Although her writing is still beautiful, this book felt unnecessarily convoluted.
I found it hard to finish the book after I sudsed out the twist.

I must admit, my expectations around this book were a little misguided. I adored Kearsley's The Winter Sea and was expecting something similar: a straightforward historical romance with the Jacobean Revolution as a backdrop. Instead, I'd characterise this as historical fiction which is mostly centred around the life of a common Scottish woman and her large family network, both real and found. The romance is central to the plot (it's hard to say more without spoilers), but feels like a second order priority in the telling of Lily's story.

I did love the characters (including the many Slains cameos!), and I liked that this instalment focused more on the lower classes in Scottish society than the lairds of The Winter Sea - Lily in particular was adaptable and resourceful, and following her was an interesting snapshot about how the lives of ordinary people intersected with Scottish politics at the time. The characters' lives are influenced by what is happening at court, but their concerns are more about how it will impact on their ability to go about their every day lives. That said, I found some of the politics rather clunky as a result - Kearsley clearly knows a lot about the time period, but some of the inclusions here weren't really necessary to advance the plot, or were awkwardly slotted in as asides because there was no logical way for the characters to know about or focus on something, but the author felt compelled to include it.

I was also rather let down by the romance. Again, it's hard to say too much without spoilers, except to note that I am generally not a fan of stories where men see fit to insert themselves into the tales of women and/or take over the telling of womens' tales for themselves, and I think I would have enjoyed the romance a lot more without the framing piece that goes around it.

Overall, I didn't like this as much as The Winter Sea, though it's hard to tell how much of that is expectations on my part vs the book itself.

Read 27% of the way into this book but kept starting and stopping. I had trouble getting into it and figured it was better to review as is. It was written well just not my cup of tea.

I would call this an intriguing family saga. Plots, suspicions, secrets of a young widow that circles around the Moray and Graeme families. Historical fiction with some twists that made for interesting reading. This is the first book by S Kearsley, not my usual type of reading, but, I did enjoy the story. I requested a copy through NetGalley, no review was required. My opinion and review are voluntary.

Having read most of Susanna Kearsley’s books I admit to being an admirer of her research - In this book she exhibits her scholarship and remembers the Scottish souls who set sail for Darien. That was an ugly tale which she touches on here and there while incorporating the fight for the monarchy and ascent to the throne of England by William and Mary and the unwanted and reviled union with Scotland amidst the many attempts of the Jacobites to bring exiled young King Jamie back to rule.

The history unspools around the story of Lily Aitcheson and the investigators who are looking into her monetary claim for wages as a surviving spouse of one of those who attempted the journey. This intricate tale brilliantly weaves together insidious politics where a man may be imprisoned and tortured on another’s whim, the every day struggle of the common man and woman to provide shelter and food, the back and forth of which religion is in command at any given time and the punishment for following one’s beliefs when they are out of fashion. It is an historical story of Scotland at the turn of the eighteenth century - but beside a heavy focus on its politics, truly the center of attention is a romance amidst great mystery, all the while dancing around how clever a woman had to be to avoid the blatant gender abuse of the time, acknowledging how easily a woman could be ruined.

While one man thinks of the vanished days as those that are lost and can never be relived nor regained, another man acknowledges that without the living of them, despite the darkness and pain, there would be no recognition when the light shone and happiness prevailed. One is a tale of a man who felt he had lost while the other knew he had won all. I loved them equally.

I admit to being confused on occasion and I am not sure whether it was my failing or that there was so much information and so many characters within the story. I am rounding up for the extraordinary research and a well told tale. Thank you NetGalley and Sourcebooks for a copy.

I have enjoyed other books by this author but found this one a little slow and struggled to get into it.

hanks to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS LANDMARK for an egalley in exchange for an honest review.
The third book in the Slains series and the prequel and companion novel to The Wintersea, it was certainly a pleasure to return to late 17th/ early 18th century Scotland and learn more about the Graeme family. As the story opens, Sergeant Adam Williamson visits the home of an old soldier friend with the request to investigate the validity of a young woman’s marriage to Jamie Graeme. Serving as our narrator and promising 100% truth to the tale, we hear the backstory of Ms. Lily Aitcheson and the events of the present day. Along the way, we learn more about the religious, political, and social upheavals of the time period. Told in flawless historical detail, Susanna Kearsley reminds me once again why she is one of my favorite Canadian historical fiction authors.
Well, not too much more to say- Great characters, fantastic descriptions and a very engaging plot from the first page all the way to the last point of punctuation. In addition, SK is perhaps one of the most engaging and informative authors when it comes to her historical note. I cannot wait to read what she will write next!


