On Susanna Kearsley: gleanings and the value of them
Earlier this year, I read The Deadly Hours – well 2 of the stories in it anyway – which featured Weapon of Choice by Susanna Kearsley. The POV character is Hugh, who was the male lead in A Desperate Fortune. Hugh and Mary are most prominently featured but there are 2 other couples who appear to one degree or another as well – Anna and Edmund from The Firebird and Daniel and Eva from The Rose Garden (reviewed here by Sunita).
The story itself is a self-contained little mystery (all the novellas in the anthology are linked together by a cursed watch – La Sirene) and some fabulous development of the romance between Hugh and Mary.
It sent me down a Kearsley re-read rabbit hole. I started with A Desperate Fortune and then went on to re-read The Rose Garden. It’s that book I most want to talk about.
For those who don’t know, Kearsley writes historical fiction, often with a contemporary timeline as well, sometimes involving the supernatural (telemetry, ESP, time travel, reincarnation) with romantic elements complete with a HEA (often more than one in fact). Her full-length novels are written in the first person from the perspective of the female lead or lead characters and the heroine’s journey is often a bigger part of the story than the romance. Certainly, the historical aspects of the books are more prominently featured.
I am a dyed-in-the-wool romance reader. The Rose Garden was my very first Kearsley. The first time I read it, I didn’t really understand that Kearsley does not write genre romance and I approached the book in much the same way I approach any historical, PNR or contemporary romance; expecting the major focus to be on the romantic relationship. I remember enjoying the book but commented at the time that I felt the romance was a bit light on. I’ve read The Rose Garden 3 or 4 times now and I’ve come to realise that I wasn’t reading it right that first time.
Before I continue, I’ll mention a bit about the story: Eva Ward comes to Cornwall and to Trelowarth, a big house outside the fictional town of Polgelly on the Southern Coast of England, to scatter the ashes of her beloved sister. When they were young, the family summered there with friends, the Hallett family. Now all grown up, Mark Hallett has taken over Trelowarth Roses, assisted by his sister Susan and their stepmother, Claire. Eva is lost after the death of her sister. She has no other family and no close ties to anywhere else. She decides to spend the summer at Trelowarth while she decides what and where is next for her.
At Trelowarth she notices a number of strange things occurring; voices of people who aren’t there, paths which appear and reappear and before long, she finds herself 300 years in the past, just prior to the Jacobite rebellion of 1715. There she meets Daniel Butler, one of a pair of smuggling brothers who are loyal to King James. In 1715 there is also an evil Constable with a grudge against the Butlers and as the summer progresses and the rebellion approaches the specter of treason charges against Daniel looms larger.
Eva has no control over when she travels in time, in either direction. (During some of her visits to 1715 she doesn’t see Daniel at all.)
In 2015, Eva helps the Hallett family set up tea rooms to boost their income (Trelowarth Roses is in financial trouble) and gives Mark an assist with a romance of his own and in 1715, Eva falls in love. Can Eva and Daniel have a meaningful life if she keeps disappearing on him at random? Will he be able to outwit the Constable? Where does Eva belong? When does Eva belong?
Sometimes a romance (any book really, I suppose) is a bit like a bag of M&Ms – something enjoyable and wonderful all on its own (M&Ms are great!) but also something designed to be gobbled down and transient. Other times romance is designed to be savoured, much like a fine full-bodied red wine. I’m not really a wine drinker but my understanding is that a wine palate develops over time and with practice. I feel like that with my reading of Kearsley’s books and it is most obvious to me in The Rose Garden.
The truth is that The Rose Garden is desperately romantic. It has no explicit sex scenes and in fact, the romantic leads spend, perhaps a quarter or a third of the book together on the page. A lot of the romance is gleaned. Back in biblical times (shout out to Ruth), women wandered through already-harvested fields to find “gleanings” the leftover bits of grain which were not harvested. (Perhaps people still do this somewhere, I don’t know.) They had to keep a sharp eye out to find those valuable grains. Where this analogy falls down is in the suggestion that the bits that aren’t the romance are without value, like the leftover stalks of grain which can’t be used for food. In a Kearsley book, while there are definitely some big romantic moments, most of the romance is “buried” in amongst the rest of the story, sometimes in between the words, from subtext and context and other times in subtleties. The thing is, these little nuggets seem extra valuable precisely because they take a little “work” to find. I mentally take them out and look at them from every facet (sorry for the mixed metaphor!) and see what else I can learn. Almost inevitably, I find there is more to be appreciated than on first glance.
Kearsley most definitely writes romance, albeit it is best described as “novel with romantic elements” but they’re a different kind of romance to most of what I read and it takes a certain mindset to fully appreciate them I think; a willingness to sit with the story a little longer, not to race through or “gobble it down” but to search a little and to let the words and the concepts swirl around the palate a little longer to fully appreciate their effects.
I was wrong when I first reviewed The Rose Garden. It is not at all “light on” in the romance department. I just needed to learn to “glean” and having done so, I find, on every re-read, a new romantic nugget I missed the last time.
~Kaetrin
This reminds me that I must go back and read “The Rose Garden” at some point.
I’ve often wondered at the difference between the marketing of ‘romance’ in the US versus the UK (where I am and where I am mainly published). Books that, over here, are termed romance, or romantic comedy tend to be labelled Women’s Fiction in the US. If they go out in the US with their UK label then they are often negatively reviewed as being ‘romance-lite’.
