and I really enjoyed the suspense and the hint of something supernatural that seems to haunt the second Celia. The characters of this book are also well-formed and fully realized, although the second Celia seemed a lot older than her twenty-two years sometimes.I was also fully able to appreciate the setting of this novel, too—I went to Italy in 2004, and one of the places I visited was Lake Garda and the town of Sirmione. Both are just as beautiful in real life as they’re described in this novel.
    • 4/5
      Spooky, an unemployed actress goes to a large manor house and strange things happen
    • 3/5
      Celia gets her first leading role in a play to be rehearsed and performed at the late-playwright’s Italian estate.I liked the vivid sense of place, and the unexpectedly positive relationships which develop between some of the characters, and the Gothic edge of tension running through everything -- although I was a bit uneasy, wondering if, this time, Kearsley would take the supernatural element in a direction I didn’t like (She didn’t, but I kept wondering).I also loved the slowly growing connection and attraction between Celia and [spoilers]. I would have been perfectly satisfied if the story had continued in that vein and left one convinced that these two people were going to get together soon. Instead, their relationship felt rushed or like there was an important scene missing. Combined with a very unnecessary death, my earlier enjoyment was muted. A bit disappointing, but I don’t regret having read it.
    • 3/5
      quite interesting mystery novel. I liked the author's style very much, it was more her writing than the actual mystery (or its solution) that kept me turning the pages.