Publication Date 05/10/21
Goodreads review 28/12/21

I'm constantly in awe at the way Susanna Kearsley seamlessly interweaves timelines and storylines, culminating in the most perfect twist endings that tie the narrative arcs together. The Vanished Days had me hooked from the first page to the last!

Goodreads:
Another great historical fiction from Kearsley. I didn't like it as much as the Winter Sea, but it does cover a slightly different time period.

Summary: Told in two timelines that interweave the troubled weeks in Edinburgh in 1707 with the tales of a woman who lived through the Killing Times, a revolution, and Scotland's loss of a colony in the Americas, this is a story of intrigue, adventure, endurance, romance...and the courage to hope.

Thank you for the advanced copy of this book! I will be posting my review on social media, to include Instagram, Amazon, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Susanna Kearsley is a go-to author for me, but sadly The Vanished Days did not quite live up to my expectations.

The Vanished Days loosely connects to the wonderful book The Winter Sea — the timelines of the two books overlap, and some key players from The Winter Sea either appear in The Vanished Days or get a substantial mention. There’s even a quick appearance by the descendant of characters from another of the author’s books, Mariana (which I also loved).

The Vanished Days is narrated by Adam Williamson, a young sergeant temporarily staying at the home of his former captain. The action is centered in Edinburgh in 1707, when Adam is asked to stand in for his friend in carrying out an official inquiry into a woman claiming to be the widow of a man lost during the ill-fated Scottish colonization attempt at Darien (in Central America).

The woman’s name is Lily, and she claims to have been secretly married to a man named Jamie Graeme, descendent of a prestigious, well-known family with suspected Jacobite ties. Lily produces a marriage certificate, but the witnesses to the document are deceased and there are no friends or family members who would have known about the marriage. As Adam begins to investigate, we learn more about Lily’s history through scenes going back to the 1680s, as Lily shares the sad story of her childhood and beyond.

Woven throughout the story as well are political machinations and highly dangerous scheming related to the Jacobite cause, which all contribute to Lily’s current situation — the unraveling of which proves to be much more complicated and potentially dangerous than seemed likely when the investigation first began.

While there are many episodes and elements that I enjoyed about the story, an overall sense of disconnect and overabundance of details made this a confusing read. I had a hard time keeping the historical elements straight, not to mention the lengthy and intricate descriptions of Edinburgh’s neighborhoods and streets and landmarks.

Clearly, the author has done a tremendous amount of research for this book, and her mastery of the time and place is clear. Unfortunately, the piling on of detail doesn’t necessarily make for engaging reading. I never felt that I had a terrific grasp of the characters’ inner lives, and this became especially problematic toward the end of the book, when certain revelations that should have had bigger impacts just left me shrugging. If I’d been more invested or felt like I had a better sense of these characters’ motivations and connections, I suspect I might have been blown away.

Still, there are set-pieces and elements of the story that are more successful than others. A big section of Lily’s younger years has a Dickensian feel to it, as she falls in with a found family composed of a petty criminal and the orphans he adopts to further his criminal pursuits. I liked a lot about this, but still struggled to feel that the overall book represented a cohesive whole.

I do love Susanna Kearsley’s books — I wonder if part of my disconnect with this one has to do with the timeline of the setting. In pretty much every other book of hers that I’ve read, there’s been a dual timeline, with a contemporary story interwoven with a historical one. In The Vanished Days, there are once again two timelines, but both are historical and within a relatively short span from one another. Perhaps because of this, I didn’t feel as strong a connection to the material, maybe because I lacked a more accessible entry point.

I don’t regret reading The Vanished Days by any means — but by comparison, I’ve re-read many of the author’s earlier books, and I can’t see myself returning to this one.

What is there not to love about a new Susanna Kearsley book! Her stories are always fabulously written, well researched and captivating. When you open the pages of one of Susanna’s books, you enter into a new world, one that guarantees rich historical detail combined with fabulous drama. Her fans are excited as The Vanished Days is the prequel/companion to The Winter Sea (a book I read many years ago but still a firm favourite of mine). Needless to say, I was quite excited to read Susanna’s latest!