It seems to me that, in order to be ‘romance’ in the US, then a book must focus largely on the main couple, with the story revolving around them and their deepening relationship. In the UK, as long as a couple feature somewhere in the book, we’d call it a romance, even if the main plot focusses on other elements.
Over here Susanna Kearsley’s books are definitely Romance. We don’t really have a ‘book with romantic elements’ category, things are either a romance or, sometimes, Women’s Fiction.
What a lovely review, Kaetrin. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
This post makes me want to give Susanna Kearsley’s books a second chance (the one or two times I’ve tried her the writing style didn’t work for me). I love the kind of book you describe, where there is more to be gleaned each time you read it. I sometimes find that kind of book more romantic than many books in the romance genre.
@Jayne: Worth it. :)
@Jane Lovering: I’m in Australia and there’s a genre here known as “rural romance” which tends to be less focused on the romance, although there is one. It’s not (generally) romance-y enough for me. I tend toward the US-market definition in that respect at least. The labels are useful for me because they help me to calibrate my expectations about the proportion of romance vs other themes/storylines. I’m far more likely to enjoy a book where my expectations of those things largely align (or I’m pleasantly surprised by a higher romance factor).
@Kareni: thank you Kareni :)
@Janine: I think Kearsley is absolute gold for this. Her books tend to be ones where I can pore over them and find new things on every read. I’ve read most of her books more than twice now, and I’m generally not a bit re-reader (2020 notwithstanding).
The Rose Garden was my first Kearsley too. I love her books and have read them all except for the one she wrote under a pseudonym. Is that one called Every Secret Thing?
I think her books have the perfect amount of romance in them for the stories she tells. I know if I want something more explicit or spelled out for me to go elsewhere. Most of them are comfort reads for me now.
I read The Deadly Hours and was happy to find out what happened to Hugh and Mary, but otherwise the anthology was just ok. I even really like 3 of the 4 authors, but it just fell flat for me overall.
A shoutout for Every Secret Thing, which she wrote under the name Eva Cole. I liked it a great deal: the characters were fully developed, the mystery interesting, and the writing (as usual with Kearsley) VG. I’d rather hoped she’d write another story for the heroine and further develop the romance, but she didn’t.
@Misti: I only read the novellas by CS Harris and Susanna Kearsley myself in The Deadly Hours.
@Susan/DC: I have that one on Mt. TBR.
“Every Secret Thing” is available through Kindle Unlimited right now in case anyone with that subscription wants to try it.
Thank you for the thoughtful post shining a light on this wonderful Canadian author. I’m lucky to own and have read all of Susanna Kearsley’s backlist. They are all gems. Definitely in the fiction “with romantic elements” category. Highly recommend reading all her novels. The Winter Sea is one of my favourites…recommended reading order is The Shadowy Horses, The Winter Sea, The Firebird. All 5 star reads. My other 5 stars reads are The Rose Garden, Mariana and A Desperate Fortune. I’ve rated the others all 4 stars. Find a cozy place to sit with a cup of tea and enjoy becoming captivated by her immersive storytelling.
@Nic: All fantastic books. I started with The Rose Garden and went onto The Winter Sea from there. I think The Shadowy Horses can be read after TWS but agree both should be before The Firebird for maximum easter eggage.
Has anyone ever read the early Kearsley books “The Gemini Game” or “Undertow?” Is it worth making an effort to find them?
@Jayne: I have no read them – sorry!
I came to Susanna Kearsley fairly early on with “The Shadowy Horses” when it was first released, then sought out whatever books of hers were published at the time and followed her as her oeuvre expanded.
I picked The Shadowy Horses up because the paperback was marketed with the words “In The Style Of Barbara Michaels” and a very Michaels-esque cover and I was a huge Michaels fan. It’s still my favorite story of hers and one of the most overtly “romantic” I think. (I loved that she came back to tell Robbie’s story years later in The Firebird).
I think expectations are everything, and coming in expecting “Barbara Michaels levels” of romance I got exactly what I was promised. I know it’s not flattering for an author to be sold as “in the style” of someone else but it perfectly summed up the level of “heat” to expect. I personally find her books incredibly romantic.
It’s hard to explain to someone that only likes very “hot” books (and hey, I love those as well) that a book like “Named Of The Dragon” where the two main characters probably have less physical contact than Elizabeth Bennett and Mr. D’Arcy in P&P, is a “romance”.
Her books are about a meeting of minds and building a relationship and trust. They fall into that shrinking genre of books that mixed mystery, suspense, paranormal with non-explicit romance. I can’t think of a current author to compare her to and have to fall back on famous authors of the 60s-90s to compare her to. Phyllis A. Whitney, Barbara Michaels, Mary Stewart etc.
@Christine: She certainly is unique. Part of why I love her work so much. There’s nothing else around quite like it.
I’m a fan of “hot” books as well but have been known to love books which have a far lower heat level. I thought about why that might be and I ended up with it being about intimacy. There are a number of ways to show intimacy in media – in some respects sex is the easiest for that but there are plenty of other ways as well. And the “low heat” books I enjoy tend to have “high intimacy” and that makes all the difference to me.