<Sigh>. What a wonderful story. I was truly caught up in the lives of the characters in this novel, both present day and the past. This is one of those books you hate to finish, because it means saying goodbye to friends.
This story revolves around an old house on Long Island. In the present day, the house is a museum, and in the past the house is the residence of the Wilde family. The historical part of the story revolves around the French and Indian War time period, prior to the American Revolution. Of course, as with most of the author's books, there is a touch of the supernatural.
Kearsley isn't afraid to tackle some heady subjects--Native Americans, slavery, draft-dodging--all contribute to the story, and seem to have been well-researched.
I highly recommend this to those who enjoy historical fiction, and don't mind a touch of the supernatural.

Great historical fiction. Kearsley never fails to satisfy her readers taste for a bit of historical mystery, a ghost, and a romance. Highly recommend.

Susanna Kearsley has written an achingly beautiful novel about love and honor. This story is told from three viewpoints: Lydia a young woman who lives with her Father and two brothers during the French and Indian War, Jean-Philippe de Brasan a French Canadian Lieutenant who is paroled on honor, living with Lydia's family until he can be exchanged for an English prisoner and Lydia who is a curator for a new museum whose focus is to tell the story of Benjamin Wilde, Lydia's brother.

The characters have depth and are so well written I can clearly see them in my mind. The transitions between viewpoints are seamless and each transition advances the scope of the story. Fact and fiction are expertly blended together to deliver a great story.

I thank NetGalley, the publisher and the author for giving me an advanced readers copy. I am happy to voluntarily write this review.

You know that feeling when you get a great first impression of someone, but you become disappointed after spending some substantial time with them? That is how I felt about this book, I lost interest very quickly. The topic seemed interesting, but it was nothing new. The typical past and present story, told from several perspectives, did nothing to impress me. None of the characters had something to captivate me or to make me care. Still, Susanna Kearsley is a good writer, her writing has a nice flow and I liked how she implemented some nice, almost philosophical thoughts without trying to sound profound. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to make this read enjoyable, it was boring and predictable. Once again, the attractive blurb was better than the story itself.

Young French Canadian lieutenant enters the story as a war captive, made to stay with the Wilde family until the end of war. There, he falls in love with Lydia, the only daughter in the house. Love story between enemies is told many, many times, so it is hard to find something exciting here. Both characters are two dimensional and for all the money in the world, I couldn’t see the attraction between them. Their problems are not really problems, but they are made to look dramatic. Their ending is also just too much, I really, really did not care about it.

In the present, we follow Charley, a museum curator who is trying to pick up the pieces of this love story, while also trying to maintain some personal life of her own. Charley, of course, has unsustainable relationship with some random guy until she discovers her true feeling about Sam, a contractor who is all the best things that little town has to offer. This is not a spoiler, you can figure this out in the first chapter, considering how Sam swoops in the story like an unsung hero every woman needs.

The author herself is "a former museum curator who loves restoring the lost voices of real people to the page", according to her author’s page. This is probably the reason why there is a big, and I really mean huge amount of unwanted description how an expert goes through documents and decides if they are valid and worth displaying in the museum. It is informative, but definitely not worth putting in a historical fiction novel. Finding buttons and going through dirt to see if there are any more buttons there… not really exciting.

I also wonder, why is this book titled "Bellewether"? If you must know, that is the name of the ship, but kill me if I see the story revolving around it. It is just a convenient transportation in one point of the story and it introduces us to one minor character. I am not criticizing, I may have lost the meaning somewhere, but if someone catches the importance of Bellewether, please inform me.

That being said, I can’t shake off the impression that Susanna is a good writer! This may be a boring book, but I can see myself getting one of her other books one day, who knows.

Historical love story or murder mystery? In current day,Charley, new museum curator, begins getting the Wilde Family Museum off the ground. Then she begins hearing stories of a murder of a French prisoner who was being held at the Wilde house during the Seven Years War. Story goes the French prisoner and the Wilde daughter, Lydia, fell in love. Lydia's brother was so distraught about this he killed the prisoner. As Charley searches for the truth she may also find some truths about herself.

Belleweather is a beautiful book that explores the lives of two women separated by centuries. The exquisite prose and stunning descriptions provide a rich background for detailed characters who seem as real as you or I. This book captured my heart from the first page and still echoes there.

As in the author’s previous novels, the action moves back and forth between the present day and the past, with parallel heroines facing similar issues and encountering similar romantic possibilities.

In the present day, Charlotte (“Charley”) Van Hoek, 29, has moved from Toronto to Long Island, New York to take care of her niece Rachel after the unexpected early death of Charley’s brother Niels. She also accepted a job as curator of The Wilde House, home of the daring privateer from colonial times, Benjamin Wilde.

In the past, we follow the story of Lydia Wilde, Benjamin’s sister. In fact, Benjamin hardly figures into the story. Charley immediately gets intrigued by Lydia’s story instead. Lydia was a young woman who, according to later stories, fell in love with a French prisoner paroled to their house, and died of a broken heart after her older brother Joseph killed the Frenchman.

When the American Revolution began, Joseph, a loyalist, went north to Oswego, Canada to work in a shipyard. His best friend Moses, who was Rachel’s fiancé, went with him. Moses was killed and Joseph returned home with severe PTSD.

The family was tasked with putting up two French prisoners taken by the English from Fort Niagara to New York. Joseph hated them because they were French, but Lydia fell in love with one of them, Jean-Philippe de Sabran. The story goes that the Jean-Philippe and Lydia were going to run off, but Joseph killed the French officer and then Lydia “just turned her face to the wall and died too, of a broken heart.” The Frenchman supposedly now haunts the mansion and grounds, waiting for Lydia to join him.

Evaluation: The stories in the past and present are consistently engaging, especially because of the parallel similarities. There is plenty of history and romance, and the “ghost story” aspect adds mystery and interest.

An afterword provides more details on the historical characters and circumstances reported in the book.

I was so excited for a new Susanna Kearsley book after what felt like forever; but I thought Bellewether was a bit of a disappointment. Kearsley clearly put a lot of research and care into the story, and I really liked her inclusion of enslaved and non-white characters - people who often are overlooked in historical fiction, but who would have been very much a part of everyday life no matter where in North America a story is set. The plotting, however, felt very slow; not enough really happened (not that I need lots of action, this just felt like a lot of inaction), and I'm not always keen on romances in which the main players can't talk to one another. Kearsley's writing is still excellent, and I liked learning about what it would be like to be a curator at a small house museum, but the rest of the story left me a bit cold.

Susanna Kearsley has given us another treasure!

The richness and depth of her stories always draws you right in and leaves you reluctant to leave the world she has created. Bellewether deals with a time in history I know very little about, so I found the historic details very interesting.

This is such a great read you've sure to love it!