‘There had been so many moments in my life when my survival had depended on my trusting to my instincts that I’d gained a great respect for them’

The Vanished Days is set in Scotland during the late 1600's-early 1700's. Kearsley includes a dual timeline plot, however, this time around it is much closer - only 10-25 years apart. Therefore, it appears more of a companion to Winter Sea as it has a shared character and a similar time period. This can definitely be read as a stand-alone, yet how wonderful would it have been to read all three in this series together (The Winter Sea and its sequel, The Firebird).

“In life, you understand, we always say things that we later would take back - a careless insult, or a sharp word thrown in anger. We are none of us immune.”

As always Susanna has done a fabulous amount of research, and that definitely shows through her in-depth and vivid descriptions that bring history to life in her stories. It is probably for this reason that the book does start off somewhat slow, but persevere, once you get past a certain point it will be a race to the end. Wow! What a twist.

“That comes from Plato. His Symposium, in which he claims that every person has one - that we all were made originally whole, then sliced in half like flatfish, so we now must search the world for the one person who completes us.”

Susanna Kearsley is one of my favorite authors and I will always read anything and everything she writes. If you’ve never read one of her books and you are a fan of historical fiction, you simply must do yourself a favour. I jealousy envy you reading this Slains series sequentially - stories beautifully researched and written with characters that will touch your heart and stay with you long after the last chapter ends.

“You’re the first man I have loved,” she said, her voice not much above a whisper, and it was as though she knew I needed those words then. “The first man and the last man. You will always be enough for me.”



This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Susanna Kearsley is always a great story teller and this book is no exception although different to the previous ones I have read. Good historical story from a different era to ones I normally read, which made it more enjoyable, plenty of great characters in addition to the main one and obviously very well researched from the historical point of view. Definitely recommend for fans of historical fiction

As the story opens, Lilly, as his widow, is seeking the wages of Jaimie Graeme who died at sea, claiming she married him in secret. Sergeant Williamson is investigating Lilly's claims; he is also the book's narrator. It's through his eyes, as he seeks to determine the validity of Lilly's claims by meeting with all the people who came in contact with her, that the story unfolds.

The book is well-written book and impecabbly researched. The historical details add a depth and authenticity to the story. Lilly, as well as many of the secondary characters, are well-rounded and interesting. I loved the ending; the unexpected plot twist finally gives Lilly her well-deserved Happy Ever After

The Vanished Days is a wonderful historical romance to read. I loved reading every single page and was a great way to stay up late at night. Five stars.

Ms. Kearsley is one of my favorite authors and I always look forward to her books. This story, however, was a departure from her previous titles but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Telling the story from a male perspective was refreshing and there was a bit of a twist at the end. Fans of the author won't be disappointed.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book for my honest opinions. I haven't read the other books in Kearsley's series, but as I understand it, you don't really need to have read the other novels to understand this one. The book is set during the Scottish Jacobite Rebellion and the exile of the British king. I think it will appeal to Kearsley's fans, but I thought the book moved at a rather slow pace. By the time I got to the end, I was just ready to move on to something else. But I suspect fans of Diana Gabaldon will eat really enjoy the Scottish story.

Adam Williamson, the storyteller, tells a tale that moves back and forth from as early as 1683 but always returning to 1707. He is tasked with investigating Lily's claime of being a widow of a sailor of the African Company. Do these two have feelings for each other?
This is Scotland in turmoil of religious and political beliefs.
The author writes with 'ye, ken' minnie' so one feels like one is hearing the Scottish speech. Very comfortable.

Unfortunately, this was a miss for me and I couldn't help but DNF at the 13% mark (Gosh I feel bad for admitting that.)

It was way too slow, the time leaps were slightly confusing and I wasn't tempted or enticed to continue reading.

Thank you to Susanna Kearsley, Sourcebook Landmark, and NetGalley for an ARC of this book.

Thank you to #netgalley for giving me the opportunity to read this novel for an honest review. I was looking forward to this book as it is a prequel to The Winter Sea. I found it very slow for a long while but persevered. It became more interesting but not as good as The Winter Sea. Perhaps prequels aren't for me.